TV and book writer Justin Halpern (Shit My Dad Says, I Suck At Girls, Powerless, iZombie, Surviving Jack, the upcoming Harley Quinn series) joins Vince and Matt this week to discuss episode seven of the Sopranos, "Down Neck," released February 21, 1999. Among other things, this episode was the only episode of the Sopranos directed by a woman and was the first ever screen credit for future Creed star Michael B. Jordan. It also consists partly of flashbacks to Newark in 1967, the reported setting of the Sopranos prequel movie, The Many Saints Of Newark.

Tony will be played by his son, Michael Gandolfini in the film, which is interesting considering Gandolfini is 19, and in this episode, with the flashbacks set in the same year, the actor who plays Tony is about 10. Marone, talk about a discrepanzool, am I right??

Incidentally, the actor who plays Tony in this episode, Bobby Boriello, also played young Howard Stern in Private Parts and young Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon. We dive into all the episode's themes, including your favorite recurring segments, Bada B Stories, Gabba Vafongool, Malapropism Corner, It's the 90s, and the Wayback Machine, where we travel back to 1999 and see how mean people were to Monica Lewinsky. Enjoy, and don't stop believin!

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107: Down Neck, With Justin Halpern

Comedians Matt Lieb and Vince Mancini watch every episode of The Sopranos, The Wire (and other future shows) and talk about it with friends, fans, actors, writers, TV critics, and anyone who loves TV as much as them.

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Did you guys know that there's an entire shadow sperm market that exists outside of regular sperm banks, largely connecting donors and recipients on an ad-hoc basis through a series of Facebook groups? This is the world chronicled in Spermworld, Lance Oppenheim's latest documentary, currently out on FX/Hulu. It's a fascinating, sometimes excruciatingly awkward portrait largely centered on three sperm donors: Ari, a Jewish guy with upwards of 130 children and a disapproving mother who views his life like a screwball comedy. Tyree, a mechanic and ex-con who has immersed himself in the sperm-donating game even as he and his partner, Atasha, are themselves having trouble conceiving. And Steve, a fit, 60-year-old divorcee from Tennessee who has struck up an unlikely... friendship? with Rachel, a 27-year-old lung-transplant recipient with cystic fibrosis. One question hovers above all the donors. What's driving them?

Lance has a knack for shooting desperate oddballs, as he previously showed in Some Kind of Heaven, a hilarious, sometimes tragic documentary about the Villages retirement community which premiered at Sundance in 2020 and went on to make my own best-of list (in which I only very rarely include docs, even though I love them). That one was produced by Darren Aronofsky.

Later this year, Lance has “Ren Faire,” produced by Elara Pictures and HBO, a three-part docuseries about the epic succession battle at America’s largest renaissance festival. That one is produced by the Safdie Brothers and recently debuted at SXSW. Nathan Fielder hosted a recent screening. Of course, Lance is also just a fun hang, and more than game to be grilled about his work. Which also provided Matt ample opportunity to talk about his favorite subject, cum. We all had thick ropes of fun, at least 10 to 15 milliliters worth.

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Frotcast 584: As the World Sperms, w Spermworld director Lance Oppenheim

“I never cracked the clock code.” -Brent Flyberg 
 The gang’s all here for the penultimate edition of Pod Yourself The Wire. Comedian, producer of the pod, writer of these descriptions, and world-class-stud, Brent Flyberg joins Matt and Vince to talk about The Wire season five episode nine, “Late Editions.” 
 If you have learned nothing else from this podcast, I trust that you have learned that we like when the guys on the show are friends. Right up to the end, Michael and Snoop are friends. He reassures her that her hair looks good right before he blows her brains out, because the game is the game, but friends are forever. It would have been funny if she had asked “does my hair look good?” and Michael responded with a Snoop-style “yerrrr!” and then shot her in the face, but I guess Pelecanos wasn’t going for a laugh in that scene. 
 This episode also features the famous Marlo “My name is my name” scene, which you might remember hearing sampled all over Pusha T’s Wrath of Caine mixtape. That’s right, I’m a middle-aged white guy who loves rap music. It’s embarrassing to admit because we are this generation’s white guys who love jazz and those guys suck. I’m going to steer into the skid. Any day now you’ll see me in a Kangol hat calling people cats.  
 Tell us your favorite rap song that samples a clip from The Wire in a five-star review on  Apple Podcasts.  
 Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030 
 Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a corner nickname on the podcast, like this week’s newest members: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Detective, Analingus, Breadpie, Gritty, & Delaware. 
 -Description by Brent Flyberg  

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[The Wire] 509: Late Editions, with Brent Flyberg

Listen to the full episode by joining the Patreon.com/frotcast

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[TEASER] Friendspionage

“10-year-old Kennard would have bullied 25-year-old me.” -Dave  
 Dave from the Dopey Podcast returns to talk to Matt & Vince about The Wire season five episode eight, “Clarifications.” 
 Dave hates season five. If you, like Vince, are a season five defender who loves the newsroom stuff, you might find yourself yelling at your phone during this one. He hates Gus. GUS – the last beacon of integrity at the fictionalized Baltimore Sun. He even hates Kennard, the pint-sized, foul-mouthed giant slayer. 
 Regardless of how you feel about season five, you probably love Omar, and this is a tough episode. We say goodbye to one of TV's most memorable characters in unceremonious fashion. He’s gunned down at the corner store picking up a soft pack of Newports by a literal child, and while he was a legend on the streets, his death doesn’t even make the paper. RIP Omar. We’ll pour out some Honey Nut Cheerios in your honor.  
 Share your favorite Omar memory in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.  Email us at frotcast@gmail.com; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030 Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a corner nickname on the podcast, like this week’s newest members: Oz, Pooh, Season, Toto, Allister, Maestro P, Coats, & Rumble. -Description by Brent Flyberg  

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[The Wire] 508: Clarifications, with Dave from Dopey

The first installment of our new miniseries on college football movies takes on Necessary Roughness (1991)! Vince and Brendan are joined by Spencer Hall, from Channel 6/the Shutdown Fullcast. This series was of course the brainchild of Brendan, our resident ex-college football player and former NFL superstar (*practice squad and NFL Europe). We all thought a miniseries on college football movies was a great idea, but it also could just be that Brendan is really big and might have CTE so we didn't want to make him angry. For our first episode, we're discussing 1991's Necessary Roughness, starring Hector Elizondo and Robert Loggia as the coaches of the Texas State Fighting Armadillos, and their 34-year-old freshman quarterback, Paul Blake, played by Scott Bakula. Does it still hold up? Is it basically the same movie as Major League? All your questions answered, and more.

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107: Down Neck, With Justin Halpern

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