cover of episode How 'Hacks' Comes Together — Over Email

How 'Hacks' Comes Together — Over Email

Publish Date: 2024/7/30
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this is fresh air imterior growth our guest paulds just received any nominations for his work acting in and riding for the max tv series hacks hespoke with fresh air sanmarabledinauto you may know paalw downs from his role as the talent manager Jimmy in the Emmy npbody awardwinning tv series hacks the show follows Debra vans of veterans!

standupcomic and Vegas headliner when we meet Debra her career is waining and shes in danger of losing part of her lasvegas residency its her manager Jimmy who comes up with the idea of matching Debra with a young genzi comic to help her right jokes and be more current in this scene from the first episode, Paul w downs as Jimmy is fielding a call from his big client Debra played by Jean smart Debra perfect timing how are you my favorite client Marty?

once are cut my dates he planes had me at lunch this snake oh, he says he needs to appeal to a younger crowd you gotta do something about this Jimmy OK!

i will call Marty!

Marty!

Marty!

yes, but um i have a pitch what if you hire a writer i actually represent a very in demand young woman she wrote for his show um nominated for any almost everybody is talking about her i write my own material i do not need a writer i need a manager uh your father would handle this he promise you take care of me dont make your dead father aliard to me paalwdowns actually won an Emmy for writingthat episode from 2021。

he cocreated hax with his Comedy Partners, his wife, Lucia, and yellow, and their friend, and collaborator Jenn Statsky downs in an yellow also direct many of the episodes before creating hacks the trio worked on the comedy central show broad city whichdowns also coast in his other work, includes the film rough, night and the mini series time traveling bong callwdownswelcome to fresh air thanks for having me hi, i i want to go back to the origins of the show hacks where did the idea for hacks come from and i think some of the origin story involves a cartrip way back in 2016 yeah!

actually!

205 哦,205, yeah!

yeah so we were Jen, statsky, Lucia and yellow and myself um were were driving from Boston to Portland main they were with me helping me and writing jokes for the special and as we group up we were talking about our favorite comedians most of whom our women and how so many of those women just never have the same opportunities and just didnget the same respect that a lot of their male counterparts did and so we were just talking about that phenomenon and you know the three of us also started comedy at the ucb theater in New York which is you know sort of an alt comedy seen and we were also talking about this phenomenon of cool comedy versus you know what young cool comedians might consider hackie comedian so we just started talking about this phenomenon and thought oh!

you know what me a cool show is a show about sort of a uh an icon of comedy who is misunderstood by someone of a younger generation and so we just yeah emailed each other the idea for the show and kept talking about it for for five years before we pitch it your character Jimmy is a manager and im from whatever you didnt grow up around the entertainment industry in this same way did you draw on anything in particular for this perspective of this guy whos trying to make it as a manager kind of in the shadow of his father who passed away and who was this high powered um entertainment guy yeah!

yeah i mean Jimmy Jimmy is very much um kind of a i guess a neppo baby he we we used to joke or at least we joked when we when we were pitching the show that he would get a call and he say um Jimmy the sack out no, no youre youthinking of my dad yeah he was a great man mm hmm yeah yeah prostate cancer anyway, i have a web series i love you to check out you know, so he kind of is in the shadow of sort of this Hollywood legend um but also, it was a meansfor us to kind of justify why someone his age would be representing someone like deprevant in in the you know um sort of the lore of the show when his father passed away he sort of inherited debbras a client so someone like eva is much more in his wheel house you know hes sort of representing emerging comedywriters and sort of younger alt comedy crowd, but Debra is one of these legends that he also kind of managers just because she decided to stay with him so um for us we just it was it was total fantasy because like!

you said i i did not grow up anywhere in your showbusiness i grow up in a really url part of New Jersey um so world there was a lifestock auction every weekend my town when i was little so um you know it was a it was very much a fanacy in a creation now i wanna play another scene from the first episode of hacks like i said you want an emiforwriting this episode its called there is no line in this scene Ava the younger Comic has flown out to last Vegas to meet the older iconic comedian Debra and it turns out that Debra didnreally know that Jimmy your character who manages both of them are arranged this meeting a Debra of course is played by Jean smart and eva is played by Hannah binder and you know the meeting does not go well, you know they did not get a long so Ava storms out and shes mudering under her breath excuse me did you have something else to say?

yeah?

youjust been pretty rude and i dropped everything to come here oh cries oh you wanna gold star just for showing up kinda yeah because youre right im not a fan of yours i mean the last thing on earth i want to do is move to the desert to write some lame jokes for an old hack i think you better leave yeah can i show you to the door which i like to go back up the chimney?

oh no i know my way out by the way so cool they let you move into with cheesecake factory oh is that we wait table says seems like a better fit oh!

yeah i agree you classes to monster i rather sling bang bang chicken unshrimp all day than work here i mean what is fifty tasls on one couch even liver rochi would think its a bit much oh no youre in correct he actually loved it he did poppers on that couch in eighty five has a seam from the pilot of the show hacks um that episode was written by my guest Paul wdowns and you know as that scene goes on um debran eva really kind of get into it and may have like to say in for each other and you know going into this Debra has so much disdain for eva in particular and at first doesnt want a higher her anyone and its not until the younger comic eva is honest with her and i should say rude to her its only then that Debra sort of is intried and like invigorated and wants to work with her can you talk about that idea that shes intried by someone whos?

finally honest with her yeah!

i think Debra is somebody who may have been called a hack a million times but nobody was brave enough to say it to her face so um i think she decides a this girls pretty funny and b shes not afraid of me and it really turns debraon because the fact that they can spark with each other and sort of rib each other i mean its true of so many comics that i know that its there love language you know um teasing each other, making fun of each other and i think there were sees in this youngwoman and actual opponent who might be worthy of her own with so i think shes really excited by the prospect of having somebody that can challenge her um like i said shes just creatively turned on by it but also even calls her a hack and i think theres a degree to which Debra wants to prove this girl wrong and she says you know what im gonna hire this girl and im gonna haze her and im gonna show her what it really takes to make it in this business and im gonna prove to her that im not a hack so i think theres a lot of theres a lot going on for Debra in this moment um that makes her say ill give this ive, give this kid a chance yeah its like proving this kid wrong is like proving a whole generation of younger comics wrong um yeah yeah i mean she does represent again like cool comedy right like the cool kid alt comedy which Debra was a part of and most comedians start out doing things that might be edge year might be a little, more original and you know some of them calcify and that is the definition of a hack if you if youre somebody who does the same thing over and over thats hacky but there are some comedians who continue to evolve and you know stay plugged in and in touch with culture and their material changes and so i think Debra does have a longing for that and being sort of sequestered to Vegas and in her ivery tower of her big mansion there you know i think she she know she runs the risk of that but she is like eva a true comedian who cares so much about there is addicted to the craft that i think the idea that this girl might be good for her work i think is very exciting you know another theme of the show is uh you know do comics have to be her or be cruel in order to be good like i i you know like youre just saying that theres this love language of being like spartmcruel to each other but i think there is that part of that because like both of these characters are so hurt you find out even the levels of it as a showgoes on yeah i think yeah you certainly learn about there the reason that they turn to comedy and i think both of them turn to comedy for the same reason not a lot of comedians do because there was something in their life that was either painful and they needed to labthroughit or um you know uh for some people they feel isolated or different or other dandits a means of connecting with people or its a means of um sometimes protection um you know to make other people labs so i think theres a lot of reasons people come to company um but certainly for both of them they they they have a similar um use of comedy, which is its a defense for them, its armor for them but again for for someone like Ava who kind of grew up lonely you learn um it was a means of feeling connected other people and making sense of the world and the things that she was observing so it is the it is certainly the tide binds its the thing that makes them very much kind of spirits do you think people have to be hurt to be interested in tomity?

no, i think there you know i think there are some people who are just giddy and funny and you know like some people are just naturally liquid funny um, but i do think that you know there is certainly truth to the richness of material that comes from um a place of pain in hardship but i dont think you need to be someone whos experienced troma to do it um i think its great when people who have can turn then into good work。

but um you know i think its i dont think theres a hard fast role i think its kind of a thing now to ask comedians what their thoughts are about cancelculture the thought that um its difficult to do company now because everyones too bc and i think its a little unfair to ask all comics about this issue but you and your cocreators actually take this topic head on especially the season um why did you want to do that and not shy away from it?

ill say it to that the series even starts with the younger comic eva having a tough time getting a job because this kind of edgy joke she put on twitter kind of made it so there was hard for her to get work yeah!

i mean its funny because we pitch this episode where Debra goes back to her amanotter for an honorary degree but then some of her older material comes back to hot her we pitch that when we pitch the show and we didnhave exactly the right moment for it um i think this season because shes on the precipice of a really big job and sort of the states of her career uh more heightenthan they have been it was the perfect moment to do it but also is a scary thing because i dont think weve ever wanted the show to be a show about quote cancelculture you know and also its such a its such a um sort of mindfield and you know to wrap your arms around it is tricky and i think if we ever you know we we we want to make a show that first makes people labits a comedy but we also want to make a show that makes people think because if we have the un honesty if we have the like the opportunity to do that we have this platformance like why not make something that makes you talk with the people youve watched it with or um makes you think about something and reframe something youve thought about in the path so we do want to do that you know its sort of like we like to think that if we lead with comedian, lead with funny first, we can get away with sort of you know um tackling issues because these two people would have very different perspectives on name any issue you know!

because there of such different generations and so um you know this year we were like well lets lets do this because it feels right um and lets try and represent both of their points of you secretly well yeah at the end of season three Debra played by Jean smart gets into troublebecause someone has released a supercut of some of her her worst jokes from the past races jokes jokes about people with disabilities and even the younger comic like you were just saying encourages her to be honest and may become clean and apologize and i want to play a scene from that second to class episode bad addresses this so little problem someone made a supercut of some of your more problematic older material and its gaining traction and apparently some students are planning to protest your ceremony ah OK!

which minority groups upset OK not great that you have to ask that and also, i dont think minority is the proper term anymore what are they called no dont say they oh!

i thought everybody was day now its a different thing OK just oh god this is just the worst possible timing for you to be held accounable for your actions yes, i am interesting way for my dream job hey!

i think yougetting off pretty easy OK youll lucky that jazagago board is only available on va chess i mean theres texbox let chaming what she was a slot oh my god well and thats but thats fine oh god OK look!

just we got to squash this i guess or you could just apologize at no Debra the jokes werent grey you wouldnt do them today no you never apologize for a joke im a comedian i was just doing my job OK, OK look!

look its just its just some of the students right yeah okay okay then all of to do is you know query favor on campus with the other students you know drown out the decenters make the minority voices a minority i get go right the super good outside were gonna do we will go that proturn in party tonight ill buy them supplies and i will do that student improve show that was invited to do perfect opportunity to make myself look good OK Debra improve has never made anyone look good OK i highlike ending with that knowing that the co creators of this show came up in improve um yeah i wanna just ask you about how you figured out how you want a debtor respond to this because it is this is really one of the most kind of indept and sophisticated ways of taking on this topic of cancel culture and how people arent really canceled actually, or as debris as um you know she was canceled you know years ago before there was ever a name for it right and it only became they only gave it a name after it started happening to powerful white men yes!

yeah and i think thats actually like for us it was one of the really important things because in the history of the character she was malined in the press by um x husband to his jealous and um you know made to seem crazy and so she was somebody who was wrongfully canceled but again she like she says there was a name for it it really has only had a name when it started happening the powerful white men so you know in a way especially for someone like Debra who has been on the right side of history and has you know again in the history of the character was find by the fcc for saying abortion on tv you know she did things that were progressive, and she did things that were left leaning, and she did things that she feels should get her a pass and that the the fact that she is getting taken to task now is really not fair and and what abase is yes and people can have a reaction to your your work because your original famous comedian um and its not a judgment on your entire being its about certain work that you did and i think thats like an important thing because i do understand the defensiveness that comedians have when there is push back or there is negative reaction because oftentimes as a comedian, your job is to observe the world and make people laband if youve done that you know, a youfeels are youdone your drivewell and b if if overtime, it has an aged well, it feels like its its an attack of your actual being because its your observations its the way your mind works um but the truth is is just about jokes i do think its not about i dont think people are like wow that person is um bad with a capital be forever you know i think it usually it usually is more site specific and so um yeah, i think it was a it, was a way for us to be able to sort of show both sides um of the argument and i hopefully just the fact that Debra is willing to engage speaks volumes to the fact that she isnt a hack you know shes somebodywhoevolves my guest is actor!

writer, director and producer Paul w downs hes nominated for acting in and riding for the series hacks which he co created hes already won an Emmy for outstanding writing for a comedy series in twenty 21 for the pilot of hacks。

hes also wrote and started in the comedy series broad city moreafterashortbreakimanmarybaldinautothisisfreshare supportforthispodcast in the following messagecomefromwise the app that makes managingyourmoney in different currencies easy withyou can send and spend money internationally at the midmarket exchange rate, no guesswork and no hiddenfees learnmoreabout how wise could work for you adwise dot com?

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your wife, Lucia and yellow and your friend in Colorador Jen stats key you all met in the world of UCB a bright systems brigade um how did you know that you would be good collaborators or that youd work well together i mean theres two things one i found both general tree is so funny and two i found myself being funnier because i wanted to make them nice you know。

i think when you respect someonebrain and their sense of humor getting a labout of them is sort of like the the ultimate you know it feels so good so and there are some people that you know you just have um you just click with that you just have chemistry with and i its true of nonconvenience too you know you have friends that you love laughing with them there you have other friends who are a little, bit, more serious or youre like what that was fun but after you leave dinner youre like it wasnas fun as when i go out with exwise a because we make each other labyou know i think thats true of anybody so um yeah i think we we just gravitated to each other because we shared a sense of humor which which often i think is related to a sense of how you see the world and a sense of values to can you describe how you all right like working on hacks do you take different parts of the story or do you write the same parts and compare notes?

no, i cant tell you um i can i can review it um, so we basically kind of share the responsibility of everything we we really we as i mentioned when we pitch the show, we pitch the very last episode, so we sort of had at least a framework for where we wanted to go and then you know with um our writers room we break story we figure out the ins and outs and the scenes of every episode and you know we all right set up punchline jokes we all right character dialog jokes we all right visual things i think certainly we gravitate toward one or the other but you kind of have to wear a lot of hats youvetalk about how when you came up with the idea of hacks you have this idea then you wrote an email to all three of you describing the showidea so you wouldnforget and i heard you say that you all still write each others emails。

with ideas and jokes and like that sure one of your like filing systems i get well nowadays its like we dont carry a little note pack around。

but yeah its so easy to have subject jokes dashhax because we have certain jokes or the things to but uh and then we you know will email it to the three of us then its so easily searchable, which means that when were working i was it we dont do that but its usually in the moments were not working that the new strikes we have an idea something comes to us and we write down um so like your own vocation then youre like oh this would be something funny for Debra to do or exactly where on vocation router dener were you know um whatever is and it sort of like were sort of in more of a mode of play you know at that something then comes to you and so it sort of a way to get it, get it filed and then get back to the fun you know so you can revisit it when youre in the writers room but yeah we do that weve done that for a very long time we still do it to have a recent example of an email or something that sort of win around like that i mean i can i can pull one up if oh that be great she want yeah oof i cant redo that one because that one is about the series finale so i can do that one um this is hard hello miss is there an old one from OK heres a specific what heres like heres specific that isnt Joe but heres specific Lucia emailed um a character in the show has a wet t shirt from having wet hair because she always shows up late and Debra finds that quite discusting so thats an example of a characterspecific, someonewhos showered ten minutes before they arrive to work, and it really bugs debbra so thats something thats not like a an actual line of dialogue but sometimes its lines of dialogue you know, let me see if this ones line of dialogue OK, so exciting OK this position is really funny Ava is sort of in like mesh shorts and a big t shirt and debris says um, youre not funny enough to dress like Adam Sandler and then abiss is well hes too rich to dress like me and then there says hes rich enough not to have shame you on the other hand should have a lot so anyway, that was a little threelineseen that was emout so yeah sometimes its a its nearly a C you know, its a its a an exchange it depends you know, you never know, you never know thats so funny by the way i love that max the people who produced or who were producing hax who green lid it didnt want to know how it ended they wanted to like hold on to the you know to to not get the spoiler of it i loved that when i read it what initially happened was in the pitch susanomacos um said you guys can keep going but i i understand the show i get it and i would like to buy it so it was very exhilarating to be in the room in and here that and then we did say it a certain point during the development of season one we said what do you want to hear the ending?

because we never got to, and she said no so yeah that that was interesting that she ended else um on the creative team in hbmmax were like thats OK, what we will well get there when we get there and you know its been its been fun to know it and have you know other people still wait and your main actors dont know right no no, no no i mean they dont even know what how is gonna happen in the season right both gene and Hanna read scripts as they come out, so theyre very unspoiled in terms of whatgonna happen i mean some shows i think people sit down with the actors and say heres the basic trajectory of the season years whatgoing happen, but its interesting theyre almost they almost receivethe um the scripts as if theyre an audience member you know they kind of read them in order before the table reads happen um, which is kind of fun because then we get text from generibing like oh no, oh my god that you know and they get to react in real time to things that are happening without having you know sort of like a a pitch preview of what that is um, which is cool i think thats cool um and i think a lot of other actors on the show have kind of decided to do the same thing theyre just like yeah just ill read for the table read now ive be sharked now you and your creative partner and why floucia and yellow have a son think hes around two is everyone yeah hes twoyears and four months how has that changed your outlook on work the place?

but it uh has in your lives uh your family business is comedy uh yes!

our family business is comedy and we always say that right now hax is our first born and um our son is our second but so uh, it hasnreally changed our work too much i mean one thing you know we write primarily from home and so we get a cm um the other thing is is that weve always i think weirdly because we are together it means that the lines are blurred from when workstarts and stops but we have always really try to have a great worklifebalance with our writers room and so our hours are i think very reasonable and it means we get to you know wake up with him in the morning we also get to wake up with them because he gets about five thirty hes such an earlyriser its like come on but i dont think its really changed the way we work to be honest um its certainly givenus new material because hes very funny well。

is it true that Lucio was in labor and directing at the same time like directing it episode of hacks yeah!

i woke up and she said um and i i had to i was directing a scene from an episode and also acting in the finale of season two on the day that she went into labor so i woke up and she said hi, um stay calm but i am in labor and have Vincent to i am and i was like what and she is like but i really think you need to work and i was like what it was no way and she was like listen i think this is a long process i think im gonna be in labor and she was honestly for like forty eight hour so she was correct she was like you go im gonna do what is called queuetake, which is where she can remotely watch scenes ill direct between contractions i know that sounds mentally else but she did and actually in in this particular scene i had to be nervous and so guess what i had a lot to draw i was method that i was looking why is a ghost i was very nervous and anxious to get out of there but yeah she she directed while in labor and um it was a a crazy day lets take a short break here and well talk some more my guest is actor。

writer, director and producer paulds hes nominated for acting in and writing for the series hacks, which he cocreated hes already won the Emmy for outstanding writing for a comedy series in twenty 21 for the pilot of hacks he also wrote for and startin the comedy series broad city moreafterbreakthisisfreshare!

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theres this funny ongoing joke this season this a season three where the writer Ava is trying to get work in your character Jimmy as her manager is trying to help her out um and sharing some of the writing assignments that are being solicic solicited um i wanted to play a part of a clip where um, Jimmy, um and eva and Killa are talking about this please!

so debrand i agreed that while im with her i should also spend time working on my own stuff you absolutely should i would love to get a feature at you, you me both so i was wondering if you knew of any like open writing assignment, so you think would be good for me yes!

i have coverage from cala actually, wow, i think might be interesting OK great literally every studio want a procedual based on operation remember that game eh?

OK me what?

what what else you get OK so theyve done some market research and they found that genzi thinks the animated spoon from beauty in the beast is hot and apparently can get it so they want something that focus is on his love life like a spinoff focusing on the animated spoons love life!

love life!

um alright you can give me give me another one no spoon OK oh i got it i found it this one is good view theyre doing a bisexual gumbi he bends both ways youre by sexual yeah, so that might be perfect for you the working title come back OK you know what i think i think im just gonna try to write idea of my own original is really harder to sell honestly nobody wants it but broku is open and they have two buckets theyre looking to fail right now noisy concepts and black joy i think you should focus on noisy concept, so since you were not black no offence you not o OK i missed one they want to do something with sleeping beauty?

but apparently this time its consensual thats a scene from hax and im sure this might be a little exaggerated for fact, but are there really assignments like this?

they get posted and youre as to submit for these or you were as to submit for this kind of stuff earlier in your writing career well!

you know i havent done a lot of writing assignments like open assignments pitching on them but i do think things like this exists certainly things around you know, ip like gumbi you know or operation you know there is like obviously theres you know uh a lot of stuff that whether its like a movie or barbey you know that comes out of existing ip like that obviously we exaggerated, but i also think sadly what Jimmy says about original ideas being hard to sell is true i do think its really hard to sell original ideas i think particularly right now theres like a real crisis in in selling comedy i think its comedy because it either can really hit and connect with a lot of people or be something that you know is a little more national connect i think theres less appetite to take risks on original voices and original stories and so i do think sadly that one is an an exaggeration at all one of the platpoints of um the whole series is that Debra events has always wanted a host a late night talkshow and she came really close when she was a younger comic。

but she didnt get it and it had always been her dream um she talks about how she remember watching Johnny cartison as as a kid with her family, with her dad who would drink in it was just like one of the times where they were together and could labs um because that was so rare can you talk about that?

because i think there is sometimes that sadness of the motivates people oh!

yeah, i mean i think obviously for comedians having a job like Johnny Carson had it it seems very much like the ultimate you know hosting a late night show um being able to be funny, but also make your guest funny in the way that he could or debrance could um make sense for it to just be you know a bucket list item for her something that she always wanted to do but we did want to give it some some personal states and so yeah she talks about how you know her dad was a drinker and the later got the worst it got but you know when Carson would come on it was this this sort of reprint this moment where he would laband they would all laband she just thought if i could just live in that hour and so you know its its a moment where we learned really how personal it is for her beyond just what it would mean for her as a comic um and you know the fact that she had the chance to do it in the early seventies and then because of this very public divorce and housefire that she was blamed for you know she was ostensibly canceled um that transwas taken away no not to give too much away but Debra is getting this chance uh second chance to do a late night show in its interesting that its coming at a time when of the you know i think the future of late night is a bit up in the air you know shows are still mostly hosted by white men by men but also。

there are fewer and fewer people watching late night is that something that interests you like you and your co creators this bit about late night and that like in this universe you created a womans getting to lead a show when late night is at this different place oh!

yeah, i mean i think you know exploring the the ways in which show business has changed or is changing isreally interesting to us because you know this is obviceaa character study about two people and we always said it was it was about the it was a peak behind the current and very much about their lives offstage, but its also an examination of entertainment and comedy its its really a show about comedy and so late night especially for comedians who get their first break on a late night show whether its doing stand up on a late night show or being interviewed and showing a little bit of their own sense of humor on a late night show you know its still very much an important marker of your career i think for especially for comedians, but like you said it doesnt necessarily have the same meaning or impact that it did when Carson was on so yeah it its its it is something that were interested in exploring because were interest exploring comedy as a whole but i do think you know and Jimmy my character says this the season when he makes the sort of casefordebra you know。

it says that a lot of the people that watched the late night shows now would be devers audience i i think Jimmy also says line about how the people watch late night or people who dont know at a turn on computers or something like that yes!

yeah, yeah they canwork the remote a lot of people, a lot of people watchlate i cant work the remote um and you know never sold you know fifty thousand physical DVDs last year so yeah, no its true its she she makes a lot of sense for those people yeah!

the the late night audience is aging although you know its got a!

its got a different iteration now i do feel like hmm sometimes i learn about people or i see comedians because of you know if i havent watched it live ic eclip you know i mean those things i do think they still um permute culture i do think they still can be kingmakers those shows um i just think its a different way of consuming it will par wdowns congratulations on the success of hacks and thanks for joining us ah thanks for having me powerwdownspoke with fresh airsanmarabledinano he cocreated the series hacks hes nominated for two emis outstanding supporting actor in a commonyseries and outstanding writing for a company series hax has been reneedfor a fourth season the first threeseasons are streaming on max after a breakdavid on coolyreviews the turnerclassic movieseries 2 for one featuring guest presenters and taxabout turnerslonghistory of guesspresenters。

including soundtime and Trump this is fresh air the constitution are foundingdocument says a lot about how our country has evolved and who we want to be but its not set in stone so for the next month well be dickinginto the history behind some of its most pivotal amendments listen to we the people on the throughline podcast from npr。

i just dont want to leave a mess on bolsithe great dan acroi talks about the bluesbrothers, Ghostbusters, and his verydetailed plans about how he will spend his afterlife i think im Gonna Roam in a few places yes!

im Gonna manifest in Rome!

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a year ago the new corporate owners of turnerclassic movies cut back on the production of hosted conversations brackingmany of their movies, filmakers and fans protested and TCM reverse course, RTV critic divibian coolie says that in the past year。

TCM has presented and curated movies more impressively than other one of the new additions to turn a classic movies the spring was a feature called 2 for one it invited a different guest program reach week to select presenting discuss to favor films the films like the guests veriedwildly spikeley chose two films about mediainfluence 1951 aceinthehall in 1957 sofaceinthecrowd David burns selected two films about Guardian Angels 1946 a matter of life and death and nineteen 87 swings of desire women 1958 Sannie Mame and the 1976 documentarygrey gardens the movies were wonderful and so were the enthusiastic comments by the guest programmers David burned for example, Helmesee things in Wings of design id never considered before some fillmakers like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese took the double feature assignment literally enrecreated actual double bills from their respective impressionable childhoods scoresezzi recreated from his useful memories the seemingly mismatch 1948 twinbill of blood on the moon and one touch of Venus tcmhost Ben mankuits asked scorsese about seeing those doublefeatures as a kid, which led to a great discussion about watching movies in the nineteen fifties and how an Alfred hitchcockmoviechanged all that in nineteen sixty so was there ever a time when you went to a double feature when young marisquss is when to a double feature the you ever left after the first movie no no first will you walk in the middle and you saw whatever was coming on you saw the end of whatever the middle of the end when you come in you ago or result the only time you was not supposed to come in the middle of the film of cycle so you routinely i mean you might solution for blood on the moon might started at one you might show up oh!

theres been one thirty seven yeah and you watch that then you watch it over right and you say everybody says this is where we came in and then people its stumbling over the people of making noise getting in and out of the road like is that its over for that its over for them yeah, theymean rowning for everybody else you will laughing but that was the thing until hitchgod did that number at the mayfeat theater in New York and i sort the third night at midnight a cycle with the command that you with the command and a while audience to continue its the sheer the love of movies on the joy of talking about them that comes through here。

Annie and almost every interview conducted on tcm the most recent guest programmer was actor Ryan realds whose appearance in late July was a chancerhim to promote his thanupcoming moviedead pool in wolverine but for renals appearing on tcm with mancowids obviously was more than just another promotional stop Ryan this is a longtimecoming i know your big tcm fan thank you for sure for cm turn it up for so my god i consist not i was nerum nerum not normally nervous about doing a interviews but to show up on tcm which is on i make no this is not an exetrish it is on an on in my home 24HZ seven is a week because its sort of my digital comfort blanket in a weird way the true value of tcm is to make viewers care about movies, which it does by curating the film so intelligently and presenting them so respecfully!

theres no equivalent for television which makes me sad but the way tcm introduces old movies to new generations makes me very very happy and Ryan realds to tcm really did give me a sort of scope in some uh encyclepedic library in my mind of not just narratives and performances but also shots and um i find somebody whos nineteen to 2526 right now um my advice would be turned tcm on and leave it on and just let it wash over you dont remember the two films renelds selected were 997 growth point blanc in 1987 plane strains on automobiels a film realds love so much he alludes to it in his deadpoolmovies an even allowed its odd couple structure to inform deadpoolin wolverine i try to put something from planes trains in almost everything i do i mean if you see deadpool 啊 1 Deadpool 2 certainly deadpoolwolverin, which which is now coming out theres a nod to John candy and or find stransand every single one of those movies every time i license the book that candy is holding thats called Canadian mounted is reading it in the airport every time i have to call paramout and give them five thousand dollars and i get to take the book and i get to put it on camera in sprit summer in in in deadpool but theres also um a lot of the writing is inspired um by that odd couple pairing。

which i think is really beautiful turnerclassic movies was launched in 1994, one of the many Brilliant ideas from TED turner who also founded CNN guest programmers have been a recurring stable since 25 and the mixof both movies and guests always has been interesting bill Cosby was the very first to appear also appearing as a guest in 205, Steven Sunhome and in 2061 guest programmer sat down with TCMS original host Robert Osborne to discuss one of his favorite movies citizen cane the classic Orson wellsfilm was a drama about wealth and power and politics in the media and the guest was Donald Trump Osborne got Trump to talk about the films changing reputation how filmmakerwells was attacked by certain media and if Trump related to that as well so it?

because it was such a great movie, because it was such an amazing piece of work it became successful with time right, and actually became more and more successful with time but you, but you can throw off that kind of criticism from when people are doing that you know its not that its pleasant but you throw it off yeah, what i like to do is attack back i mean my basic moticeuprodays to attack back somebody attacks me and of its unfair you know what of its fair i can take it, i can take it very nicely and you know its justified what oftentimes your attacked unfairly and when that happens, i attackback and Orson Wells would attack back yeah!

that was his personal yeah tcm turns thirty this year and one thing has been true throughout its history themovieesatelivises and the conversations it features about those films are valuable treasures divibian coolie is a professor of television studies at rowing university in the summer of 19828 science fiction films were released within 8 weeks of each other movies like et blade runner and the thing on the next fresh air we talk with Chris Natioadi about his new book which chronicales how those movies for better reworse shape the scifi genre and the movie industry as we know it, i hope you join us to keep up with whats on the show and get highlight of our interviews followers on Instagram add npr freshair, fresh air is executive producer is Danny Miller our technical director is ordrebentham our engineer today is Adam stenichefsky our interviews in reviews are produced in edited by Phyllis Myers and Rabledonado Sambriger Lauren Cringsell tourisome Aden Monic Nazarif Thea challenge Susan Yucindy and Joel Wolfrom our digital media producer is Malicv Nesper reborder Sherlock directler show our cohost is stonimostly imterior growth!

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