Streamed & Screened: Movie and TV Reviews and Interviews

It's another week of the summer movie season, meaning another big movie is on the way. This time it's "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" that will be trying to knock "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" out of the top spot.

"Spider-Man," along with "The Little Mermaid," "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," "Fast X" and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" have collectively grossed more than $1.3 billion which begs the question: Are movie theaters finally back to pre-pandemic levels?

Co-hosts Terry Lipshetz and Bruce Miller discuss the topic before moving into things to watch, including the low-budget film "To Leslie" that raised eyebrows when Andrea Riseborough was nominated for an Oscar. That film is now on Netflix. "The Full Monty," a series that reunites the case of the film 25 years later, comes to streaming on June 14.

 Also coming on June 14 is the second season of "The Wonder Years," a reboot of the original series that aired 114 episodes between 1988 and 1993. While Fred Savage, the star of the original series who was a producer on the new program, is not back for season two, hear interviews Bruce has with all four of the main stars.

We first hear from Elisha "EJ" Williams, who plays the son Dean Williams along with Dulé Hill, who plays his father, Bill. We then hear from Saycon Sengbloh, who plays Dean's mother Lillian, and Laura Kariuki, who plays Dean's sister Kim.

And, in a plot twist only available on Streamed & Screened, Terry shares that he went to high school with Dulé Hill, who was a child star who got his big break on Broadway in "The Tap Dance Kid." Both graduated from Sayreville War Memorial High School, and photographic evidence is available in the 1993 yearbook, although Hill goes by Karim Hill in the listing.

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About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome everyone to another episode of Streamed and screened and entertainment podcasts about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and co-host of the program with Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and a longtime entertainment reporter. We are not even into the dog days of summer yet, Bruce, but it's heating up, and I am.

I'll tell you, I went to see Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse over the weekend, and I had a tough time getting a seat. Now, that's surprising because normally in summertime you can barely you can get it. You don't have to worry about getting a seat. And normally that buying your tickets in advance thing was, I thought a dog. I didn't think it worked at all.

I didn't think I needed to do all that. And this week I went to the theater and they said, Well, we just have a couple of seats left. And I thought, really, there's like 40 performances of this thing, and I'm going to have to sit, like, near this screen and I did. It was like the second row. And I thought, Oh my God, this is what those immersive art exhibits must be like, you know, like where you go to then go and you're surrounded by it.

That's what it seemed like for me. But I think I think the numbers are there now to prove that people are going back to the theaters. Yeah, I want to ask you about that because I was looking this weekend. The big one is going to be Transformers Rise of the Beat. So DEADLINE is reporting that the expectation sounds is that worldwide it should do at least 155 million and domestically it could be in the 70 million.

Now, it might not knock off Spider-Man, but it's going to be, you know, top two, top three. Absolutely. This week, which is kind of interesting. I was looking at the box office. Now this is just the U.S. domestic box office through the weekend of June two through four. And last week, Spider-Man did 120 million in the U.S. Little Mermaid through two weeks, 187 million Guardians of the Galaxy through five weeks, 323 million Best Acts or Fast ten 128 million through three weeks.

And even Super Mario, which is it feels long in the tooth at this point, but it's been out nine weeks and it just keeps on cranking and money 566 million. So those five movies alone over $1.3 billion U.S. are movie theaters back. I think so. I really do. And Mario Brothers is going to DVD right away. I think next week is DVD week for that.

So you look at that and you say people must really want to get out of the house. I think they're eager to see something in a different environment. And we'll see with Transformers, because it doesn't really have names with it anymore. These are people who are, you know, also in the cast. And if it does really well, then that says, A, they want to get out and be the franchise is stronger than the participants in the franchise.

So what happens with that? I you know that I don't like those films. I don't like the Transformer films. I think they're stupid and I think the toys were stupid back when they came out, too. But this does have an audience and we'll see. It could you know, it might be the film world's equivalent of a monster truck show.

I don't like that movie either, but it's people go see it. I mean, it's kind of like the Fast and Furious franchise, which I enjoy, but a lot of people hate it. But it's just one where, you know, I think you're either into it or you're not, and it just has an audience and people keep going back into it.

Now, we talked a while back. You had it brought up the idea that maybe movie theaters, it's going to be a little bit more of an event that people aren't necessarily going to go for the smaller films. Are you still thinking that is? I do, because I think that there is no place for them. And even if they do get in the theaters, they're going to get one theater in a Cineplex.

They're not going to get ten screens. It's unreal. Now, when you go to the movies and you may see four movies listed, and that's because they've sucked up all the screens. So I think I think you've got to have a reason. And if you're if you bought into a franchise like Transformers, you're going to say, Oh, yeah, yeah, you're kind of getting a guarantee.

We're going to get something that we know is going to entertain us. We know it's going to be special or big, and we know that we're going to come out of there saying we didn't waste our money. Whereas if you're taking a risk on something you haven't seen, good luck. It's it my equivalent to this is like going to Broadway.

You will go to Wicked because you know, it's big. You know, it's something that people like, you know, that people will tell you. Yeah, there's a lot there for you to see. So it's kind of a guarantee, but you're probably not going to take a risk on an unknown quantity until it becomes something like that. So I think that's what we're seeing with the with the movie business is they're looking for guarantees and they will go back to those old wells and see what they can, what they can dredge up.

And now, if the writers strike keeps going on, you know, maybe they will start remaking old films with old scripts. I think the numbers also bear out your theory, too, because, you know, Spider-Man 120 million. So that's that's a really solid opening. But Little Mermaid in only its second week, had already kind of crashed to 41 million. And number three in the theater last week was the Boogeyman, which opened last week to only 12.4 million guardians, was down to 10.7 million.

Fast X was at 9.6 and even Super Mario at fifth place, $3.4 million. That's hardly anything, right? When you go to the movies, how much does it cost if you take the family? I mean, tickets alone, you're looking if we can go to a matinee, we might get lucky and it'll only be maybe $30, but it's really pushing 40.

And then on top of that, once you add in popcorn or anything, you're looking at 60, 70 bucks. So it's not cheap. You see where it has to be a commitment that, you know, is going to bring results or you get grandma to take the kids. You know, I mean, there's there's some kind of a trade off there, but you're not going to take a risk on something that you're not sure that people are talking about or they, you know, is going to be something you'll like.

Right. Or if you have a loyalty card. So that's part of I think the advantage for me with the family is, you know, okay, we'll go. But those 60 bucks I might spend will equate to 20,000 points, which will get me a $5 reward certificate a little bit quicker. Do you ever bring in candy? No, Bruce, I would never I would never bring in because that would be dishonest.

And we are supposed to. Of course, I bring in Candy. What do you. Well, you know, I would I would really be worried if I was hauling kids with and, you know, our kids can get restless when the movies get a little dull and you think, oh, I got to get them something to eat. But it's a porch, and you pay what, upwards of ten, $10 and up for popcorn.

And that's a lot just to try and say, I'm quieting you down with this. So I would always have M&Ms in a pocket. You know, all that out. And here you go, kid. We're shutting up now. We invested the last time I was at the theater for $20 is a little cheaper because I was a loyalty member of AMC because it's normally about 25, but $20 for the annual bucket of popcorn.

And so you get 20 bucks, you get the one fill of popcorn, and then you can get it refilled once for free, and then you can bring that bucket back the next time you come. And then you just pay for it once. So you pay your $8 or $10, whatever popcorn costs, and then you can bring it back up for another free refill.

So it gets substantially cheaper every time you go, you know, to bring that bucket. So I think we're kind of like, All right, kids, we're going to just get popcorn. If you want to get a slushie or something, that's fine. We'll get a drink. But we're bringing the bucket back with us and we're going to save a few bucks.

That way is the bucket tab like Jurassic Park Outfitters? How big is it? Real old. No, it's it is designed it says the year 2023 on it. So that way, you know, when I go on January 1st then I'm stuck having to buy the new bucket. But yeah it's it is it has some design of something. Oh this is a good one.

We can use it. It's refillable. Right. Exactly. Yeah. It's just strange because whatever the lights start going down after the previews have been on in the theater, you can hear. Yeah. Where they're opening up cans of pop that they've gotten because they spend the money on on the drink and I will buy the drink. I you know what I finally get?

I get a junior combo at my theater, which is basically a kid's pack. Oh, because it's enough popcorn and it's enough drink. And then I think they also throw in some gummy bears or something like that. Well, it's nice, and it's actually cheaper than buying one of anything. If I bought a one small drink, this is still cheaper than that.

It's enough to keep me occupied, but it's not so much. And I. I fully admit I'm hauling in a kids thing. Okay, so don't make fun of me. But that's. That's how I roll. Yeah. I've been known to go through colors and just get myself a kids meal because you get a free ice cream coupon with it, too.

When I was able to eat McDonald's, I always got the Happy Meal because I wanted the toy. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. No, I had one other question, though. Or at least an observation. And this was a Super Mario Brothers, because we talked also about that dual release, right, where you release a movie straight to theaters. But then you also simultaneously go to two streaming.

And I think we agreed a few weeks ago that that that's not a feasible option, especially with some of these bigger movies, at least because it's going to drain the theater gate. But I did find it interesting was Super Mario, you can already stream it. We went with our with our family. We headed down over Memorial Day weekend to visit friends in Illinois.

And my daughters are the same age as our friends daughter. And, you know, we're out playing cards and having a good time. And, you know, the kids are watching TV and all of a sudden I start hearing the songs from Mario Brothers, the movie. And I look in and they're renting it because I saw it with my daughter, one of my daughters, but my other one didn't see it and their friend hadn't seen it either.

So they're having a good time watching Super Mario. And this is, you know, three weeks ago or so where the movie is still going strong in the theaters, but it's already available for streaming. So is that do you think that's the compromise, is that, you know, it's going to come to streaming sooner than before, but not necessarily day of?

I think they're going to try and extend as much time as they can before they cut off their their own notes, because I think they want to get that money that you can get in theaters, even though they you know, do we care? Not really. But it does say it's a yet. But you know, what you don't know is your kids are probably in the liquor in the other room.

They're there. They're opening up all the alcohol that they've got in the other room and they're enjoying Mario at home. So it's it's even better. But no, I don't truthfully, as much as they tried to say that these things are going to kill all that, I don't think so. I think what you're going to see is smaller films are going to be taken over by streaming services and it's blockbusters that are going to be in theaters.

That's how it's going to squirreled out. And, you know, this week, Netflix just started showing to Leslie and to Leslie was this if you remember back at Oscar time, Andrea Riseborough was nominated for best actress. And they all said, well, where did this movie come from? And it made like $27,000 in the theaters, but it had this kind of email chain on her friend chain from among a lot of actors who said, nominate her, nominate her.

And it brought up a whole controversy with the Academy about how you can campaign. But the movie is on Netflix now and you must see it. It is really good. And she is incredible. And I think that's one of those ones that maybe we missed because we're so busy looking for the big get that you don't see the little films that should be seen.

And it's a marvel of and she is really, really good. What was the premise of that film again? You said, Well, she won a lottery. She won like a Powerball, whatever it might have banned. And it was like 190, $180 million or $800,000. So it's enough that it would make your life a little different, but it doesn't change your life.

It was 180 million, which I hope to win tonight on the Powerball. It would change your life. But with this, it's just enough. And I say to her, what we what do you plan to do? And oh, I'm going to open up a restaurant and my son wants a guitar and we're going to do all this. Well, then flash forward and you see that she blew through all the money and she's alcoholic and she really doesn't have anywhere to go.

Her son is now, I think he's 20 when she sees him again and she just tries to crash in his house and she makes all these false promises about, yeah, I'm going to I'm going to get a job and I'm going to be clean and I'm not going to do it. And you just see how she keeps trying to hoodwink people into thinking that she's changing.

And then there is something that happens that that maybe changes there. But a fascinating, fascinating character study and she does a beautiful job. So I don't think it was one of those wasted campaigns for best actress. But it's nice to see that we finally get to see this film because back when the nominees were out, I looked everywhere for that movie and I couldn't find it on any streaming service.

So it must have been just distributed to Academy members so they could vote on it. I'll have to add that to my to watch list, because now that the the family has done with school for the year, it's it's time to ramp up to streaming. My wife can stay up later than 830 at night now so put this one down and another thing to do all those event films, look how long they're going.

Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse was 2 hours in like 20 minutes. And a lot of these little films that are on streaming services, 90 minutes, maybe 2 hours maybe. And I think that's another consideration. You know, when you're going out, you're making it an event. So. All right, I'll sit for two and a half hours, unless you're to Avatar, and then you've got to go to the bathroom three times.

Anything else coming out now on to streaming or TV because we have the writers strike on. There are some problems in getting new product for next fall. So you know, that next fall is going to be a lot of reality and a lot of game shows. But there are series that were scheduled that are starting to come out.

I think I did. I mentioned to you last week that I watched all of the Righteous Gemstones and that's coming on HBO, but also coming is Full Monty. And this is a look at the characters from The Full Monty after that film and what happened. It's not old men who are going to strip. It's not that at all.

It's like, how were their lives affected by that moment? And it's very, very interesting. A little maybe a little darker than you think and how they affect their family and their and their show. So that's a new one that I would look for. And then coming this next week on broadcast television, the Wonder Years, and this is the rebooted Wonder Years where it's about a black family.

But it also no longer has Fred Savage as a producer. Fred Savage was the star of the First Wonder Years, and then he was a producer of this Wonder Years. And then there was some kind of some discussion about maybe he was overstepping his place as a producer, but they just decided it would be better for the show not to have him as a producer anymore.

So he's not. And I do think there is a shift. I do think there's a change in the tone of the series. It's still set in the late sixties, but there is just another another quality to it that isn't so wonder years like the first one. It still has the narrator, It still has the kids at a certain age, kind of reflecting about what that time was.

But you're getting a different perspective. And what I love about this is because it is a black family, you're seeing the civil rights movement from a different perspective. And and they're still a lot of fun in it. You know, Patti LaBelle comes on as a the mother of Dulé Hill and she's the choir director at their church. And she runs that choir like a drill sergeant.

She has every know you're doing a role, you're not weird. And they you think that they just given a performance of a lifetime and she's we really had a lot of problems today. So she becomes this kind of force that the choir is not all that thrilled with. And yeah. And her the mother in the wonder years, who is her daughter in law, and she becomes the soloist and how that affects all the rest of them.

Very fascinating. But it's a different perspective because I, you know, not having grown up in the black church system and what that that kind of power was for the choir director, I think that's really fun to see. And it's an interesting look at everything. And then when you couple that with she's the mother of the dad in the Wonder Years, that adds a little more to it is Patti LaBelle.

Now she just making a guest appearance or is she going to be a regular? She's in a couple of episodes. I think you would class fires recurring, but she hasn't in every week. She's in this one. It comes early in the run and you'll see her, you know, doing the choir. And then there's another episode where they come back.

But there's there's resolution to all of this. And it's fun to see her kind of mom, you know, as much as Dad thinks he's in charge, Mom is the one who rules the roost. So you have a couple of interviews with stars this week. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yes. I talked with Dulé Hill and E.J. Williams, who play the dad and then the young boy in one interview and then I talked with Saycon or Saycon you decide how to say it?

But I remember her essay song because it's a French name. And when she was she was actually at the Donna Reed Film Festival in 1996, I want to say. And she won it. And that was here in Iowa. And I've followed her career over the years, but she plays the mother. And then there's also the young woman who plays her daughter in the other interview.

So we have two interviews, but you have a connection to do a HBO now, Do you remember it was on West Wing, and I know him as this dramatic actor. And the thing I was really shocked when I started reading things about his past is that he was in the Tap Dance kid on Broadway. And I went back and looked in all my files, and I found the playbill that he was in the tap dance.

And I saw him as a kid who that. And he is from Sayreville, New Jersey. So you obviously do these interviews in advance and you send them to me. And then, of course, I listen to them before we have these conversations so we can have a coherent, intelligent conversation. So I'm listening to it and and you're talking to him about, you know, like your own personal wonder years, right?

And growing up and and that type of thing. And Dulé starts talking about, well, you know, when I was growing up in Sayreville, New Jersey, and then I'm like, wait, wait, wait, what did you just say? Did he just say Sayreville? So I had to stop it, backed it up, listen again. And sure enough, so I started looking and I was going back through all the information.

But he was when he was growing up, his first name is actually Karim, so it's Karim Dulé Hill. And I believe he went by Karim in school and he's a year older than me. He graduated class in 1993 from Sayreville High School. I graduated from class 94. Our public library keeps your books on file. So I went back and just like, checked.

And there sure enough, there's Karim Hill, looks just like Dulé Hill. And it's just, you know, a little bit of a baby face because he's he's so much younger, 30 years younger. But it looks like if you looked at him, you would know, Oh, yeah, that that is Dulé Hill. And then I did like vaguely remember, like I remember that face, you know, So I don't know because we were a year apart.

I don't know if we really had very many classes together. We probably interacted at some point, you know, and the way with high school classes where you might have a little bit of the blending of the classes, where you might have something where freshmen and sophomores are kind of in it or juniors and seniors. So we probably crossed paths.

But I do remember at that time, while a few years earlier, the big talk of the town was like, Hey, there's this kid who's part of the tap dance kid, and he was on TV and and I was talking even with because I went back and looked at his credits. He played the character Larry Seifert on Ballers, which was one of my favorite shows on HBO with Dwayne Johnson.

I'm like, Oh, yeah, I know exactly who he is. He was in the movie Holes with Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight. My daughters watch that in the last year, and I were having dinner last night and I'm like, Hey, girls, you remember that movie whole? Yeah, yeah, we remember. You remember the character Sam, The Onion Man from Holes?

And they're like, Yeah, well, I went to high school with him. What? So it's you. You went to school with everybody because there's the Jon Bon Jovi is from Sayreville, New Jersey. So there's been times where I've I've met him one time. His youngest brother is about two years older than me. And I remember seeing his his youngest brother was a little bit of a rock star in middle school.

And there was one time there was like a little crowd around him. And it was it was a couple of years after Slippery When Wet Went wild. So. So he you know, I remember those moments, but I didn't really know him at all. Dave Sabo from the guitarist from the hair metal band Skid Row is from Sayreville. So there's been these these small, you know, pockets of celebs.

We've had a few athletes that have made it big. I played Little League baseball with the son of Tom Kelly, the former manager of the Minnesota Twins. So, yeah, it's these little crazy connections. But yeah, it took me until this week's to realize that that Dulé Hill was in, you know, a year ahead of me at my high school.

And it just I completely missed that, you know, my encounter. I mean, certainly I interviewed him during the years of West Wing, but I never, ever thought that he had a musical background, a musical theater background. And then I saw him on Broadway in a show called After Midnight, and he was dancing Up a storm. And I thought, where was this talent?

Where did this come from? Well, then you look back in his credits and he was a child phenom back in the day doing all these things. He was also in bring in Denise, bring in the funk, which, by the way, is coming back to Broadway. So, you know, who knows how they can have these different identities wherever they might land.

But if do we want to run the the interview with Dulé and A.J.? Yeah, sounds good. So we'll listen now to E.J. Williams and Dulé Hill. I must ask you two, why has it taken us so long to get this second season? I have been waiting and waiting and waiting and where? Wherever you bet. And, well, it's an experiment called absence Makes the heart grow fonder.

If you let people wait long enough, then they really will hopefully be just ready for right at the right time. And that's where we are right now this summer. I think the anticipated help, too. I mean, what is being on you could still binge the first season. And now that we have, you know, a day we're coming back, it all makes sense.

So that's definitely one to, you know, the thing that struck me funny about all this is that both of you really haven't had the Wonder Years kind of childhoods having been involved in the entertainment business. I'm assuming that you didn't get that kind of, if you will, nuclear thing because you were busy working. Well, I mean, everybody's wonder years are different in my opinion.

You know, everybody's childhood, not everybody lives the same way. You know, you have some kids who aren't even in the entertainment business and are still homeschooled. So one person's normalcy is in another person's normalcy. So I think for me, because, you know, I'm the only kid here I did, the wonder years are still happening. They're just happening differently.

And, you know, you experience things just at a different level, you know? So I'm still experiencing school, except my school's in a trailer. It's not in a classroom with, you know, 30, 60 kids. I'm still going to graduate middle school. I'm still going to graduate high school. I graduated elementary. I still went to kindergarten. You know, So the the years are the years are still going.

Time is still moving. And you just got to appreciate it while it's here, man. You know, I like to say that kids on television grow up faster than kids. You are in the entertainment space, which I know it's not true, but it seems like that, you know, a lot of times, you know, four seasons, you people coming back say, man, you look older.

And, you know, to me I'm like, do I like it? It's because, you know, when people see you on television so much, they're looking at it. And then when you So the Wonder Years are definitely still happening. It just looks different from what we do here is like, you were on Broadway, for God's sakes. I was an outgoing.

I'll say, I don't know what you just talking about. I mean, I'm only 15 years old, so there's two kids and I don't know what he's talking about. I'm aware you got that from, first of all. But nobody but I will say I started I was doing the stage in New York, but I did have that nuclear family.

I it was always there in the midst of when that was the Broadway experience on a stage experience was added on to it. I came along that was added on to what was already there. But I have so many memories of growing up in my hometown in several New Jersey, with my cousins, with my friends, riding the bike in the park, getting into trouble.

You know, all these stories that we had in the Wonder years. I can relate to all of that. My parents telling me to stay out of growing folk's business and all that kind of stuff and E.J. is right way is different. Because once I started doing theater growing up, that was an added thing. But the core of it is the same.

The root of it is the saying, which is about family. It's about them. When they tell you that your mother is Patti LaBelle, how does that land move? Oh, my God. Well, it's like a piece of delicious pie, sweetie, But it is. Well, you know, you can't ask for a better mother than Patti LaBelle to be able to share the screen with an icon.

A legend such as Miss Patti is something that I don't think any of us take lightly. She brought such magnificent energy to the role and to this set. Just being the light that she is. And I think the audiences are really going to enjoy what she brings to the Williams family because, you know, the matriarch is always the matriarch, and she really had to apologize to anybody.

So when she comes, she's got to really have her way. She captures the rules aspect of the game. It's very much you listen to her or else you're in trouble. I think that's great. I love when you guys get to go to New York. I wanted that to last longer. Is there a chance that you would go back or do more episodes where you go to New York again?

I mean, you never know. The thing about scripted television is, you know, writers have endless imagine, imagine. And so you never know where story could land. We've been talking about New York since the first since the first season. You know, with Bill getting his job, finding out it's in New York, even with Lillian's opportunity of her going further away in Alabama, being away from home, you know, so the possibilities are endless.

You never know what a pencil or a pen can do for a person. So, I mean, going back to New York wouldn't be a bad idea. You never know how this story would play out. But in terms of the episodes, I mean, it was great. You see that experience and you see people in the different different worlds. So, you know, you have Dean outside of school, outside of state.

He's in a place he's never been before, you know, meeting new people, seeing different things he hasn't seen before. So, I mean, you never know. How was it for the two of you working together, you know, pretty intensely in that episode? Was it good to be able to bond a little bit more, or what was that like? Oh, definitely.

I mean, I learned a lot from Dulé. I mean, I started the show when I was 11, you know, I'm 14, even even facial hair tips. You know, I ask him, how does he ever feel hair? It's known his size because I feel like I'm it you know, I I've learned so much from him. So, I mean, you don't the bond only grows stronger.

I mean, I've gotten a lot of great advice from delayed delays. He's a great person. He's a he's a gentle soul. He's a genuine person. So, I mean, being with DeLay is great. And even even filming, I mean, the filming chemistry is just it's a laugh on set, man. So it's one big job even though do like you learned from him but that I was loving him.

Yeah. They persistent in achieving your goal. That's what I learned from Jay. He really had this goal of being a hilarious comedian, and he keeps on working at it. Even at first you don't succeed. Try and try again. And again and again and again. Okay. You see a little of yourself in him at all? Yeah, I can. I can definitely see that just because of the fact of being a young I started as a young actor or young artists in his journey and seeing where he is.

But a lot of things that I can relate to, I wouldn't even go so far as to say I see myself reflected because I think that takes away from the gift that is the uniqueness that is him. But I do admire the journey that he's on and the way that he's handling the success that he is having and navigating this crazy business called Show, because it is a hard industry to keep your feet on the ground.

And Jay and his and his family has done a phenomenal job in staying connected to the real world. And for that, in the midst of his brilliance, I applaud him for that. Well, where will Bill's career go? I mean, certainly this writing gig in New York is something that opens things up. And then he has the school where where will he land?

And that's something, you know, we'll have to see over time. I mean, you mentioned before about will he go back to New York? I think Sally Patterson probably have a better grasp as to whether we will ever get back to New York. But Bill is always trying to balance his passion versus his responsibilities. And I think you know what?

He's an artist, so I think he will continue to always keep trying to achieve this, this untouchable thing. It's always so close this this fame to stardom, the success in terms of music. And I think we'll see how that plays itself out. At the same time, he is also very thrilled to be able to still do what he loves to do.

If he can't do it in this way, he's going to do it another way. And that's where I think the teaching comes in, can always affect young minds and to Echo would relate to that is a where he said it's always that one step. I think he's definitely right even trying to find the laughter and all the seriousness, you know, and the best example I have is when he's in New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of.

We all know where that song is now. But just think that one line that he said was stupid could have made the Williams family rich. So yeah, you know, so I think you're right. You're always reaching for a goal and trying is the best thing. Well, now your costar got a singing episode. Do you get a dancing episode?

Will there be something like that at some point? You know, You know, we've talked about it. I think if the show is blessed to be able to afforded the opportunity to have many seasons, I would not be surprised 1 to 1 thing about the way the show's cracked it is that Dean has a whole imagine it. It is.

His imagination is vast. So if Bill was going to show up dancing anyway, I think it would be in the midst of one of Deen's flights of Fancy and hopefully we said if we're afforded enough seasons that I think you might see Bill do a soft. She were too. You know that was the biggest surprise I had about you do was that I did not know that you were a singer dancer Broadway person because I had watched all these TV shows.

And then I remembered I had seen you in tap dance get I even looked up the the wow. You know, And I thought, oh, my God, here's what happened to that kid. And I'm wondering if with E.J., you say, where will his career go? I mean, the like I always say, possibilities are always endless. I'm never trying to say no in one box to be in the industry.

They call it typecast it. But, you know, in real life, you know, you never want to stick to one thing unless that one thing you're doing is absolute, which you love. I love the entertainment in Charlotte. Put a smile on people's faces. You know, people, even as my jokes as Dulé was saying, people may not like my jokes, especially him, but it puts smiles on people's faces and that's all that really matters to me.

So whether that be outside of the entertainment industry or like I am right now inside, the entertainment industry put smiles on people's faces, is my passion. It's what I love to do. So and you know, career, you can do that in any career. So I mean, you never know I think I will say be I think the sky is the limit for E.J. because I said before he's very talented as an actor, but he's also very brilliant in his mind.

And he I'm going to say it now, but he's also very gifted with even with the basketball. So I think wherever he wants to go, he's at a point in life where he has multiple roles that he can it he can take. And it will be very interesting to see what happens 15, 20 years. And then my amazing comedic jokes, I mean, he's in the things that I say that he's very gifted at.

I mean, I don't know about, you know, some things you just you just don't have something. She does not call for you saying I'm saying the damn thing. She just being better left undone, right. All right. Thanks, Bruce, for that interview. And now we have one with Saycon Sengbloh and Laura Kariuki. Yeah, they played the mother and daughter on the Wonder Years and say, Con or as I call them, pronounce it say say song, because I that's how I remember that she pronounced it back when she was in Iowa.

So maybe things have changed. She talks about working with Patti LaBelle. Come on, Patti LaBelle is your mother in law. That has to be something. And and then her path, too, was a lot different than then. Laura's in terms of getting a career going and what they're doing. She was big Broadway as well. She had she was in all the big shows.

She was in Aida, she was in Wicked. She was in hair. When they did the revival of Air. But then she got Tony nominations for a play and not a musical. So she really in the two years she was on the TV series Scandal and a couple of others, she hasn't been singing. This is kind of her big shot at putting her singing on TV.

And when you see that choir episode, you'll go, Oh my God, what a voice. She needs to be doing more singing. Her last film role was in respect. She played Aretha Franklin's sister and they were together singing, but it wasn't like an Aretha solo. So yeah, it's fun to hear what they have to say. You'll enjoy their whole.

How long had they been talking to you about doing a music episode? Well, did a little music in the first season as well, because, you know, Dooley's character plays a music teacher and he right leader. And then of course, I'm a singer and, you know, I moonlight in between my accounting, Lillian's singing, but you know that Miss Patti LaBelle was coming.

It was like Patti's coming to town. Like, I mean, I was lot more excited than even a kid waiting for Santa Claus. It was it was the best thing ever to get to sing with Patti LaBelle. Did you ask her any advice? You know, I actually did. I can't share all of that. I asked Patti some personal advice.

You know, you know, she is the ultimate glamor diva, a singing domestic goddess, of course. Right. So she brings so much history and allure with her career that, you know, of course, I had to I had to pick her ear a little bit. We did a Broadway show together years ago called Fela, So and I didn't get to talk with her as much.

I think I was more shy. So it was really nice to to be all grown up and get to experience. Mr. LaBelle Well, and may I just tell you, it's one of my favorite episodes because I really think it brings your character out. I think she she really comes into her own. Did you start in a in a church choir?

Was that how you started singing? Incidentally, I started in the choir in middle school. I was singing in middle school choirs. I sang a little bit in church. Vivian much loved her. She she does all the church singing in my family and she pulls me in from time to time. But I started off singing in, you know, the chorus, the middle school and the show choir, jazz hands all.

Well, it was meant to be, right? Yes. And we have to. Laura is kind of shy about her singing, but Ann is a beautiful singer as well. We got to get her to sing. And I think there's an opening in the choir, right? Yeah. Oh, Lord. You do have if you get fun with and Jackie, which I think is just the coolest, because we all need an Aunt Jackie in our lives somewhere, Right?

Well, how is it being rebellious? Is that a fun part of this character? It's one of the best parts of this character. I feel like Laura myself, I've I've always been a pretty by the books girl and not really rebellious. So getting to play a character who sticks up for herself, like to her parents kind of does what she wants to do, still being respectful.

But, you know, she's got she's a rebellious little girl. So Kim is very, very fun to play. And the fan favorite word is shenanigans. Shenanigans up to some generic. Right. But her her clothes, she gets to have the coolest clothes, the coolest wardrobe. I, I want to take everything home. I would wear most of that stuff now. Kim has such cool and it's even in the jewelry and the skirts and the boots and oh, I love her fashion.

But Suzanne, you don't get those kind of clothes. You get it looks like polyester. You get a lot of polyester to wear. You know what? You know what I get? I get those waist control girdles. You know, I love it. I you know, I'm a fan of Dita Von Teese and she's all, you know, the whole burlesque glamor, the bodysuits and all that.

So. So I love I love all that waist control as one of my favorite things. I love the vintage vibes of it all. So we have fun. But yet every day Laura comes on set and just shut the down. Every time she comes in and we're like, because she's she's given like a supermodel vibe. She wants right legs.

You can't deny it. You cannot deny Laura and her boots and her starts. She's undeniable. How did you two bond on this show? And with with the guys, too. But how did you become that kind of mother daughter relationship? Because it seems stronger this year. You know, I think we're closer. We're probably closer to each other then. Then we hang out with each other.

We have a little molly-mae. Laura would be like, You want to get dinner? So say me a little text message. So I think we've just had a nice opportunity to spend time or the pandemic is not pandemic ing as much. So we were able to be together more, I think just life and being actresses. And, you know, we sneak off to the corner and have a little talk, you know, wouldn't say yes or so I feel like all of us season one already, like bonded super well together and then season two just expanded even more.

There's Laura asked you advice or not. Yes icon like she's been in the industry so I'm very very fresh so I will always ask for advice, whatever I need. And she's helped me a lot with a lot of any of the press from her. You know, she this is like her second gig. It's like she got two major TV shows coming right out of school.

So, like, I'm telling her, just take the bull by the horns and work girl as this time period ring true it all for you. I mean, you see things that you guys can relate to because it is against your it isn't really your time period. Oh, 100%. And I think that's what makes our show really, really beautiful is, yes, it's taking place in the 1960s, but a lot of people are still having boy issues.

People are still having arguments with their parents. People are still dealing with the world. Then, as we are now, things are very, very still very, very relevant. No matter the time period. Yeah, a lot of serious topics. Even Roe v Wade, which was happening in that era originally, and now it's become a topic again. The the the life issues.

Life doesn't stop life. And, you know, from from the sixties decade to the 2020s decade it's it's it's a powerful thing to to be a human being in this world having lived through that era, I, I could relate to a lot of things that you guys are doing. But it surprised me how totally different it is from the first wonder years.

I mean, it is a total different show, but it's things that I related to because I had black friends during that time and I remember them pulling back, if you will, when they're with around people who were not black. And they would just there would be a different attitude. And I see that in this show as well, where there's just you know, it's a little I'm not going to confront you about this and I'll just pull back.

Do you see that as well? I it's just that's interesting. You spoke about pulling back. You know, the civil rights movement was very strong in the late sixties, in the early to mid to late, you know, I mean. Right. So much happening in this country. And we did also have a resurgence of people fighting for their rights, for equal and fair treatment in life and not being unfairly targeted.

I don't know about pulling back. I guess it depends on who you're around and and what's going on. But definitely a lot of things that that happened in that era are still in a place of change is still happening. But also love is still happening. Choose and picket in a college is still happening. All the things that that that happened on the original Wonder Years in terms of family dynamic, that real family dynamic is here our show as well.

And you know, I look at it like like Star Trek, there's just different universes. You know, there's different different worlds and different people, you know, But I could I could see so many different ways that the Wonder Years could appear with different types of families. Right. I'm so glad you're back. I really missed you. And I. Let's get singing.

Come on. That's that's the bottom line here. The choir is in session. Oh, yeah. We had a lot fun in the church. Just even in between scenes, some of the costars and the guest stars. There was one lady who she was in the choir and she was just like the the the characters who were in some of those scenes and watching them interact with Miss LaBelle was just, Oh, it was awesome.

All right, Bruce, thank you again for those interviews. So it looks like I've got to actually reach out to Dulé Hill, get caught up, you know, since we were such good friends in high school. And just see. Come on. Exactly. Exactly. So just about your shared wonder years. Right. Exactly. Growing up in Sayreville, New Jersey, these are our wonder years.

Oh, yeah. Maybe I'll say, Weren't you that kid? I hate it. I think you hit it in school, you know, And then you go, Oh, no, no, that wasn't me. That was my brother. That was my brother. Right. But, you know, next week we've got Father's Day coming up and maybe we need to talk about fathers next week.

Yeah, we can do that. Yeah, well, if you've got an idea about Father's Day, maybe it's our week. Maybe. All right, Bruce, thanks again. And thank you all for listening to streamed and screened.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After talking about the summer's big blockbuster movies during two of our past three episodes, we return to the small screen for a bittersweet conversation about fan-favorite streaming programs.

HBO's "Succession" and "Barry" both concluded their runs after four seasons for each program. "Ted Lasso" on Apple TV+ came to an end after three seasons. And Amazon Prime Video's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" closed after its fifth season.

While we don't reveal any major plot points about the final episodes from each series, there are some light spoilers about each season to help keep the conversation moving along.

Next week we talk about the second season of ABC's "The Wonder Years," the 2021 series inspired by the 1988 show of the same name starring Fred Savage. We'll even have interviews with some of the stars of the show.

Where to watch

About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;25;15

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode. Before the introduction, I did want to mention that we are talking about the series finales for Ted Lasso, Succession, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Barry. We do not give away any major plot developments about the final episodes of the shows, but do share some less consequential spoilers to help move the conversation along.

00;00;25;17 - 00;00;47;02

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Welcome everyone to another episode of streamed and screened and entertainment podcasts about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and co-host of the program with Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and a longtime entertainment reporter who is back from the big city scarfing down dirty water dogs on the sidewalk.

00;00;47;02 - 00;01;06;12

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Right. You can't beat a city that serves orders all day long, right? That's New York. But, you know, I went on the subway. No, I did not get attacked by anybody. And I was reaching for the pull that you grab on to. And apparently the train started moving before I got to it. And just as I grabbed it, I did a pole dance.

00;01;06;16 - 00;01;12;20

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I was all the way around and on the floor by the end of it, and nobody applauded. Now, how bad is it?

00;01;12;23 - 00;01;16;16

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Oh, man, you did a show. You were on Broadway. A Broadway performance.

00;01;16;18 - 00;01;39;24

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Was way right. And then there were a lot of protesters because the Writers Guild strike is still going on. And you saw them out in front of it used to be MTV. Now it's a CBS branded building on in Times Square. And so they were marching there and you could vaguely recognize some of the people you think, well, isn't that somebody who is also a performer?

00;01;39;26 - 00;02;01;27

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

But it will have an impact because the Tony Awards, which are coming up next week, cannot have any scripted material. They can have off the cuff introductions, but they can't have, you know, little goofy skits or anything that will introduce them. So it might be a good award show. We might be able to enjoy just seeing who wins here, their speech.

00;02;01;27 - 00;02;25;18

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

They won't be, you know, running them off because nobody wrote that stuff. It's all from the heart. So that was interesting to see. And I'll tell you, New York was packed. It was stuffed with people. So it must be back. Now, people are interested in going and seeing and doing things. And one of the fun things we did get to do while we were there was Lin-Manuel Miranda does a thing every Friday called AM for Ham.

00;02;25;24 - 00;02;44;29

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

And what he does is he combines his cast from Hamilton with shows that are on Broadway right now. And so it's been all the Tony nominees lately, and they come out and sing a song from their show and then they move on and they do another show and they know that's maybe 15 minutes and the thing packs the streets.

00;02;45;06 - 00;02;51;01

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

It's wall to wall people just watching this. And you get to see all the stars of the show. So it's kind of fun.

00;02;51;04 - 00;02;52;13

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

It's a lot of fun.

00;02;52;15 - 00;03;00;17

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Yeah. You didn't pay $300 for a ticket or have to, you know, wrestle somebody down in the in the ticket line to try and get there.

00;03;00;20 - 00;03;12;20

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

It is good for these shows, too, especially people go to New York. It's so expensive, so expensive to go in New York these days. And they have something like that. It's a good way to give back to the community.

00;03;12;20 - 00;03;13;26

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

And, yeah, allow.

00;03;13;26 - 00;03;16;26

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

People to experience something that maybe they can't afford.

00;03;16;28 - 00;03;35;06

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

And, you know, interestingly, you mentioned about how expensive they're charging for bags. Now, come on. You go to a store and they say it's a nickel if you want a bag, what am I going to do all this crap out in my arms and look like I'm not stealing merchandise from their store? A nickel for a bag they can afford the nickel.

00;03;35;12 - 00;03;43;21

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

You've added in more than that on your on your fees. But yeah, that was a new one to me is that I got to pay a nickel to put this stuff in a bag.

00;03;43;24 - 00;03;46;20

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Did you grab breakfast from a bodega while you were there.

00;03;46;23 - 00;03;53;16

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Did not. Did. Now I was, but I was proud of myself because they only eat burgers once.

00;03;53;19 - 00;03;54;14

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Okay.

00;03;54;16 - 00;04;09;08

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

So that was pretty. That was pretty good. But all during this time, you know, the big thing that was blowing up was Little Mermaid. Little Mermaid was like, huge there. People were all rushing to see that. And I finally did see it and I was not impressed.

00;04;09;11 - 00;04;21;15

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

We talked about this a little bit on our last episode, and neither of us were really thrilled with the concept of remaking a classic Disney cartoon as a live action show.

00;04;21;16 - 00;04;48;27

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Well, they they've dumped things and added new songs or Lin-Manuel Miranda to write. And they're not that good. They're really not that the idea. The young woman, Halle Bailey, who plays Ariel is good. She's very good. And they've really expanded the part of Eric, the boyfriend. So he's got a whole storyline now, too, that I didn't really care about.

00;04;48;27 - 00;05;14;15

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I didn't need it. And then all of those creatures look very scary. Sebastian actually does look like a crab and flounder. He's out of water more than he's in water. And I'm thinking, How does he do this? This is this is really weird. But I was it's excess. It's a lot of stuff and way too much unnecessary stuff.

00;05;14;17 - 00;05;29;26

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

And so, you know, I will do well. I suppose it will, because parents got to take their kids to something and that's available. But that was a surprise to me. I thought it was going to be a little better and it wasn't.

00;05;29;29 - 00;05;36;26

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

What is the deal with these actors who suddenly have children when they're in their late seventies and early?

00;05;36;28 - 00;05;39;09

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Pacino Pacino's got to keep up with DeNiro.

00;05;39;12 - 00;05;54;12

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I know I was going to see the DeNiro film, and then I thought, Oh, do I need this? This is, you know, Father's Day. We'll wait for Father's Day and I'll go see it then. And then the news breaks about Al Pacino, and you think, What is up with all this? Is this kind of a contest? And maybe it is.

00;05;54;15 - 00;06;02;02

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Where is Nick Cannon in all of this? You know, is Nick Cannon still going to be having kids when he's 79 and it will be up to child 43.

00;06;02;05 - 00;06;08;20

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

I just saw Harrison Ford with Calista Flockhart. They were at their son's college graduation yesterday.

00;06;08;22 - 00;06;11;09

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Well, see, then life is good.

00;06;11;11 - 00;06;12;05

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Yeah.

00;06;12;08 - 00;06;27;19

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Life is good. But, yeah, there are these old guys that are doing a lot of work, which I think is just to be able to pay the bills and then having new families. These families will never see their dads after they've graduated from high school.

00;06;27;21 - 00;06;42;11

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Yeah, it is kind of sad. Personal choices do whatever you want to do. But I always think about that where you know, when you're 60, 70, having a kid, the kids, you're not going to see this kid, maybe even graduate high school.

00;06;42;13 - 00;07;06;04

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I've had friends who had children, and I'm thinking I will not get to see this kid get married because it's enough years that, you know, I'm out of here. But it's it's bizarre. And so, you know, whatever they want to do, let them do it. It's fine. But it also has been a big week for last episode's. A lot of the streaming series have been running their last episodes.

00;07;06;08 - 00;07;26;06

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Succession was the big one that everybody was waiting for. You know, how will this and who will get control of that company? What's going to happen to all of them? I am not a succession person. I'm a I'm counting on you to be my succession guru this season.

00;07;26;08 - 00;07;51;11

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Yeah, I've been the best man in the best. It was so good. It was. I really love the first season and even the the second season was pretty good. I thought last season was all over the place at times because you start getting tired of it, right? The idea of like, okay, it's it's going to be Kendall, who is the oldest son, but then Kendall has some issues.

00;07;51;11 - 00;08;19;28

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

So then it's, you know, it's going to be Roman, but Roman has a lot of issues, like Roman is a man child. And then you have Siobhan, who's she's a liberal. Will she take over the conservative media company? Is it a fit? So you have all of these things and then you have Logan, who at the beginning of the series, looks like he's not going to have the mental capacity to continue on and then all of a sudden he's he's like back and he's fine and he's running things again.

00;08;20;01 - 00;08;44;00

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

You have four seasons of constant jockeying. You know, we know Logan, regardless of of what you know about the show, there has to be an end. And there obviously is a show called Succession. There has to be somebody at the end that's going to win regardless of how we get there. Somebody has to get there. This last episode, it was like 90 minutes long.

00;08;44;00 - 00;09;12;14

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

It was it was basically a movie and it felt like 15. That's how quickly this thing flew. The only dry spell was there was this this moment kind of midway, two thirds of the way through where the those three kids, Kendall and Roman and Shiv, they kind of got together and they were trying to, you know, come to some sort of agreement, who's going to run the show, who's going to who's going to take over?

00;09;12;20 - 00;09;38;28

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

And then they kind of had this like, playful moment in a kitchen where they're kind of their siblings. Again, they're not these media moguls. And at that point, you're kind of wondering, well, what's going to go on here or not? And, you know, from that point, though, then it gets serious again. And I always felt I wish I could go back in time and just write down what I thought would happen.

00;09;39;00 - 00;10;01;28

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

And I in my head, I had kind of like two possibilities of how the show would end with, you know, who would who would get it among the cast of characters we know. So obviously, right. One of the options could have been somebody comes out of the blue, buys a company and just takes it. But if it if it's only the characters we know, who would those characters be?

00;10;01;28 - 00;10;10;04

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

And I wish I could have written them down, put it into an envelope, because the final two were the two that were like down to the wire.

00;10;10;06 - 00;10;11;28

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

And now there.

00;10;11;28 - 00;10;25;11

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Is like twists and turns and you just it always felt like, okay, it's going to go back here or is it going to go here? And I loved it. I thought it was just like a phenomenal ending to the series.

00;10;25;15 - 00;10;33;02

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Could they reboot it with, you know, starting with whomever they had chosen to go ahead or would that not work?

00;10;33;04 - 00;11;02;05

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

These characters are so self-absorbed and so, so crazy. Sure. But I really liked how it ended. It just kind of it just kind of ended not not like Sopranos ended where, you know, it went to black. You just kind of it kind of like got to a point. There was a winner. Somebody came out on top and then the credits rolled and that's all you kind of needed because it's it was the journey.

00;11;02;05 - 00;11;04;27

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

The show is about the journey and we finally got there.

00;11;04;29 - 00;11;13;27

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

This is not a spoiler because everybody should know it by now. But the dad died early in the show this year. Was that a good thing to have him exit that early?

00;11;13;27 - 00;11;41;24

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Yeah, I was a little unsure when it happened, but I thought it got him out of the way. So it could come down to the kids just fighting with each other. Because as long as Logan was there, he was always the puppetmaster pulling the strings. So it's like, Yeah. Kendall, you're back on my good side. Oh, no. Roman How about how about, you know, we we boost you up and, you know, you can be my protege and and why don't you go fire Jerry now?

00;11;41;24 - 00;11;58;26

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

And, you know, it's time to get tough, and then, you know, and then it's like shiv, like, I don't know, Shiv. It's. I think. I think we we need a female touch here. It's time for you to take over the company. And he was always playing them off of each other, either either on purpose or even just because he was just that kind of guy.

00;11;59;02 - 00;12;00;26

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

It's like what you do at home, Right?

00;12;00;26 - 00;12;23;17

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Exactly. Exactly. Getting him out of the picture just allowed those three to kind of go at it along with the other half of the company, because it was it was coming down to there is a deal on the table to sell Waystar Royco and there was obviously the faction with the kids. You know, would they sell? Wouldn't they sell?

00;12;23;17 - 00;12;51;29

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

And then you have the people that are still on the board that, you know, obviously want to sell to kind of cash out and get their golden parachute. So you have those players and Alexander Skarsgard, who was playing the character of Lucas Mattson, who is the CEO of a streaming giant, Gojo. So he was the one trying to acquire the company and was really largely replaced.

00;12;51;29 - 00;13;21;08

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Logan is kind of like that, that hovering figure, you know. But again, they're playing each other to the end, like they're playing. They're playing him off of each other. So it was just it was just a really great episode that that left you kind of guessing until the end. You kind of as that episode is slowly coming to an end, you kind of got a sense where it was going, but yeah, it was, you know, a lot.

00;13;21;08 - 00;13;28;28

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

And Cousin Greg, for anyone that loves Cousin Greg, like he he plays very prominently in this final episode.

00;13;29;00 - 00;13;40;26

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Well, now I'm excited to see it, but I went through a couple of other ones that had their final episodes, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Did you see the last of that?

00;13;41;00 - 00;13;43;17

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Not yet. I'm like two episodes away from getting there.

00;13;43;22 - 00;14;09;02

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Okay. It it brings everything up to, you know, the latest it can. And still you find out what has happened and you get a chance to see Mrs. May's. I'll do what I think is her best stand up routine In the course of all of that. You also find out about the relationship with her ex-husband. You find out about the relationship with Susie, her manager.

00;14;09;02 - 00;14;37;23

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

It's very good. But I really felt that it became the Joan Rivers story. I really think that they were leaning into that a little bit more than you might have wanted. I had a friend who saw it and he said I he was very disappointed in the ending and he thought that they spilled too many things early on in the in the last season where, you know, by doing those time jobs, it kind of ruined the the surprises that you get at the end.

00;14;37;25 - 00;15;04;03

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

He said. I already knew what she was going to be like because they had done a 60 Minutes story on her early on in that run. And so that was interesting to me. I did see the last Ted Lasso, and I loved it. I loved it, I loved it. I loved it. Not because it was cheesy, which is what I'm hearing all over the place, but because it did wrap things up if they want to end it.

00;15;04;06 - 00;15;23;09

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

You had no questions as to where things were going to go. They they talked about, you know, the final game that they had with Ted. And it's no secret that Ted had been plotting to leave the home all season long. It wasn't like suddenly heat. He came in and said, by the way, I'm going to leave. Goodbye. We'll see you all.

00;15;23;12 - 00;15;47;01

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

They were able to address that and there is one moment with the players and I kid you not. It's the dumbest move that you'd ever see in a show like this, but it's the perfect move and the players all get together and say their goodbye to him. And I thought it was remarkable. Cheesy. You betcha. And it was just it was really, really fun to watch.

00;15;47;07 - 00;16;16;22

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

And there were tears throughout the whole thing. When he says goodbye to certain people. And again, I don't want to be too specific about this. You feel it because they built this show. This was a pandemic show that we started watching when we were all kind of sequestered, and it was about somebody going outside of their comfort zone, which we were, and went to this this team that he knew really nothing about and was able to find his way in with them.

00;16;16;24 - 00;16;36;06

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

And they talk about that bleed sign that he put up on the on the wall and what that meant to the rest of them. And that plays a factor in the in the final episode as well. So it was I thought it was very good. I thought it was really good. And I do see an end to it.

00;16;36;06 - 00;16;58;02

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

And I do feel like, all right, the pandemic is largely over and it's a nice way to end it. You don't need to have like seven seasons, 20 seasons, whatever it might be of a series to just really appreciate an ending. It's like a British series where it's built to last for maybe two years, three years, and it's done.

00;16;58;04 - 00;17;03;13

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

And if they want to reboot it, there is an opening to reboot it in a different way.

00;17;03;20 - 00;17;15;07

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Okay, I was going to ask you about that. Now, I haven't watched the season yet because we've talked about this before. I kind of like ADD and drop Apple TV, you know, as the wind blows. So I was.

00;17;15;07 - 00;17;19;09

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Waiting for a product and they actually me a free subscription.

00;17;19;10 - 00;17;40;04

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Yeah. You've read me like a book. So, you know, I'm probably going to resubscribe to it this weekend and just knocked through the episodes really, really quick. But the, the thing that I had read a lot of after those first couple seasons was this was always planned as a three season arc. You'd have that beginning, the middle, the end, and that would be it.

00;17;40;04 - 00;17;55;29

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

And Jason Sudeikis is very clear about it. But after that second season, and I think because of the popularity, the show and the awards and the accolades and all that, there was some discussion that like maybe, you know, yeah, we're going to wrap it up but.

00;17;56;00 - 00;17;57;07

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Need more money.

00;17;57;09 - 00;18;01;07

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Yeah. So what do you think? Is it are we going to see more Ted, or is this really it?

00;18;01;12 - 00;18;23;10

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I really think that they could take supporting characters and make them leading characters and you could continue the story and you could do a movie too, if you really wanted to. It's interesting because you get to see Ted back home, and I don't see this kind of longing that I've got to be back with my team. I have done that.

00;18;23;17 - 00;18;44;16

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I'm moving on to something else, so I don't he doesn't need to be in it. But I do think that you could take Rebecca any of those characters. Keeley any of them, and make a series. And then there's also the team. The team still has another season if they want it, but you do get them in a game situation near the end.

00;18;44;20 - 00;18;51;12

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Who we get a spinoff of? Roy Ken That's what I would pay good money for. Eric. Roy, Roy, Ken Oh.

00;18;51;15 - 00;19;12;26

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Perfect, Perfect way to do it. I think what they'll do is take a little time and act like they were really thinking about this and they'll come back with that because it's it's too good and the characters are too ideal for a situation like this. And again, you can do the short term run with all of it and nobody is in forever.

00;19;12;29 - 00;19;17;15

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I enjoyed it and I think it will lead to something more.

00;19;17;17 - 00;19;37;07

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

All right. Well, I'm looking forward to it. I've been trying to stay away from from spoilers or anything. So, yeah, I'm going to I'm going to resubscribe to Apple TV pretty quickly and jump on this one. You know, there is one other very notable series finale this past week as well, and that's Barry also on HBO.

00;19;37;10 - 00;19;39;14

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Oh, yes. And did you watch?

00;19;39;15 - 00;19;41;08

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

I did. I did.

00;19;41;09 - 00;19;44;00

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Yeah. Were you shocked at.

00;19;44;02 - 00;19;59;22

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

How good it was? Who? Yeah, I was. I was very I guess. Well, it's a show about a hitman, so, you know, I guess we shouldn't be too shocked by what happens. Have you watched Barry at all? Are you a fan of Barry?

00;19;59;22 - 00;20;18;02

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Yeah, I know the. I mean, I'm the tie. This is me. Okay, I'll skip the middle parts and go right to the ending. I am like the type of person who will read the murder mystery the last chapter, and then go back and see if they did a good job of leading up to it. So, yes, I do know how Barry ends.

00;20;18;02 - 00;20;22;05

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I did see the Barry ending and I did not see that coming.

00;20;22;05 - 00;20;37;02

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

I was very surprised. Yes and no. Like, I mean, obviously, it's a show about a hitman. Anything can happen. I thought the ending was, wow, we have we have no no happy endings.

00;20;37;04 - 00;20;38;26

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

But it makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

00;20;38;26 - 00;20;39;28

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Right? It does, yeah.

00;20;40;00 - 00;20;41;19

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Person Yeah.

00;20;41;21 - 00;21;04;16

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Yeah. It's a an episode that I was shocked at, kind of how, how, how quickly things develop. Like, you know, we're like, okay, we're going to go do this and then it nope, we're on to the next thing and then, you know, next thing and nope, we're on to the next thing. And then the way we kind of like closed up the chapters, you know, each storyline.

00;21;04;16 - 00;21;23;04

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Barry and, and Sally and Fuchs and, you know, NoHo, Hank, all of those characters. I didn't, you know, if you told me one of those things is going to happen, I'd be like, okay, you know, I could see that. But to have each of those things happen for all of them is like, Whoa, that's that's a little shocking.

00;21;23;11 - 00;21;52;27

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

I felt that this season, I like I liked it. I you know, I've always loved the series. I came into it. I think I started watching it maybe near the end of season two. I didn't watch it the very first season. And then I was talking to somebody one time during that fine. I think it was the final season of the Game of Thrones and it was the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones, the Long Night, where they're fighting the white walkers.

00;21;52;29 - 00;22;15;16

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

So the night that that aired, there was also an episode, a new episode of Barry, and I believe the episode was called Ronnie and Lily, and it was a phenomenal episode where Barry goes to make a hit on somebody who's like a Taekwondo instructor. But he was also, you know, he needed to be killed. For what? I don't even remember The reason at this point.

00;22;15;18 - 00;22;38;09

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

So he does it and it's a little bit, you know, it doesn't go as planned to begin with. But then after that, Ronnie's like ten year old daughter comes out of nowhere and is stalking him for the rest of the episode. And it is like to go from the long night Game of Thrones to this Ronnie Lily episode was just like emotionally draining and it was crazy.

00;22;38;09 - 00;22;56;08

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

And that was kind of, yeah, and that was kind of like when I heard about that, I whipped back, watched all the episodes, got caught up with Iranian lilies, like, Whoa, how, how do you drop this episode on the same night as Game of Thrones? So it's kind of a long way of saying, though, is we didn't have in this season that Ronnie and Lily moment.

00;22;56;10 - 00;23;15;25

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Even the third season, there was this episode where Barry was. He was trying to get somewhere. I can't I think he was, you know, going to go see Gene or something, and he ends up in this crazy chase with dirt bikes and and it was like this chase on the highway and there's crash is and shooting and it was bananas.

00;23;15;25 - 00;23;38;02

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

And it was like that was another attempt to do that just crazy off the wall episode. And I don't feel like this the season the Barry had that kind of craziness. There was one, you know like second to last, third to last episode of the season where it goes a little bit off into the future so you can kind of see how things have developed.

00;23;38;05 - 00;24;03;07

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

But yeah, it just never quite it never quite hit that craziness for me. And and I always feel like with Barry, it's it's gotten a lot of accolades, it's gotten awards, but it's also never quite cleaned up at the awards season. Right. Like we've gotten a few Emmys here, but they've got a lot of nominations, so it's always playing second fiddle to Ted Lasso or something else.

00;24;03;07 - 00;24;07;15

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Like, it's a really good series, but it's just not quite as good as some of the others.

00;24;07;18 - 00;24;50;00

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

You know, what I find interesting about this is and you look at both Ted Lasso and Barry, they're both created by people who were on Saturday Night Live, knew that work ethic and then got into this and realized, I don't want to be stuck for a long period of time. They got great success after their first year and then I think had those moments where they go, All right, can we end this so I can try something else because I know what a long run is like, and maybe I don't want that as creators here with the their series, they were writing for everything and, you know, being real big, real big forces in the

00;24;50;00 - 00;25;06;25

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

development of it. They weren't just actors. And so I think that does take its toll. And I think that more than anything will help create more of these short run series. They'll give deals to people, but they'll the people will say, I don't want to go five years. I would like to go three or maybe two.

00;25;06;29 - 00;25;25;28

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

I agree. And I, I think that this show, it definitely did not need to go any more in this. Like when I knew that Barry was coming back for season four, part of me was like, Please, please, please make this the last season because I love it. But this is a show that really doesn't need to keep on going on and on and on.

00;25;25;28 - 00;25;30;05

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

And I kind of would have liked it to have wrapped up even after season three.

00;25;30;08 - 00;25;52;12

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

It could have been a movie. Yeah, it could have been a really good movie. And same way with Ted Lasso. That would have been a really cool movie where this goofball from the United States goes to Great Britain, gets involved very much like these coach stories that we see where the coach kind of pulls this ragtag team up to winners.

00;25;52;16 - 00;26;17;03

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

It's Friday Night Lights or you name it and could it could exist as just a film itself. But I'm glad that you know what, again, this pandemic time, they these were things that got us through those days where we were sitting at home and thinking, what is life like outside my house? And they they helped us laugh. They gave us something to care about, and we got involved with the characters.

00;26;17;05 - 00;26;25;15

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Did you know that there was a huge thing with Jason Sudeikis shoes that he had like different shoes on all the time, which I had no clue about.

00;26;25;15 - 00;26;26;15

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Until I know.

00;26;26;17 - 00;26;47;07

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

This and that. He wore different Nike shoes throughout the course of this show, and there were certain pairs that were favorites, and they do come back in the final episode. And if you're Asian, if you're one of those shoe fans, you can look and go, Oh my God, there's no shoes that they talked about. There they are. And they had some meaning for certain times.

00;26;47;10 - 00;26;50;27

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

So, you know, we'll be rewatching this stuff for years to come.

00;26;51;04 - 00;26;58;00

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Several prominent shows are now gone, but that means we've got more to watch. So what's on the horizon?

00;26;58;02 - 00;27;21;06

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Well, I'll tell you, I am going to be talking with the folks behind the Wonder Years. Remember, they rebooted the Wonder Years like more than a year ago. And then it's been a big pause ever since because there have been some issues. Fred Savage was a producer. He left the show because of some claims about him. And I think they were in a kind of a a shift.

00;27;21;12 - 00;27;40;25

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

So I'm talking to people from the Wonder Years and that'll be coming up this summer in June. It starts in mid-June. And where they go with that, and I've watched an episodes of it and it is interesting, very interesting because it's not the Wonder years that I remember. It's not like the Fred Savage Wonder Years. It's very much its own show, and I think that's a good thing.

00;27;40;25 - 00;27;45;12

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

It would be a perfect fit with Abbott Elementary if they put the two together.

00;27;45;18 - 00;27;58;01

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

I have not watched the rebooted. I watched the original pretty religiously, at least through the first few seasons. It was one that I kind of drifted off on as it went along but have not had a chance to watch the new one.

00;27;58;03 - 00;28;20;29

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

It's set during the same period, but it's from a black perspective and it's really, really, you know, it's interesting how telling some of this is because you'll remember this situation. You go, Yeah, I remember my black friends acting like that and I didn't know why. And so it's Dad gets to work with Marvin Gaye. Mom is singing in the choir.

00;28;21;00 - 00;28;35;23

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I mean, there are a lot of things that are fun to see in this new season of the Wonder Years. So I think it'll be a welcome summer addition, particularly since we're getting way, way, way too many game shows and reality shows.

00;28;35;26 - 00;28;36;15

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

That.

00;28;36;17 - 00;28;47;25

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I, I am tired of celebrity Family Feud. I am tired of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. I'm tired of all those things that maybe give somebody a job, but I don't care.

00;28;47;27 - 00;28;55;28

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Every commercial I see now on TV is like, we got a new game show coming out. Like, Oh no, we have a writers strike, don't we?

00;28;56;00 - 00;28;57;29

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

Would you go on a game show?

00;28;58;01 - 00;29;11;23

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Maybe. I always there used to be a version of Jeopardy called Rock and Roll. Jeopardy! And I would watch it and I knew pretty much every answer. So I kind of wanted to go on that one, but I don't know if I would do that.

00;29;11;29 - 00;29;35;29

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

I find that I would be the one swearing throughout the whole show because my buzzer doesn't work. Come on, my buzzer isn't working that way. I'm not getting it. That wouldn't be the answer. I blurt out the answer before the person got it. So I'd be just a real mess on those shows. But you watch Jeopardy and you think I'm pretty good at this stuff, but a lot of it has to do when you click in.

00;29;35;29 - 00;30;05;08

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

And I think you have to wait three of time and then you click in, I don't know those stupid prices, right? Games where they do somebody you'll give like $1,200 and then the jerk next to you says $1,201 and you want it to kill. You think right there, I'd kill that person because I do not want somebody to steal my little good beard because you were just standing in the right spot.

00;30;05;10 - 00;30;10;14

Speaker 1: Bruce Miller

So anyway, that's what we're looking forward to embrace the series when you get them.

00;30;10;16 - 00;30;22;28

Speaker 1: Terry Lipshetz

Well, on that note, I think we'll we'll wrap this show and look forward to next week when we talk a little bit more about the Wonder Years. As always, thank you for listening to stream that screen.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two weeks ago co-host Bruce Miller offerred up his a list of the top 6 summer blockbuster films to see in 2023.

But there are many more highly anticipated films (including a few already in theaters) that are hoping to draw big audiences this summer. The list includes:

Listen here to our previous episode on summer blockbusters 

About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome everyone to another episode of Streams and Screens and Entertainment Podcast about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and co-host of the program with the star of our blockbuster sequel. Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and longtime entertainment reporter. Bruce, we we exploded a couple of weeks ago, exploded with six movies to watch.

But there's a lot more than six movies coming out this summer, so we just had to do more. Can I tell you, you have a career as a publicist. You could really sell anything, right? Yes, I can. You make me sound good. Well, that's like good luck. You were here during the show. Here he is. And now, ladies and gentlemen, for your dining and dining pleasure, please wear one of those.

But there are you know, Memorial Day is usually the start of the big movie summer movie season. And I think I mentioned this before on the on the podcast. It really didn't start until Jaws. Jaws was the one that kicked off the blockbuster. The concept of the blockbuster. And after that, in 1975, it became this thing that you needed to have big films during the summer that would draw crowds at a In the old days, it was because you got air conditioning.

People wanted to come in. It's name, but this is a good way to park kids, too. If you don't want to mess with kids and you don't have to worry about them, shove them to the theaters. They can watch this. And as long as under PG 13, you're good. It's a way to get out of the house. During the hot months of the year.

I mean, most of these movies are not going to win an Oscar. I mean, you might get one or two here. That's. Yeah, Yeah. Explosions, big bangs. Well, over the more Memorial Day weekend, you will see vast X or vast hand, whichever you prefer to call it, as kind of the one that's going to dump a lot of things because, you know, Fast and Furious, all they need to do is show up for a party.

They could film the party and they would still get $1,000,000 billion. Right. Yeah. So we're we're going to skip over that list of six that we did a couple of weeks ago. A link to that episode is in the show notes. So if there's a movie that we pass over here, you're like, Why didn't they talk about Indiana Jones?

Well, we talk about it already, so no Indiana Jones. We that was in our list of six that you must see. But we're going to kind of come back now. So guardians of the Galaxy Volume three, it's already out. So that was kind of the start of this summer's and is doing very well. It's not bad. It's not bad, but it is one of those ones that if you're starting with three, you won't know where you are.

So you just have to kind of go with it, enjoy the moment, enjoy the story, and then go back and catch up. All right. Well, I haven't seen one or two, and to be honest with you, I lost you will be so lost. Is Deadpool in it? I mean, that's it's like the only. Well, there are no doubt there are new characters and Groot.

Rooney is this kind of tree that. Yeah, Vin Diesel is the voice I rude, but that's all he said. I am Groot. So you see how. How are you doing that? I am Groot, and it's just different inflections that he uses. But in earlier editions, this is your spoiler alert. He had to be regenerated. So he's a little baby Groot, and now he's back to being full sized Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy three.

So I am Groot. So Vin Diesel is Groot, and he just says that and he probably gets paid $20 million. Can you believe it? We are in the wrong business. All we had to do was say one line, and I didn't even need to memorize it. And. Yeah, and you get big bucks and he's a breakout character. It's one you want.

But the movie belongs to Rocket the Raccoon, and that's played by Bradley Cooper or voiced by Bradley Cooper, Brad Little Rocket Raccoon suit and pretend like he's he's one but yeah and he's good and it's his story and then you see what happens to him in the course of this. Well the other guardians try to help him through his crisis.

The other movie that and we touched on this a little bit that I'm kind of excited for is either fast facts are facts ten, whatever you want to call it, which is the penultimate installment to the series, which has been going on for eons now. I was at the Super Mario Brothers movie with one of my daughters a couple of weeks ago and during the trailers they had a trailer for Fast X and my daughter is looking at it and she seems kind of like mildly interested like that might be interesting to see, but probably not.

And I said to her, I'm like, okay, see, this is a series of movies that Dad likes to watch, but it's completely ridiculous now. It's like completely jumped the shark because originally it was just like an FBI agent race. It's Oh, right. He's going after a bunch of bad guys who are like racing cars and stealing things, and now they're sending cars into outer space.

It's completely ridiculous. But, you know, every episode they add somebody else in another action star. This time it's Jason Momoa. We're adding some legitimacy with some Oscar winners with Rita moreno and Brie Larson. So we're this is this is an Oscar movie, right? Is that what we're we're going to see here high toned right there, But that, you know, count the lines that some of these actors get.

They barely speak. It's all action. And I swear they work a week. They probably go in a week, record, whatever they need, and then everything is created around them because all those car chases, those aren't they aren't actually racing those cars. They're done in special effects. And so, you know, unless you have a director who comes out and says, No, we really did do this, it's special effects and if you stay at the end of the movie where it must be 2 hours of just in the list credits, you know that somebody else is drawing those cars.

Yeah. The real stars of the show are sitting in a in a climate controlled computer room, probably with carpal tunnel and all the. Yeah, all the all the hand movements they're going through to to try to do that stuff. Another movie that's coming out May 26, The Little Mermaid. Now this is the live action version of it. You have Ali Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula.

Have you seen it or what are your thoughts? I'm out of fence about it because I know that people have raved and said, Oh, it's just wonderful. That's great. I don't like taking an animated film and turning it into a live action. I really don't. I they've done it with Lion King, Jungle Book. You name a Disney, if they've made an animated one, get ready, because they're coming out with a live action one pretty soon because it's another way to make money.

They've added some songs. Lin-Manuel Miranda is writing some stuff for this. He grew up with the original Little Mermaid. Love The Little Mermaid. But I. I don't know. When you look at Flounder and Sebastian. Scary, scary, if you ask me now, The Little Mermaid, she could be great. But I just I don't know that it needed to be done and time will tell.

We'll see what happens with this. I saw the live action of The Lion King. We went to a drive in theater, actually, and saw that a few years ago when it came out, it was okay. I, I didn't see the point of doing it other than Disney was just looking at a new avenue to make money. Mulan, which was the I think that went pretty much straight to Disney Plus where they did it was during, I think during the pandemic.

Yeah, they tried to get you to buy it first and then that didn't quite work. So then they just released on Disney. Plus it's become a running joke in my house because we watched it on New Year's Eve that year, and my wife says to me, It's like I fell asleep in it, like right after that scene with the chicken.

And then I said to her there was a chicken because I, I fell asleep before the chair. And the chicken was like 2 minutes into the movie, I guess. So it's like, it's like the credits, roll the movie, hit the screen and then I was out cold. I have no recollection of that film whatsoever. But you notice how sometimes that movie is a good nap.

Yeah. Boy, I can go to the theater and as like. And I'm out. And maybe it's just the atmosphere. You're in a soft chair, the lights are out, you know, you have somebody talking in the background, but you don't really pay attention. That's what that's about. It could be. But I think the jury is out on The Little Mermaid.

I don't think that we have a verdict yet another one that's coming out shortly after that. And I'm kind of kicking myself. I feel like I need to go and see it because, you know, it's one that I probably meant to watch initially. And I just for whatever missed it was the Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse Yeah, into this break was the first one and it won the Bear Best picture.

It was wonderful because it it doesn't have a Spider-Man like you think. And there are so many other elements to it. I watched it on a plane and I thought, Well, this is one I haven't seen. Let's catch up. And I was disappointed that I hadn't seen it in the theater because it is good. It is really well-done.

The storytelling is wonderful. And I have every confidence that because the same people are involved, this one's going to be good, too. Yeah, I have to go back and watch it because I and we've talked about this before, I'm not a huge comic book person, with a few exceptions, a little bit of Batman, a little bit of Superman.

And I do like, you know, some of the Spider-Man movies, But just for whatever reason that kind of came out, I meant to see it and I just didn't. So I'm going to try to get back and watch the original and then maybe even get to the theater this summer and check out that one when they get to some of those super those Marvel superheroes like Doctor Strange.

Oh, Pass. I do not need some of those ones in my life. And I think they need to be a little more discriminatory in what they're bringing out because honestly, they just don't throw everything at us. It's the same story. Basically, they're just wearing goofy costumes, but this is a good way of taking I tried thing and really flipping it because there are many spider verses, and I think the last Spider-Man film learned a lot from the first animated version of this.

So now the next film on my list, I have I have not say, you want to see this, I am disowning you. This is Transformers Cancer. And those films I hate the Ones Rise of the Beast, you name. I have a confession to make. Not that this is you probably respect me more. I have never seen any of those Transformers movies I flipped one on one time.

It was on maybe HBO or Showtime. It was, you know, Long Pass at the theaters. And I flipped it on briefly. And I think it was on for about 30 seconds. And I went, Nope, clicked it off. It was just so, so bad. I mean, I see the concept. It was based on a toy. And the toy was you could turn a toy into like a a big robot is one of them.

And it was like car you, you it's like a Rubik's cube. You kind of move a little bit and then it becomes something else. But what's the story? Well, there is no there is none. No. Right. It's just the the thing turning into whatever. Optimus Prime was the king of all of that. And I frankly, I do not care what happens to Optimus or any of his brands.

And I thought that once we hit the scrapheap, we were done with up. But apparently not because they're bad. Well, they obviously make money if they keep making them. We know nothing. We know nothing. It's huge. You probably need to go back and do all this and read or see all those and you'll say, Oh, I really think I need to see more of that.

No, I know. I'm going to completely skip that one and but it'll probably make a ton of money. Is that going to be one where it will make it'll make like $100 million the first week, but then lose 75% of its box office will be number one the week it opens. They always are. And then it dwindles from there.

And that is one of those kind of like, well, let's send the kids to this. It can't be too much. You know, it's not going to hurt them. Let's send the it's a that's that's what rules all these kind of things because you got who would make this you had that kind of money to spend on a film and this is what you're coming up with.

There's no I did read I think one of them came out when the writers were on strike in dozen years ago, and it doesn't. Yeah, that was basically the thing. It's like we're just blowing things up. It really didn't matter. They just they just kind of went ahead and and did it anyway. They throw in a narration at that a long time ago, it a century which we were an end.

This is happening and the world was coming to an end. But we had Optimus Prime and that badly frozen crap like they had on it and that's they get, they get people watching Stupid Night. So the next movie on my list here comes out a week later. My guess is it will not make a ton of money limited really as you age, but it's one that I want to see.

Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Margot Robbie, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton. Cast like that can only mean one thing. It's Wes. Wes Anderson. Yeah, yeah. And it's set in 1955, so that gives you another little boost. And it's about a science fiction convention. So it's like, God, there's a lot here to pick of a lot of things that you could.

It reminds me just on first glance of Hello tomorrow, if you've seen that show on, on streaming, yeah, this is on Apple. But it's about one of those kind of things where they're wanting to send trips to the moon and there's, you know, and how people were all kind of all in on space travel. But something happens at this convention and it changes things.

And then I don't want to spill anymore. The only I think real notable thing out of that, no. Bill Murray, It's like the first Wes Anderson movie in 20 years or more that that does not have. Bill Murray I read that he had COVID and had to be replaced by Steve Carell. He works though. NASIR can make it.

Let's get Steve Yeah, right. So. Well, I think it now will be one that people who are kind of movie snobs will say, Oh, wonderful film, loved it. It was great. It was great. And yes, fabulous film. In the third hour. It was very, very, you know, that kind of stuff. But it's about the funny thing is I watch a lot of my movie trailers on YouTube.

So then when you watch something on YouTube, you start getting recommended videos to watch. After that, I started getting hit by these YouTube recommendations for these fake trailers to Wes Anderson movies where it's like Wes Anderson reimagines Star Wars and it has like this ridiculous concept of a movie. And then, you know, like each person that's playing like Owen Wilson is Darth Vader and Bill Murray plays AI.

Whoever Obi-Wan Kenobi, those are great and they are hilarious. A.I. is going to help them the most. So if we can make that, you know, really blow up, it's because air has made it easier to do. Exactly. So side note, go to YouTube, check out the trailers for the Wes Anderson Star Wars movie. There was one for I think it was Lord of the Rings, and there might have even been like a Harry Potter one, too.

And they look hilarious. I would pay good money to see Wes Anderson reimagined any of those films. We talked about this next film a little bit last week on our episode, Joy Ride out July 7th, kind of like a hangover type or film concept, but it's it's starring a bunch of female actors Ashley Park, Stephanie Shue, Terry Cole, Sabrina Woo.

It is directed by Adele Lim, who co-wrote Crazy Rich Asians. So that looks interesting. It looks like a fun movie. Yeah, it'll be a fun trip, a romp. And I think this is your, you know, each like I say, you can put these in categories. These are the girls are going out movies. Mom wants to get out with her girlfriends.

They're going to have a couple of drinks before we go to the movie. We might have dinner, we might go shopping. This is your movie? Exactly. I guess this next one is a completely opposite direction and it's probably going to be a huge one this summer. And it was one that I thought might have made your list know when you did you your sex and you know, didn't.

The reason I'm not on that list is because it's part one. Same with Dune. Dune was a part one and it drives me insane that they would split these things up. I would rather sit for 4 hours and see the whole thing than to have to wait a whole year to get the next part. What happens if you're hit by a truck in that next year and you never saw the end of it?

Doesn't make sense. So that's a good point. So Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning, Part one out July 12th. So this is supposed to be the final two installments of Tom Cruise's journey through Mission Impossible. First off, do you believe that? Are these really going to be the last? And this was the one where he got mad at the crew and he yelled at them and said, come on, we've got to make this, you know, anything?

Well, maybe not. Maybe we don't need to. But we'll see what happens. I'm sure that it'll end at a very crucial point, and then we'll be ready for the next one next year. But as far as I'm concerned, it's okay. It can go without me. It is what it is. And a Tom Cruise proving that he can do stand still.

I, I don't need to know that. I don't need to know that he can jump across a building to another building. I don't need to see him hanging out of a an airplane or climbing the top of a building. I don't need any of that because I know you can do it. But why? What's the point? And besides, Mission Impossible, we used to watch us as kids.

It was a TV show and at the end of the instructions, the cassette started burning in the cassette player and it was like, Your mission, should you decide, is to accept it, you know? And then we will disavow any knowledge of your existence. If this goes badly. And then they send people out. One person puts a mask on and suddenly you've got this big hoo ha.

Well, they had how many years of Mission Impossible. So if he really wanted to keep doing it, there's enough copy there that they could just pilfer. My suspicion on this one is that they're they're going to continue the story. It's almost going to turn into a James Bond situation where it's going to live in perpetuity because you can just kind of recast the role.

I mean, we've we've been through like six James Bonds now and they're still fine. I love the James Bond series, and I've always enjoyed the Mission Impossible series. So I feel like it's just going to kind of move on and Ethan Hunt will go away. Yeah, exactly. Now, so and nobody else. Yeah. Yeah. It'll make a ton of money, you know, 500 million and.

And we'll get excited or I'll get excited. You won't. But, you know, now that's we're on the set of They had Mission impossible one of the earlier ones in four D Have you ever that. No. Well it's a 3D film but they also have like the seats move. Oh, so they kind of shake you during those rate times Every It would've been perfect to an earthquake.

Now, I know you're too young to ever have been when earthquake was here, but he had what was called sense around and all they did was basically turn up the speakers in the theater. But you thought the theater is falling apart. Oh, my God. It sounds like it's all but it's is one of those he's so this bawdy is a way to kind of like it's a ride, it's erratic and it's fun.

Yeah, I've been to a couple of things similar to that. We're looking at where the aquarium in Chicago. I think that's one of them, where you go, you sit in your chair and you watch a movie about whales, and then the whale goes flying out of the water and then hits the ocean and then you get separated by phase.

Yeah, Yeah. So that would be kind of fun. And the sound, too sound is the evening at the theaters were rigged for the best sound. You'd have them start in one end, and then you hear them kind of walking all around you and you go, Oh, what is this? This is kind of different. But I don't know if the average screening of Mission Impossible is going to have all that kind of detail.

Just know he's going to be hanging off something, skipping ahead a little bit now to August. August 4th, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutant Mayhem, is it? I don't know what to think about that. Yeah, it's animated. I'm not sure what to think about this. This might be just like a summer animated film to get kids out. Do kids still like the Turtles?

I don't know. See, I think the Turtles in had their day and I think the turtles would resonate more with dad than they might with the kids, because, you know, it is what it is. Yeah. Yeah. When I was when I was sitting in Mario Brothers, this was another one of those trailers that aired. And I kind of got mildly excited at first, Lego Ninja Turtles, and but then I'm thinking myself, Do I really want to see this?

And I don't know. I like this one. It's they're going to be a complete box office disaster or it's going to make 200 million and people are going to be like, Oh, look at that. It just knocked off Mario Brothers is as this big movie. Well, and when they try to make them look too realistic, I think they ruin it.

I think this one's going back to the real kind of and drawn look. Yes. Yeah. Well, I think that might be in its favor. You know, it's really weird. A number of years ago, I went on a Make-A-Wish trip to Disney World with a little boy. From here. He was maybe four or five, yet he had cancer. And his wish was he wanted to meet the Mutant Ninja Turtles.

And they were at the Disney MGM Studios at the time, or whatever it's called now. I think it's called Disney's Hollywood Studios. Okay. And they were they're doing like a stunt show, whatever. And he wanted to see the Turtles. Well, we all we went to this thing and the turtles were like greeting people, high fiving up. It was really cool.

And the little boy who had been very ill, he was not feeling well that day. He started to come to light. He was like, Oh my God, it's the turtles. The turtles are here. And his mother said, Just wait. They're going to come over and see you. And he was so thrilled. And they came over and they hugged him and they lifted him up.

And they they really they had a moment and his mom said already, ask your question. And the little boy said, Oh, he said, I don't know. And he said, no. She said, go ahead, ask that question. And the question was, Will you watch over me at night because I'm afraid of cancer. And he has a poster in his room of the Turtles.

And they said, yes. And he was so thrilled. And I swear that he helped that kid through all of this kind of situation. So as much as I might bad mouth the turtles, I had a moment where the turtles gave a little boy hope. And I loved that. And I live with that story all the time because you never know what kind of thing someone might say that could make your day just a little bit better.

Yeah. Wow, that's great. So there's my turtle story. There's your turtle story. Wow. You'll see Bruce, if you come with that turtle story one more time. Right. We've got a couple more on this list. This next one, I'm not I'm kind of very surprised because I'm taking credit for some of these because I know I made my some of those bad movies that you get terrified.

Oh, that's right, Granturismo out August 11th. Now, this is kind of an interesting one. I used to play the video game when I was in college. Yeah, Yeah. So it's like it's another one of these, you know, because we saw Last of US on HBO, which was based on a video game, and that's what Granturismo was. It was a it's a racing game, but it's also based on a true story for the movie of a of a racecar driver.

And it stars or costars David Harbor from Stranger Things. So I, I don't know what to make of this one. It's like it might do well, it could be terrible. Well, what do you do? What's the goal? You just drive. You just drive. You drive and you win. Well, how is that a story? Well, is it Ford versus Ferrari?

I mean, if a dad and I actually had a real race is in it. So what's the deal? Yes. I mean, Granturismo it's listed as an upcoming American biographical coming of age sports drama. So it's based on reality. So, yeah, okay, let's go for it. This is not too far afield from past eggs. You know, that's what that was when it first started out.

Remember where they were not did you recall old things but Fast and Furious? The Fast and the Furious based in various Tokyo Drift Ohio draft. Yes. All those. Wait, that must be the most work they put in on those movies is trying to figure out what we're going to call this thing. You know, we've already dropped the articles, so we can't use that.

We're going to add some more. The best of the various, you know, really, really fast and super duper furious. So, see, Granturismo could take over for that good. And it could grander, too. Rees-Mogg The next I feel like it's going to be an interesting one to just keep an eye on because it is on one hand, it's like based on a video game, On another hand, it's based on reality.

I don't know, you know, if uppers down or what. Okay. As a person who does video games, when you see a film based on a video game, does it get you excited because they're kind of doing a better job of visualizing what's on a video game, or do you feel like you want to control it? Yeah, I don't know because I haven't played a lot of video games since becoming a parent.

And, you know, it's something I did when I was a kid and through college and kind of even my early marriage years. But I just to me, video games is just an escape and you kind of sit there. My I have a brother that really like the last of us because he played the video game and he said it was pretty much, you know, they made some changes here or there that because the video game aspect of it wouldn't work on TV or vice versa.

But he enjoyed it. And, you know, I like I just I played the original game. It was a Sony PlayStation game and eon ago and I always enjoyed playing it with my college roommates and we did it. But yeah, I don't I don't it's I'm so far removed from it now. I don't know what to make of it.

I'm back from the days of Pong, so, you know, Pong. When will there be a movie? Could that be a movie somewhere, I think, Or a little pad opening across the screen? Yeah, Well, boom, boom, boom. That's a blue beetle is another one that's coming out, and that's a superhero one. Yeah, That was the last one on my list here.

So, you know, we are coming to the end of this episode that's out August 18th. It's a DC Universe movie. This is on my list to not see because I'm just I have just no interest in it. I've never. What are your thoughts, Needle? You know, and I think it just takes all it takes is a good film and if it's done well, people will come and see it.

If it's a bomb. We've seen the last of the blue beetle. They won't try to reboot it. There's too many other things that are hanging out there that they could do, but it's DC, so who knows? You know, is looking for something that's going to bring them in. I still am going with the Flash, though. The Flash is going to be their big summer thing.

Yeah, yeah. The Flash is really the only superhero movie I'm interested in seeing this summer and Beetle and it. Yeah, yeah, that's a that's a different. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Superhero, I guess. Comic book movie. Yeah. If I'm going to go comics, that's really the only The Flash is the only one I've any interest in seeing. You know, I loved Jaws and Jurassic Park.

I really enjoyed those this summer. All the bad iterations of Jurassic Park, I, I enjoyed it because it is like you are going somewhere else and you know that when it's over, you'll get out. Yeah. During the moment that you're in the middle of the whole whatever. It's fun to be in that, that environment. And I think that's what we like.

I mean, it's like going to a theme park. You could have a great day or you could have a really bad day depending on what rides you get on. And, you know, with these, these rides are going to be pretty well engineered. Yep. So I think that's yeah, that's what we're missing from this summer's list is we need something like that.

I don't think the Transformers is going to be that Jurassic Park jaws kind of experi and said thrill. And you need to have that kind of scariness where you know you're going down a and a hallway and you think something might be behind you. Then you turn around. There's nothing there, and then you look the other direction and there it is.

I think that's that was what's so fun about those films, is they really are serials for the 21st century. I think my take away on this summer is last year Top Gun got me back into the theater, but there wasn't a whole lot else that got me back into the theater. And I actually looked at my my purchase history in the app and I went to see Top Gun.

Then I went to see Avatar and now I just went to see Mario Brothers. Those are the last three movies I've seen since that final Star Wars movie came out in £29 since since the pandemic. And it's just been a combination of some just, you know, things going on in life and, you know, family things that they got to get done.

So I just haven't been able to get to the theater. But I also think it speaks a little bit to the lack of really good films that have wanted that I've wanted to go and see, especially since I think the one thing the pandemic did is, is I learned that I could just sit on my couch and watch movies over a over 65 inch TV.

I'm sitting really close to it, so it's not a whole lot different. And I have the comforts of home and I'm not paying ten bucks a ticket and, you know, $10 for a bucket of popcorn. And I could just watch these things. I'm already paying for them anyway, through my streaming service. Yet streaming has changed their world and I think you need to have event programing.

It's got to be really big to get you to get out of the house and go to the theater and they can't throw it on streaming right away. They really have to hold it. That's what Topgun did a marvelous job of holding it from that that crowd for a while, so that then you had to go to the theater to see things.

And I think more could be that way. I thought air could have been in theaters for a long time before I went to Amazon Prime. So, you know, who knows what it is. But I think it is a game changer and they've got to watch that. And you have to look for the the big hits. The big hits are what people will go to the movies for.

All right. Sounds good. So we're going to wrap up the show. Thank you once again for listening to streamed and screened. And we will be back again next week.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Move over Mando, "American Born Chinese" looks to become the next must-watch show on Disney+.

The new series based on the graphic novel comes to the streaming platform on May 24 and includes "Everything Everywhere All at Once" Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. We have an interview with the show's stars Ben Wang and Sydney Taylor, who talk about winning with the Oscar-winning actors.

And speaking of "Everything Everywhere," Oscar-nominated actor Stephanie Hsu will be starring in this summer's "Joy Ride" film starring Ashley Park, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu. The film also is the directorial debut for Adele Lim, who is best know for writing "Crazy Rich Asians" and "Raya and the Last Dragon." 

Finally, Bruce talks about the new four-part documentary "The Secrets of Hillsong" on FX and Hulu.

Where to watch

About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome everyone to another episode of streamed and screened and entertainment podcasts about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. I'm Terry Lipshetz is senior producer at Lee and co-host of the program with someone who will be starring on Broadway very soon. Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal, longtime entertainment reporter. Bruce, you're hitting the big city soon on the streets of Broadway.

I will not be on Broadway. I'll be in front of the theater. Is looking at shows. Yeah, my sister and I usually spend Memorial Day weekend. This is. I'm giving this to you as a potential thing you could do. We go to New York because nobody seems to be in New York over Memorial Day weekend. They all go somewhere else.

The Hamptons, the, you know, the shore, whatever it would be, the Jersey Shore. But people aren't normally in the city. And so it's a very good time to go to things like plays, like shopping, like eating, because the normal crowd isn't there. So we've done this for at least 30 years. Colbert threw us off because we didn't do it during those years.

Yeah, it's fun. It's fun. It's a chance to get to see what we might be seeing in other venues in years to come. It might be a streaming film, it might be a touring production that comes to your community. There's still there's a lot of stuff there to see. Fun stuff. I'm going to Sweeney Todd attend The Tale of Sweeney Todd.

I'll be there. That sounds fun. I just hit a little Broadway myself this past weekend in traveling Circa, we saw The Lion King came to Madison. Yeah. Second time seeing that. Yeah. It's great show. My wife and I saw it probably around 2008 or nine. We were just married and just kids. Do they go to play?

Yeah, exactly. So we used to go to the theater a lot when we were, you know, before kids. And then we had kids and we stopped going. Of course, But we've gone now. We took the kids to see Hamilton last year, and now we took them to go see Lion King, which is fun. There's an interesting scene. I'm not going to say spoiler alert, because that show has been out on the road for 25 years now.

But there is an interesting scene and I said to my wife, like, they've obviously changed this, but I don't know what it was beforehand. There's this scene where Zazu is being held captive by Scar. The lion and scar is like Entertain me and Zazu starts singing and he starts belting out lines from Let It Go from Frozen. Any scar is like, stop torturing me with that.

But you know, anything but that song. But I'm thinking to myself, Well, what was the other song? Because this show has been out on the road forever. What did that like? They obviously added that in recently, since, Yeah, know, it was probably another show that, you know, I wish I could tell you. Yeah. But there probably was another show they referenced just to be able to see under.

Yeah, it could be, it could be something like that. But what I want to know is did you get out of the this show without buying anything. Yes. Yes. That, that is like merchandise heaven. Yeah. I saw a lot of the parents there with the kids that are of the age where you need to buy something. My kids are not that age anymore.

They're 12. We walk in, we take our seats, we watch the show. We walk out in and out without. Yup, everyone is fine with that. So we've trained them well. We didn't you know, we took them to things like Disney on Ice when they were four or five. We would say to them like, Hey, kids, see, you know, you're going to see a lot of kids with all these toys and stuff that their parents buy them at the show.

They're really, really expensive. And do you really need that? Will you be honest with them? And they be like, no, we're fine. It's it was yeah, we know those are the limits. Those kids are troubled. They're not happy. So giving those toys, that's just trying to solve something that isn't there. And so we don't need that, do we?

Nope. Now, of course, I would be the kind yelling for everything if I don't get it all. I. I'm not. And that's me now. Yeah, now I if I don't come now, When? This next weekend. I'm going to six shows right. If I don't come back with six T-shirts, it's been a wasted trip. I at least have to have the t shirt, get shirts.

Yeah. Hit a bodega, get a buttered roll. Okay. That's a very New York thing to do. Just get a budget roll. It's just a big roll hardball with like a pound of butter on it. And then you have to decide how much of that butter you actually want to eat and then you don't need to eat. So the money that I spent a year would have been money I would have spent out of food.

Yep. The New York Times actually did an article one time called The Ode to the Butter Roll on how like utilitarian it is and how New York it is. So check that out. It's actual reading before you go to New York City. I will do that. Yeah. Yeah. So have fun with your trip. And when I'm wearing T-shirts, just know that you have to be jealous.

I will be okay. I'm just jealous. You're going back to my. My hometown. I was born in New York City, so let's start spreading the news. I know, I know. So kind of getting back to movies and entertainment and that kind of thing. We thought we were done talking about Everything Everywhere all at Once because we're past Oscar season and that kind of did its thing.

And but it's sort of back in the news. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, because many of the people who were involved in that film are also part of a new series on Disney+ called American Born Chinese. And this is based on a graphic novel that won a bunch of awards. And what it is, is it's taking the story of a boy in high school who is Asian-American, who really doesn't feel like he fits in.

He feels like, you know, I am the only one, it seems. And the teachers bring to him the new Asian kid years, a new Asian kid. And you're going to of course, you'll be the one to show them the ropes, right? Well, and what he realized is, is is this other kid is from a different world. He's from a much higher realm.

And he has all these skills and he's able to do all this kind of stuff. And his aunt is actually the goddess of mercy, played by Michelle Yeoh. So there are there's this kind of otherworldly element to this typical high school kind of growing up a story. And you see how he learns about other things that are around him, how the bullies, how do you deal with the bullies?

Will you see that reflected in the the situations that the gods and goddesses have to deal with on a higher level? So and it's very fun. If you've not seen the graphic novel, please read it. It is so fun. The panels are very snarky and they're really very cool. And these are these characters are ones that are just made whole cloth.

They're talked about in Chinese culture quite a bit. So they are gods and goddesses who actually are part of their their lore, their history. And so it's not like something that was just made up. It's like, what happens if these people come to visit? And I got a chance to talk to two of the stars of the film.

And I was really curious because when this was being filmed, it was kind of the the start of everything everywhere, eating up. It became something while they were there and what it was like to be with these people to see through their eyes what is their that whole experience like. And I, they were very forthcoming. Ben Wong, who is the lead in this show he plays Jin Wong, is a young actor from Minnesota, oddly enough, who just kind of made a decision that he was going to go to musical theater school and that Sidney Taylor, who is his costar in this, plays The Lust Object, who he really loves in this school, but doesn't know

that the relationship will ever amount to anything. And they were the two I talked to in conjunction with American born Chinese. All right. So let's go ahead and listen to that interview and we'll come back and talk a little bit about that show, the two of you, when you were making this, I would assume it was the same time that everything everywhere was just blowing up.

Was that true? And it came out while we were filming? Yes. What did you learn from Key and from Michelle about dealing with all of that? Because that was just huge. Well, I don't know. They were every time we so like, we shot the show, that movie came out and then, you know, we all went our ways and we get back together once in a while for pro for promotional stuff.

Right. And I'd see them every month or two. And I feel like every time I see them, they're they're like pedigree just get bigger and bigger and bigger. So but at the same time, they always remain the same people that we've met On day one before that movie had come out, you know, just humbled. No down to earth and kind and generous people.

And so that's what they did. You ask them for acting advice or anything about the business Now? I didn't dare. I was like, if they have, we didn't want to be a**holes. Terry's act. But just like, well, been growing up in Minnesota, how did you even think the idea was going to happen? That you would be in the business?

Oh, I didn't either. But I didn't know about the business. I didn't know what the business meant or was or could be. And I definitely didn't see a place for myself in it. But I kind of took a leap of faith. At the end of high school, I decided I was going to go to New York and and and train and in musical theater at NYU.

And it was sort of a decision that I made kind of on my own. And yeah, it was really only after I came out to New York and started really understanding what the business was. But now growing up, I was like, This is fun, this is cool. And that's all it will probably ever be. But I'm glad I was wrong.

Yeah, always. It's good to be wrong, right? Had you to read the book before this all started to happen? Were you familiar with it or not? No, I wasn't familiar with it at all. I hadn't heard of it, but I read it before our chemistry read. We had one chemistry before the audition process was over and I read the whole thing and in probably under an hour and couldn't put it down myself.

Yeah, same I had. And I didn't have it growing up in Minnesota. It wasn't in our public library, unfortunately. But yeah, I read it for the first time right after I got the audition size, which is the couple of scenes they show you. I was like, I need to find out more about this project because this just just the few scenes they gave me to audition with were incredible, I thought.

And yeah, I ran to the library. I was in Connecticut. I ran. Yes, ran. Not walked, ran, not walked to the to the Stamford, Connecticut public. That's where I was at the time. And I found it and I read it and I was crying and crying on the carpet. And the night guy like the janitor was telling me that we were closing in 6 minutes, You have to leave.

And I was like, Please, I need this to 20 or I need the book, right? Yeah. You're just like, Yeah, well, you know, had you found anything like that before where you said, you know, this I can relate to at all? Never, Never. And that was what was so incredible. It made me realize that it's doing media is not always just sort of an empathetic act, right?

Where you're learning about some something else and relating to something that's not quite like what your experiences are. For the first time, I was like, Oh, you can read something and feel like it's about you. And that was really powerful and it made me, you know, really want to get to work on the show because I know this show is going to be that for you.

Now, during this time, what is that like, that anticipation that this could really be something huge? Yeah, it's we've been sitting on it for a year and I just want people to see it. But I also I don't want like my life to change or I just want people to see it. Exactly. I want people to see it and enjoy it.

Yeah. And doing that kind of there are a lot of special effects in this. I was surprised at how many there actually are. Is that difficult to do? I mean, if you go to acting school, I'm assuming that you go, Well, they didn't talk about this. They didn't tell you about the iron diaper in an acting lifting. That's a that's a that's something you used to fly.

Oh, I let you elaborate. Let me elaborate more. They put on you this, like Kevlar iron, the thing that looks like a giant diaper that they attach wires, suicide. And there's two guys standing on ladders and pulleys. You know, you growing up watching these movies, you think, oh, it's all must be robots and like, high technology. But no, it's just too big.

Do you do on ladders? And then the stunt coordinator goes, okay, action. And they jump off their ladders and you go this way. So it was it was an adventure. It was an adventure. And it was fun, but also kind of terrifying. And Sydney, how did you know that you two were were a real good team together? I we both knew that from like the first day we actually met.

We met for the first time in person during the cast dinner and the whole time we were essentially just talking to each other was like this long table with like desks and Cretton and Kelvin. You had Michelle Yeoh and Qi and, and all of these wonderful, wonderful people and me and better at least a small team of people that, you know, bring everyone.

And I felt bad, but like we really did just like have a really good connection from the start. I think we bonded over a lot of things that our childhood and shared childhood challenges. But yeah, bring us together. Bonded over it. It's fine. Thank you guys so much. I'm dying for the series to be really a huge hit.

So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Bruce, thanks for that interview. Sounds interesting. What's the target audience on this? Have you seen. Yeah, really? They're trying to hit the high school audience and they want to they want to age up a bit so that all Disney shows aren't seen as, oh, they're for kids. They're not Adults can watch it.

It's it has a very Mandalorian kind of vibe to it, if you will, where you can put the whole family in it and they're still going to find something and they're looking to a second season. So it isn't like one and done. I think what it does, though, is it opens us up to a bunch of Asian stories that we've never heard before.

And I think by doing that, we're going to see much richer stories. There's going to be more storytelling that isn't repetitive. And I think there, you know, even now, when you look at some of the summer movies, there are influences that we're seeing that are already starting to appear. Yeah. So there's also that connection too, with everything everywhere now, Michelle Yeoh is in this and she was obviously in everything everywhere you played.

Kwan Yeah, you get it. And then the director of the Shang, she is also involved in this and you'll see a lot of those kind of it's a small community, a lot of those connections, six degrees of separation that come into play in this in this series. And that's kind of fun to see that they got together and they said, you know what?

We should be working on these things together and I think what we'll see is they'll it'll be their own little kind of Marvel Universe where they will create more content that will see their world spread out in other ways. And everything everywhere kind of did the same thing. This this series does is it combines two worlds, an otherworldly kind of thing.

And then the kind of mundane world of a laundromat owner. And you see how those two can swirl around. Just like this boy in high school and his new friend who has this great extensive relative chain, if you will. I think that's I think we're going to see more of that. I think that's this is the sign of things to come.

And why not? You know, if you look back, name Asian age, Asian movies that you really warm to. Are you remember Asian series Fresh Off the Boat was like the last thing I can remember that had any kind of theming like this. Let's see these stories because they're interesting stories. They're fascinating stories. And I think it's it's a brand new world for everybody.

So looking a little bit further now out into the summer, there's another story which also has a little bit of a connection to everything everywhere. Stephanie Hsu, who we saw on Oscar, right? She is an Oscar nominee for that movie. She's going to be in a movie this summer. That was directorial debut by Adele Lim, who co-wrote Crazy Rich Asians.

Joy RIde Yeah, And Joy Ride is like a lot of those girls Trip hang over any of those ones. They were kind of a group of people getting together and getting in trouble. And now we're seeing it in theaters with older actresses. Look at the book club, the next Chapter 84. Brady All these are kind of really takes on Golden Girls.

You look at the Golden Girls, you see they put four people together there. Each one represents a different kind of aspect of a community. And then how do they cope when they get into trouble? And that's joy, right? Right there. Yeah. And it's also, I guess, an opportunity to to kind of break out because it's one of those buddy movies to an extent, but it gets away from the traditional body of just, you know, three or four dudes kind of hanging out together.

It's it's yeah, it's an extension of yet more opportunity to find somebody you like. You know there's a character you can relate to and you always think, which one would I be? I would be the whatever what. So yeah, I think it's going to be big. I think this will be a big film. And I do think that the momentum that we've been seeing with shows like Everything Everywhere and also with now American born Chinese, and I'm not I'm not trying to shine you on with this, but I do think it's going to be huge this summer.

I think it's going to be one of those TV shows that you're going to say, I must watch it. I must see this, because it's fascinating, fascinating to watch. It does look pretty good. I know when you forwarded me the the audio, there was some press materials included. I may have you might have copy. I might have snooped a little bit, looked at a clip here or there.

It looks really good. I'm kind of excited for this. And I, I think as a family, somebody who's looking for family entertainment because it's really getting hard sometimes to find. And my kids are at that age where they're too old for the little kids stuff. But some of the other shows that are out there are just a little too mature for them still.

And it looks like that type of show where as a tween even, they'll be able to kind of get into it. So I'm kind of looking forward to it. With the writers strike going on, I think you need to embrace these things that are written because we are going to have a long stretch of reality shows, game shows, sporting events that will make you glad that you saw something that was scripted.

They've already announced the fall schedules for the networks and they're just packed with game shows. And I don't know, even if it's Jeopardy, I don't know how often I can watch it. I can't take any more of that. I just I have to hope and pray that my New York Mets are going very deep into the playoffs because there you go.

Yeah. Yeah. That's what looks like we're going to be basing. But can I tell you another one that I have been watching and it's coming out this next week. It's called Secrets of Hillsong and I don't know about the Hillsong Church, but the Hillsong Church was the one that Justin Bieber started attending. It's kind of a hip megachurch and the the preacher, there was somebody that, you know, I mean, come on, you think he's hip, he's cool.

This guy, Carl Lentz, is his name. He is just the man. And you can see why celebrities were attracted to him. A lot of basketball players were members of the church. And then he had a fall and he was apparently seeing more of the babysitter then or the nanny then the kids were. And so then he resigned and is no longer at the church.

But he participated in this documentary that talks about Hillsong. And Hillsong is a huge force in the Christian music business because they do a lot of Christian albums. They've won Grammys. I mean, it's they're they're the big deal. But it started in Australia and it goes back and it kind of shows us how this church got going. What spurred the church and what keeps it going.

Now they don't talk to the guy who founded the church and it says at the end of every episode we tried to reach him. He would not return our calls. He is not. So this is not a complete documentary where you go, Oh my God, this is what really is going on because it's still successful. Hillsong is still going.

There are still many ministers who are, you know, doing their thing and bringing in that hipper, younger audience. But that's something that you hear at churches all the time. How do we get the young people? How do we get the young people? Well, here they show you in this documentary how they got the young people to come to their church and what that meant.

And then those young people talk about what the church either did or didn't do for them. But it's a fascinating documentary. And yes, Carl Lentz does talk in this and he talks about his experience and the things that he did wrong. That's on Epix and also Hulu. And you'll see that coming out this next week. All right. So that's another one.

Check out last week's episode that we did. We looked at six movies to watch the summer episodes done very well so far, but we only touched on six movies. So next week, seven, we're going to kind of yeah, we're going to do the top 100 movies that you may now want to watch. Yeah, no, we're we're going to look at there's kind of like, I guess to some degree it's the best of the rest movies that are coming out this summer, but also an opportunity for us to maybe pick out some that we think might just like crash and burn horribly.

It should be fun. So come back next week and we will extend our summer blockbuster preview. And until then, thank you for listening to streamed and screened.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Memorial Day weekend is often viewed as the start of the summer movie season, although several big movies are already in theaters or will be out before then, such as "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3" and "Fast X."

We don't want to do a podcast that will eat up an entire day, so we've thinned the list down to six movies you'll want to put at the top of the list. That's not to say skip the others. No, there are a lot of great options still out there we didn't have time to cover. 

But these six offer a little something for everyone depending on your interests. And we will be back with another pass at the best of the rest (along with a few we think might crash and burn) in two weeks with our episode leading into the long weekend.

So get a big bucket of buttery popcorn and buckle in for the top six films to see this summer.

Bruce Miller's recommendations:

About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome everyone to another episode of streamed and screened and entertainment podcasts about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and co-host of the program with Bruce Wayne. Wait, I am sorry. Not, Bruce Wayne, I've got I've got that right out of the mind. I've got Batman on my mind numbing. Coming in a new film he is has.

Oh, that's right. So I've got Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal, and a long time entertainment reporter. But he is a superhero in my world. Oh, you're so sweet to say that. And that's because we're not in the same room. That's right. It is. And that's it. But, you know, the movie season is starting. This is it.

We had Guardians of the Galaxy come out last week, and that, I think, is the the official kickoff of the summer movie season. Summer movies are huge. And this is when they make big money. And we didn't have summer blockbusters during the COVID years. It really took a toll. So I think this is the year we're going to see things back.

Its its you kind of get back into the theaters, eat a lot of greasy popcorn and watch every kind of movie you could possibly pick up. Yeah, I mean, last year it was basically the summer of of Top Gun being the first real big blockbuster to make it back and do really, really well since since COVID started. And in preparation for this episode, I'm going through the list of movies and I'm thinking, there's no way we could even touch on all these or if we're going to do a 19 hour episode.

So what we're going to do is you just wrote a column on basically six movies to really focus in on for the season. So let's we're going to dive into that and then we're going to do another episode next week and then the following week, which will be in advance of Memorial Day weekend, which is again, like that huge, huge weekend for seeing movies.

We're going to hit like our other ones either to watch that or we think might be duds or just they're going to be just pure popcorn movies where, of course, they'll be terrible, but we will all go and see them because that's just what we're going to do this summer. So. Bruce, why don't you get us moving? I'm going to do it alphabetically if you're already picked.

I'm fine with that. The one you must see if you've been seeing any of the. And you know, right now we're getting all of the trailers. So if you watch any movie in the theaters, Guardians of the Galaxy, I saw so many of the summer movies. I thought, Oh, my God, I got to see that. I got to see that.

I got to see that. I got to see that. There were a lot of them. But the one that has drawn the most kind of curiosity is Barbie. Yeah. Is it like a spoof of Barbie? Is it a real story? Story of Barbie? Is it what? And it's got a lot of big names behind it. Greta Gerwig directed the thing and wrote it, and she has always been kind of a favorite in Hollywood.

These smarter segment of the industry. And she has been able to corral a lot of people. You see Ryan Gosling and you see Margot Robbie in the ads for this, but they are the tip of the iceberg. I think this is going to be like the the musical. The Book of Mormon was back when that first premiered. And nobody knew what it was.

They had no clue what their show was. It was called Book of Mormon. That's the same way with Barbie. You think it's going to be a film about just Barbie and Ken kind of playing around in her pink Ferrari? Is it a Ferrari or is it a Corvette or is it what is Barbie's car? I think it's changed over the years.

My girls had a Barbie. It might have been a beetle, a Volkswagen Beetle. Really? It was changed. It was pink. Yeah. They got well, Barbie and can get kind of drummed out of Barbie land, and they have to try and make their way in the real world. So this is like, okay, let's see how this plays out. Will this land and are people making fun of Barbie and can or are Barbie and can too smart for the real.

And there are multiple Barbies and cans so this is you see all those ones in me in the department store or the, you know, toy toy store. There are a lot of Barbies and a lot of cans. Interesting. Only if there's only one. Alan, by the way, little one. Alan. But I think Barbie is going to be a big, big, big film because the kids will like it and then their their parents will like the kind of snarkiness that comes with it.

I wasn't sure on this movie, but then when I saw that Greta Gerwig was attached to it, I thought, Well, you know, this one might be one that I'm willing to sit through. Now, I'm not sure if my kids will want to see it because they're they're 12 and they're kind of at that point of maybe too old for Barbie, but maybe not.

So we'll see if they want to go see it or not. But I think that Greta Gerwig, you got Ryan Gosling. It's an interesting enough concept. And if it's that alternate reality type thing, is it almost like the Smurfs or the Brady Bunch where they're living? It's it's that fakeness, but it kind of lives in the reality. It's like Whoville, you know, you're living the world.

I think it'll be fun. I'm. I'm waiting to see it. I think it has a real kind of extra quality. And when you look at the people involved, it's not like all were taking a risk. I think they know what they're doing and they're releasing just enough information all along the way so that you are kind of eager for it.

And that's not coming out till July. So we have a time between now and Denver to really become part cold, hot again, lukewarm and then who knows what will happen when it opens. But I still think it's going to open big. So, you know what else is kind of hot and cold and lukewarm, but coming out maybe a little bit earlier than that is elemental.

Another one and this is Pixar's. It's like they're inside out where they want with emotions. This is elements, air, water, land. And when they're all characters and they interact and I think they're trying to teach you a larger lesson, I don't know that that always works for Pixar, though. I think sometimes they go a little too deep. Yeah, I'm not sure on this one.

I love Pixar movies, so like, I love Toy Story, the whole franchise, and I love Monsters Inc, but some of their movies are a little bit of a miss for me, and I don't know where this one's going to fall, so I want to see it. But I also I'm like, You have to go. Yeah. Now I saw that Peterson was directing this one.

He did The Good Dinosaur, which was another one of those Disney cartoon animated movies, which I didn't love when it came out. Like I, I went to it took the kids in. It was fine looking at how grass looked there, I wasn't I wasn't thrilled. But there's a sea change at Pixar, different, different management now. And so you'll see that there's a different maybe mindset, but what they have been doing in recent years is letting you know newcomers to the business get a swing.

They'll put them in to a short subject. They get a chance to kind of tell a story that they want to tell. And maybe this is one of those those situations where we're going to see kind of a different viewpoint, a different voice. Otherwise, this summer is going to be thin for animated adventures. I mean, we've got the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and then Spider-Verse, which I think will be big.

But as far as Disney and Pixar, this is kind of be it again, like when they hit the Toy Story franchise, I ended up Finding Nemo franchise spectacular. But some of these others that are kind of the one offs, they don't necessarily you know, Coco was fine, but it was just it was fine. Like I didn't love it.

I didn't hate it. It was fine. Soul was fine. The reason I love soul, but I don't think my kids loved it as much. But I'm originally from New York and there was a lot of New York, like inside New York references. And they were also poking fun at the New York Knicks multiple times to Lyles, which I love the Knicks, but they've been awful for the last decade or more than that, too.

It's probably going closer to 30 years than than 20. Look how bad light year was. Yeah. You know, that's another one of those. And swing and miss and yeah I a we'll see what happens but I think it could tell them you know let's not go so much over the heads of the the audience. Look at how Mario is doing.

It's like huge and that isn't exactly a master's thesis in anything. Right. So I think if you try too hard to educate and entertain or edgy teen as they like to say, you could miss, you could miss big, We need a cute little character that can be a stuffed animal. There always has to be one of those in every in any animated film.

So elementals out June 16th, another one that's also coming out June 16th, which should be huge. The Flash. Yeah. And there's this one that, you know, they weren't going to release. They had this whole thing like, No, we're just going to bury it. It's going to be in the back and we're not doing anything about it. But then test audiences got to see it and they said, This is like the best superhero film we've ever seen.

And Ezra miller, who plays The Flash, was in some, you know, trouble, and that was kind of the like, could we really have a superhero that has been arrested for something? And then we have to deal with all of that fallout. But I think they realized that there's so much riding on this, particularly for DC Comics, that they have to release it.

What really is surprising about it, Bruce Wayne, is that Batman is in this film in a number of ways and we get to see old Batman, if you will, because he's able to travel through time. So I think it has success written all over it. If it was that good in test screenings, it's got to be great once they, you know, tighten everything up and get it ready for an audience.

So I think is going to be huge. I agree. And it's one where I wasn't sure if I wanted to see it initially because, again, I'm not a huge, huge comic book movie person, but I've always enjoyed Batman movies and Superman movies to an extent. And then, you know, when you found out when we found out that Michael Keaton was going to be coming back in some way, we didn't know exactly how, but Michael Keaton was coming back.

And to me, that's probably the best Batman movie of all time. Between that one and maybe the Christopher Nolan era, the Tim Burton. Christopher Nolan. Those two to me are just spectacular. So to see that trailer where Michael Keaton is back on the screen as Batman, I'm thinking myself, I got to go see this movie. Yeah, I think there's a lot there, too, to digest.

And I think it will be the start of better days for the Warner Brothers series of superheroes. We've been overwhelmed with way too many Superman kind of takes bad Aquaman, bad Wonder Woman. I mean, there's a lot of kind of baggage there. And this could, you know, start a new trend. They've got big people. They've got big, big names that are in there.

And yes, Ben Affleck is in it, too. So exactly. I think the flash will be one of, if not the biggest movie this summer. One of the biggest. Yeah. But it it is crucial for DC to land this one. They got to stick the landing on this because Marvel is just rolling over them right now in terms of universes.

And James Gunn, the director of Guardians of the Galaxy, is moving over to DC ahead of their division. So we'll see what happens with that. That could be really a big sign of things because his latest is good. We're we're halfway through your list of six. The next one, this next one is the one I've just been dying for.

And I'm I'm hoping it's not terrible because the last one in the franchise was not good. Indiana Jones and the Dial Destiny out June 30th. Yeah. And I you know there's a lot riding on it but George Lucas wrote it so if he's putting his hand back in and you've got Harrison Ford, you know, they're going to try and tell some kind of maybe an ending story, I don't know.

But there is something that he wants to say with that, and I think that's what will help this. Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is incredible and is a great writer in her own right, is in this. And she could easily have suggested a line or two that might really make it that kind of, you know, how Indiana Jones always had that kind of odd way of phrasing something or you think it's going in this direction and then he turns it in another direction.

You, you know, there'll be snakes there. It has to be snakes, of course, But it's that whole kind of world of Nazis and all that stuff that during the forties people were like, Oh my God, what is this? And they would go to serials and I think it's going to be good. I think it will be good. And I think they will address the fact that Indiana Jones isn't 30 and running around right there.

I think it'll be a good kind of, if you will, closure to the to the series. I agree. I've seen the trailers now and especially that full one where they gave you a little bit more the two minute one. And it looks like they're going to you know, it's more of a modern thing maybe in the sixties or early seventies, that kind of thing.

And he's he's about to retire as a college professor, so he's older. But then it does the time jump and they've really gotten good at the De-Aging process. We've seen this now in the Star Wars movies where they're able to, you know, have the actors perform but use CGI to make them look like they did as as younger people.

So I think it they'll probably be able to make Harrison Ford look like a younger Harrison Ford, sell it and really hopefully wrap up the series in a good way. Now, it sounds like this is it definitely for Harrison Ford because he's come out and it maybe even thrown a bucket of cold water on hopes from Disney that he might come back in some capacity for a TV series on Disney Plus.

And it just sounds like he is he is done with Indiana Jones forever after this one is done. So let's hope that, you know, we can go out on a high note. That last movie was not good. It's and I've always loved the franchise. So I'm hoping that we can just kind of forget about that one. And maybe it's one of those things, too, where if you look at the series as a whole, Raiders of the Lost Ark was a great movie.

Temple of Doom was kind of and it was fine, but it wasn't a high note. Last crusade. A lot of the the Indiana Jones fan site is back to where it should be. Maybe they kind of missed the mark on the last one. So maybe it's just one of those every other thing they could nail it and we'll go out on a high note.

Fingers crossed I'll be there. So what do we have next, Bruce? Well, then we have you. This is going to be interesting. It's called No Hard Feeling. Okay. Are you good with that? Okay. And this is we haven't seen Jennifer Lawrence in quite a while, right? Right. Act now. And she's going to play this woman who is hired by a wealthy couple to kind of make their son, I don't want to say popular, but maybe not as nerdy just as they expected him to be.

The son is played by Andrew Barr, Feldman and I, Andrew Barr Feldman is kind of a one of those success stories that that New York is able to promote. He was in, I think, called the Jimmy Awards. The Jimmy Awards are high school equivalent of like the Tony Awards. So if your kid he is a star of his high school musical, you know, Fiddler on the Roof, he's playing Fiddler in the show.

And then they take those kids and they put them in a competition in New York City, and one wins the Jimmy Award, one male, one female, and then see what happens. Well, Andrew, Bart Feldman won the Jimmy Award and immediately they put him into Dear Evan Hansen. He did a year with that. He did. He was in High School Musical, The musical, the series he's had, like a lot of stuff, but he's still going to college too, at the same time.

But they cast him in this, and I think this is good. He's also doing a thing with a ratatouille musical, but he you'll be introduced to him in a big way. And oddly enough, this is a lot like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The dad in this movie is played by Matthew Broderick. So there is it I and you get a little sense of that, but I think that's going to be hugely funny and I think it's going to be one of those ones You go, okay, I'm up for it.

I think this will work. You know, you mentioned Matthew Broderick and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and of course, we did an episode in talking about my affinity for that kind of era of movies to begin with. But the concept of this reminds me a little bit of a movie from that era in 1987 Can't Buy Me Love, where a guess Patrick Dempsey plays kind of that nerdy kid who's a little bit awkward in high school and he's going to spend his lawn mowing money on a really expensive telescope.

But he also, you know, he's got interest because he's he's a he's a young man and he's, you know, trying to impress the ladies. And Amanda Peterson plays a young woman who's need something. I think it was a dress. And he, instead of buying the telescope, helps her out. But under the agreement that she dates him and I can't remember, it's been so long since I've seen the movie, I can't remember every little piece of it, but it has a little bit of that kind of feel to it as well.

Yeah, a little risky business. Yeah. So here's a little about the genre that was very popular in the eighties, I think is now they're looking for how do we bring this back? This would be great. And like I say, you watch Andrew Barr. Feldman remember, that name is going to be big because of it. And Jennifer Lawrence, I think she plays that kind of snarky comedy that she's really good at.

And I think in this case, it'll work. It'll really work. So. And Matthew Broderick, no hard feelings. Look for that one this summer. All right. That one is out June 23rd. And then we have one more that we're going to talk about today. If I were to pick and I only got six, these are my six, but the other one is my first and only real Oscar bait.

I mean, the others, if they got something, you'd see Barbie in costumes or you might see Indiana Jones in the special effects or the flash and special effects, but one that would be a best picture potential, maybe some best acting potential. Is Oppenheimer about J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was the the father of the atomic bomb. And it's it's done by Christopher Nolan.

So you know that there's something more there. And I think it's not going to be just one of those kind of long dredges that you sit and watch. Oh, God. And now they're going to do what, from the the the trailers I've been able to see. It does look like it has a movement and it does have kind of some energy that I didn't think was going to be there.

And the look is just spectacular. Jillian Murphy is the star of this and Kenneth Branagh is in it. I mean, you just go through the list and it's blue chip all the way. Robert Downey Jr. So he's not Iron Man in this one. Yeah. No. Yeah, this one sounds like a one that I definitely want to check out.

Obviously, Christopher Nolan being attached to a huge directing name. It's a little bit of a departure from some of the things that he's done recent. Right. And then I think because it's specifically based on history, he is in kind of free floating with a lot of this depth. Some of those last ones were like, what in the heck is this?

But I think this one, it'll hold up and you'll go, I think that guy's got an Oscar. Come on. Yeah. So that's that's definitely this is a real solid list. Bruce So we haven't touched on everything, though. I mean, there, there is. Think that's my first my first blush, if you will. Okay. By the time I get to the the next, give me a week or so and I can give you a little better picture because some of those ones I will have been able to have seen.

But I think right now those are the ones that I intrigue you the most. They're the ones that you go, Yep, I think I've got to look at that and and there are ones that come on based X and it has to be on a list. Right. But that that's a no brainer. That is not even one that you would hesitate if you are fast and furious fan like I think you are too.

I will be there. Yes I that those movies have just gone off the rails but I don't know. Yeah. The idea that they're going in space and they're going to do all these kind of oddball things and these were street writers, right? They were right. It is work. I almost have to go back to the first one and watch it just to try to figure out what wait, what was this originally about?

Because it has gone so far in the other direction. And every movie, if we're adding in more people more and more characters like who? Wait, who? You're Jason Momoa, you're in it now. It's crazy. It's everybody that is kind of of a larger size, I guess comes into this as a villain at some point. Exactly. But it's also I mean, it's not just Jason Momoa, but Rita moreno is going to be in it.

Well, Brie Larson, Charlize Theron. And then you have Helen Mirren has been in this thing we renewed. It is like a marvel franchise where you figure, I better have that on my resume or else I'm really sunk. All right. So we're going to come back and talk about Fast X mission Impossible Blue Beetle Art Boy, right? Yeah. This is just one.

This is just part one. So we'll we'll be back in Little Mermaid. Oh, yeah. So many. We're going to come back in two weeks and kind of just touch on everything else that that we didn't include in this one. And then next week you've got a bit of an interview scheduled. Can you talk about what that's mean? Yes.

There is a really, really big TV series that's starting this month called American Born Chinese. And if you do any kind of research on this, you'll discover that this was one of those make or break kind of things. Everything everywhere, all at once really cracked a barrier and brought a lot of Asian stories and Asian actors and whatnot into the business.

Well, this actually was made before all of that happened. They started filming American Born Chinese. Well, that was Pop act. And when it did pop, interestingly enough, they are going to be a beneficiary because it has all the big stars at one Oscars or that movie in their series. So it's fascinating and it's a way of opening up a door to stories we haven't heard about.

Now, there are characters in this that, you know, if I threw a party, you'd go, Really? I've never heard of that. The Monkey King. I don't know what you're talking about, but are very popular in Asian culture. And it's a way of trying to introduce an American audience to some of these characters with a very simple story of a boy trying to fit in in a high school.

And we'll talk to the young actor who plays the boy and what he what he has to say about the big stars. So we'll talk about the show a little bit more. Fill you in on that next week, American born Chinese, and we'll have an interview for you as well. Thank you for listening to streamed and screened.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Late night television programs have turned to reruns and soon production on scripted shows may halt as the Writers Guild of America went on strike.

The first Hollywood strike in 15 years meant 11,500 members stopped working with the expiration of their contract as they look for improved pay during the streaming era.

We have several interview clips with celebrities like Jimmy Fallon and Josh Gad weighing in with their support of writers. How long will the strike last? Co-host Bruce Miller suggests 100 days, which could delay the start of the fall season and lead to more reality shows.

In the meantime, we turn our attention to the coming-of-age movie "Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret." The film is based on the 1970 novel of the same name from Judy Blume. The film adaptation stars Rachel McAdams, Abby Ryder Fortson, Elle Graham, Benny Safdie and Kathy Bates.

We then turn our attention to icons. What makes an icon? Philanthropist billionaire David Rubenstein, who is a collector of historical artifcats like the Magna Carta and Declaration of Independence, is the host of "Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories with David Rubenstein."

Miller talks with Rubenstein about history, iconic items and locations, and collecting. You can also read more:

READ MORE: Icons help tell America's story, says philanthropist David Rubenstein

Finally, Miller and co-host Terry Lipshetz talk about the upcoming summer blockbusters, which we'll preview in next week's episode. Did you know "Jaws" is considered the first summer blockbuster?

Where to watch

About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

They've got to get a fair deal. So, yeah, I'll do whatever I can to support them. Those are the sounds of picketers as well as a clip of Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon as the Writers Guild of America went on strike. Audio Courtesy The Associated Press. Welcome to another episode of Streamed and screened and entertainment podcasts about movies and TV.

I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee Enterprises and the co-host of the program, along with the iconic Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and longtime entertainment reporter. Bruce, you are an icon, aren't you? I have been through many writer's strikes in Hollywood and seen different things that they've done over those years. I remember one time actually being in Hollywood when the writers strike began and there were picketers out front of our hotel because producers were in there and they wanted to to let their message be known.So I guess I've seen writer's strikes like you can't believe, you know, the people ask, Well, now are we having no television? Has there been no movies? Is everything going to disappear? This is just terrible. Well, settle down. You'll be okay. This is how we got reality TV. If you may remember, in 2007, it wasn't that big of a deal.

And reality TV is supposed oddly unscripted, even though it is largely scripted. They give them an outline, but they don't have to come up with the lines themselves. So I think what you're going to see are these things where, you know, you don't need any kind of writing done. They don't need to write the questions. It will affect things like Jeopardy because they have to write those questions.

So game shows aren't necessarily immune from this. Some talk shows like the late night shows, are scripted. They will not be around. They'll show reruns. You'll be able to see those things for a while. The stuff that you really don't care about, probably you'll see more of it. Sporting events, they'll do that. Award shows. This will be our first test.

The ACM awards, Country Music Awards that are coming up would probably have some scripted stuff if they haven't written it already. They're going to have to just ad lib. And so I don't know how good Dolly Parton is at ad libbing, but we'll this will be a test of what it's like. She'll be on her toes. Yes, she'll be good.

The Tony Awards are coming up. Are they going to be able to do any kind of writing around those things? Who knows? But it will be interesting. And they're assuming that it'll go at least 100 days. Wow. Because within that 100 days, there are other contracts that would come due and it gives the the companies, the studios, the whatevers an opportunity to end those contracts.

And they they spent a lot of big money buying talent. You know, when streaming came in, it was like, oh, we've got to lock up x, Y and Z because then they'll make product for us for the next ten years. You saw Ryan Murphy got a big contract. Shonda Rhimes got a big contract. So all those people have these contracts that could be affected by that.

And then they can just say, We no longer have that contract, let's renegotiate, let's see what happens. So the 100 day window is kind of awaited. Now, they could end it by this week and then everything all bets are off. But likely there will be a ride out there because they want to see this kind of change. They want to see change because everybody went crazy over streaming and spent a lot of money.

Now, what does this leave us, the viewer, at home? Well, if you noticed, we were seeing a lot of shows from Korea. We were seeing shows from other countries. There's Swedish shows, Norwegian shows, Spanish shows. And they would subtitled them or they would dub them. That's likely that we're going to see a lot of those. And how else did we get things?

Like Parasite was a foreign made film that came over here, did very well. The Squid game, there's another one that you know did well, and that was a foreign product. So I think you would see other shows that we didn't get a chance to see from other countries. That's where they'll look for some of the product. A long time ago, they took old scripts and just rebuild them.

And that was, I think, a bust, a real bad idea because do you want to see new people playing Mission Impossible? You know, with a script written in 1967? I don't think so. They can't make changes and they can't do things. Now. Some scripts are already written and they would be able to film them, but they wouldn't be able to like if they didn't like the way a line landed.

They couldn't fix it. They'd have to just go with the line as it was. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Because really the I mean, we see the immediate impact with late night TV, Saturday Night Live, that kind of thing, because it's live, it's daily or weekly. Right. And obviously this the strike has shut them down. But in reality, anything that was kind of already written and in production is probably okay other than what she said.

You know, if there needs to be changes or rewrites, that would be the biggest problem. Yeah, they wouldn't let them do that. Now, you know, news shows technically are written, but they get a pass because it's the news. And so they would be able to still do those kind of scripts. You know, look at some of Fox News.

A lot of times it's just people sitting around talking so they're not affected by those things. Probably the fall season is where we might run into the biggest. If it goes like you said, three months. If it goes beyond three months or why would even imagine if it went a full three months? Because it's already May right now.

So, you know, those September shows will probably go into production when? In July? August. But August is usually kind of the starting date for many of their if they're coming back, if there are new show they they've made their first episode, they may have made a second episode, but they wouldn't go back into production until August because they figure September would be the start date for all of that.

So, you know, and they could always delay the start of a season if they knew that they'd be done by September with the contracts and all this. They could back it up in the fall season, wouldn't start October or November and then fill in with with, you know, other kind of special programing that they might have or a very special episode of whatever or bingeing.

And I think that's what what hurt all this really is They used to have orders for 22 episodes a year, and that kind of ensured that you were going to get a decent paycheck if you were a writer, because you would be on staff for 22 episodes. That doesn't mean you're writing all 22, but you would be under there under their contract, if you will, and you'd get a paycheck now because there are ten episode shows, eight episode shows.

That's a short run. And they're, you know, the production companies are saving money on this. And so they're not making what they thought they were and they're having to look for another another line of work. So it is, you know, there's a reason for them to strike. Let's go back to some audio. I've got two more clips. One is of Josh Gad.

He's a comic and an actor. You probably know him, of course, as the voice of Olaf in Frozen. But we also have a writer named Sean Crespo, who's I would consider a little bit more of a rank and file writer. This is somebody that is really going to be affected by the writers strike. So let's go and listen to them now.

But as sort of a hybrid here. I'll just speak on on behalf of the actor side of me is we are nothing without their words. We have nothing without them. It's just a pile of abuses that have you know, you can't address them every day. They only negotiate once every few years. So these things have piled on like this.

There's just not there's too much work and not enough pay. Like there's no there's not really a path to middle class living anymore as a writer, I have a friend who just got a job on a series and now won't be writing because they're they're striking. So, you know, what do you do? You have this job, do you all the time open and don't do anything.

Do you go work at a grocery store? What do you do during that interim? So it is a concern and it's a trickle down. If they're not producing shows, that means people who are in the, you know, not non front of the camera jobs are also unemployed. So it just it trickles down. You don't have people who need to do the costumes or do the sheds or whatever it might be.

They're unemployed as well. So it isn't an easy thing and it is a big A you are looking at George Clooney suddenly losing a lot of money or anybody like that. It's it has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with being a little fairer about spreading the wealth around to those who are making it.

A lot of these executives will get huge bonuses and none of it trickles down, even though maybe their network or their their streaming service performed really well. This doesn't save that poor guy is making whatever from doing another kind of job. He isn't going down to the Kroger's and saying, suddenly I'm going to be I'll stack shelves for you, you know.

So and it happens all the time. They should be prepared before it even gets to this point. I mean, I think the misconception, too, is because we heard from, of course, like Jimmy Fallon and he, of course, wrote on Saturday Night Live. So I presume he was a striking guild member at some point. But he's obviously at a point now where he's got a big contract as a TV host.

But he's a small piece of this puzzle. It's you're talking about a lot of gig workers. A lot of folks said, well, not even gig workers. They're contracted workers. And if the show goes off, they're not making a salary. So it's you know, a lot of folks that are just kind of getting by. And it's you've got your your light crews and your audio crews and your camera crews and all of those folks aren't aren't working right now, but they're sticking together.

And I did see that NBC, at least for a short period of time, it sounds like they're going to pay the writers, the crew members, I think like two weeks from The Tonight Show, for instance. And I think Jimmy Fallon is going to pay another week out of his own pocket. So the writers and the crew members, they'll get about three weeks of pay.

But then it's kind of, you know, buckle up for the long haul. We're not going to keep paying you. We won't have to worry about what we're going to watch. There will be content and there probably is content that's in the hopper right now because they've already filmed it and they can just start, you know, sorting it out.

It's a year from now that you'll have to wonder what what are they going to do because they aren't done with that. And technically, writers are prevented from writing. Well, they're on strike, you know, you say, oh, write a movie, just write yourself a little another series or something. You can write all of it. Well, they're not supposed to do that.

So the idea that you would suddenly end the strike and come in with ten episodes of a show, that's not going to happen. Exactly. So we'll move on now from the writers strike to what's going on in the theater. See anything good recently, Bruce? You know, I did see. Are you there? God, it's me, Margaret, not my wheelhouse.

I'll just be honest. It was not a film that I was, you know, excited about. But I do remember vaguely the controversy about Judy Blume's book and that she was writing these very adult books for young people. And now when we hear all this, you know, we've got to ban books because they're telling kids too much stuff. Mhm.

If this was something they were worried about, boy I can give you a list of stuff we should worry about now that it's very benign. If I had a kid, I think it would be even a little too juvenile for somebody who is the same age as the characters in the sixth grader. She's about 12 and they, you know, barely, barely talks about puberty and change of life and things like that.

Barely. It's more like, how do you deal when things happen? She moves, for example, from New York City to New Jersey. And that is a big trauma for a kid. You know, I'm going to have to go to a new school. I'm going to meet new people, where will I fit in? But this being a thing that you would even consider banning is like beyond me.

I thought it was very harmless. I thought the Wonder years as a TV series which covered the same era, was far more adult and far more educational. Maybe in some of those areas, like when I watched The Wonder Years, I go, Oh yes, I remember that kind of situation and what that. And they also played world affairs a little better.

They talked about the Vietnam War. They talked about other things that were happening in the world. Well, they were doing that the the living, if you will, with this idea. There really isn't that much about the world around them. Mom is living in a town where she isn't working. She's a stay at home mom. And that's different for her.

And trying to adjust to that. But for the most part, I thought it was a a pleasant little film, but hardly a controversial one. So Rachel McAdams plays Barbara. The mother thinks she's not given enough credit for the things she's able to do. But even with just a look, she can convey things that weren't in the script at all.

And I think she's really, really talented. And I hope this doesn't mean that now she's just going to play mothers because I think there's a lot more for her to do. Abby Ryder Fortson played the 11 year old Margaret in the movie. How did she perform? Just a sweetheart. She you know, you feel her a more pressing issue with this is religion.

Her father is Jewish, her mother is Christian, or they're from those families. The mom and dad really don't practice religion. And so she really doesn't kind of know where she fits in. Is she Jewish like her grandma? Is she Christian like her grandparents on the other side? Where does she fit in all of this? And she even goes to a priest at one point and goes to confession and thinking maybe that's what she needs.

But it's a more questioning film about religion. And where do you fit in with that? It doesn't answer the question, but it does help you. You know, consider that maybe that's an important question to be asking at that age. This sounds like a movie for me, Bruce. I know my dad is Jewish. It's my dad is Jewish, my mom is Catholic.

I they moved me from New York City to New Jersey when I was five. So not quite 11. Yeah, this sounds like God, it's me, Terry. I think my wife is going to take my daughters to go see it, though. My my girls are they just turned 12. Have twin daughters. They're they're in sixth grade. So this is in their wheelhouse in interesting thing because it is based on the Judy Blume book.

You can't find this book anywhere. So my wife has been checking out like every library in the area. Yeah, Yeah. It's no, it's not bad. You just can't get it because everybody wants it because of the movie. Yeah. So the local library, it's checked out and there's like 12 people in front of us that want to reserve it.

She was checking with another library. She checked her school library. She checked the middle school library. She teaches. She's kind of friendly, of course, at the library and in the school and the library and says, Give me a few minutes. I'll check it out. I'll see if I can find it. And she tracked down a copy at the high school and they were going to pull it over.

So my daughters to read it, you know, in that case, I would buy it. Yeah. That was going to be the next step, you know, like this thing called Amazon I've heard of. Have you heard of it? I've heard, yeah. You know, at the top of the show, I asked you, Bruce, are you an icon? Are you an icon?

I am not an icon. You're not? No, no, no. I. I wish I were. Wouldn't that be fun? Is there anyone here that can identify an icon? Well, and a yes, an icon is something that you can look a picture a if there's a picture of it and you can immediately identify what it is, you can say that is a Coke bottle, for example, that would be an iconic sculpture container, whatever you might want to call that.

But you would look and, you know, as that kind of green glass, it has that kind of ribbed look and it has the Coca-Cola script on it. So that's iconic. Mount Rushmore is iconic because you look at it, you mean identify it, the Statue of Liberty, iconic. Those are things that that stand the test of time. But then there are things that disappear.

I talked to David Rubenstein, who's doing a PBS series on icons, and he wanted to look into this and see what really fit that definition. And he said, you know, sometimes things are like the Ambassador Hotel, the ambassador Hotel was where Bobby Kennedy was, was shot and they closed the hotel. And then it just sat there for a long time.

And now they've torn it down. But, you know, at one point they used it for filming TV shows. I went there and saw a filming of Love Boat, and they were filming inside the hotel like it was a cruise ship. And so it was still used, but it wasn't used as a hotel because it had perhaps a negative connotation and people didn't want that to be kind of the the overriding attention it got.

But that would be considered the Oscar. The Oscar is an icon. You could easily look at that. And there are so many stories about that. You know, where where did it get its name? Even the people who are doing research on it, I don't agree. They don't you know, it's maybe this person, it's maybe that person. It could even be Betty Davis.

And they've all been kind of debunked in terms of who actually gave it the name and why it happened. But icons are things that are around us that we can immediately identify and why are they iconic? And that series is kind of fun to lean into. I had a chance to talk with David and he explained some of the things.

He's a huge collector. Of course he's also a billionaire. So I guess if I were a billionaire, I could be an iconic whatever. But he collects a lot of things and what he loves loves to collect our documents. What would you think immediately you'd have to have a copy of, I don't know, the Declaration of Independence. A declaration?

And he does have the Declaration of Independence. And, you know, and I thought, Well, why do you want this? And he said, it's to be able to give it so that others can see it. He loans these things out, these documents out to libraries, museums, whatever, so that then we all can have a shot at looking at we all can go to the Smithsonian, we all can't go to the White House, we can't go to those places.

But if they tour and travel, you would get an opportunity to look at those things. So icons, He talks about what makes an icon interesting. So let's go ahead and listen to that interview with David Rubenstein. We'll be right back.

Can I ask what what really makes an icon? What is an icon? An icon is something that people no know it. They think they know a lot about, about it. They don't need to know as much as they think. But for example, if I showed you a picture of an icon, you would say, Well, I know what that is.

So I showed you a picture of the White House. You would know what that is. I showed you a picture of the Washington Monument. You know what that is? Those are iconic because they are so well known that everybody kind of has a sense of what they mean. And the purpose of this series, we took iconic symbols that mean some things to people about our history.

So Statue of Liberty means something to people or the Golden Gate Bridge or Hollywood sign, things like that. You look at things like that. Andy Warhol did. He painted a lot of things that he, I think, even had a series called Icons. He did. He he did. And yes, he what he did is when he did the Campbell's Soup thing, he basically was taking something everybody recognized and he made it a work of art.

And yes, you're right. So could those things, though, fall out of favor we look at now when they when statues are taken down. And I'm sure for many people in that area, a statue would be considered an icon for them. Yeah. Yes. Well, nothing is forever. So there may be some iconic buildings that are torn down, You know, let's say in Hollywood or L.A., there was an iconic hotel.

Was that the ambassador or the one that and Robert Kennedy, an ambassador? Yeah, I think that wasn't that torn down. Yes, it was. Right. So there is an iconic building is gone. So sometimes iconic buildings, they don't stay forever iconic things. All the things that we did in the series are probably likely to be around for a while.

When you were making your list then of the ones that you wanted include how long was the list and then how did you winnow it? Well, we went through maybe 25, 30 that we thought were appropriate. And then you have to you want to have a balance. We wanted something from the South, something from the West, something from the Midwest.

So we wanted that. Secondly, we wanted things that we thought would have an interesting story. So, for example, take the Statue of Liberty. Everybody thinks they know what it means, has nothing to do with immigration. When it was put together, it was really for Franco-American friendship and thanking us for getting rid of slavery. Thank you. You know, it's, you know, so we're we're trying to do is have iconic symbols that people think they recognize it, but they don't really know the history of it.

So, for example, take the the American bald eagle. It's many people think that's our national bird. We don't have a national bird. We never had one. There's a old story that Benjamin Franklin wanted to be the turkey over the bald eagle. But that isn't true either. But bald eagle. Why did that become such a iconic symbol of our country, even if it's not officially national?

Bird And what's so unique about the bald eagle? And you know, it's only in the North America, though, there are there are these American bald eagles. So we wanted to educate people about it. Take the American cowboy. American cowboy is an iconic thing. The Marlboro ad is the most famous ad, but turns out that cowboys are not what you probably saw on TV when you were growing up.

It turns out that cowboys were not fighting Indians. They were really hurting cattle to take them to slaughter. Really. That's what their real mission was. And they weren't all white. They were indigenous, they were white Latinos, they were African-Americans, and they weren't even carrying guns. They basically were just dealing with the the cow. And they it's a tough, tough job they have.

But it was not something people think they know something about, but they don't really know as much as they think they do. And that's why we try to educate people about it, where, one, I would think that you would automatically have it would be Mt. Rushmore. But is that too easy? Is that one that people would say, Oh, come on now, everybody knows what that is.

And it isn't to Mt. Rushmore. If we did another eight, probably that'd be a good one to do. Mount Rushmore is one we thought about. It's it's it's it's a good symbol. The controversy was very controversial. Pick who the presidents were giving their person the permission to do it. He had some really controversial things in his background. And interestingly, though, the man that carved that got yeah.

Hudson Borglum you know, he actually carved the was responsible for the initial effort to carve the Confederate symbols in Stone Mountain. And and he was was a member of the Ku Klux Klan at one point. So so some of these stories go much deeper than we would even expect when you take I mean I think I know a reasonable amount about American history for a nonprofessional, but I was astounded to learn some of the things I learned about some of these symbols.

You know, when we look today, though, and things that are happening in politics, people trying to co-opt symbols as somehow they they have a greater hold on it than anything else. And the flag is a real example, a perfect example. Richard Nixon started wearing a little flag here was that means he's more patriotic than I am if I'm not wearing it.

But I think the Republican Party has done a pretty good job of for a while for Democrats going on to having flags in the backdrop when we're on Reagan to make speeches, they put flags behind them. Right. So Democrats finally figured out that's a good thing. But but it wasn't that for a while, Richard Nixon kind of co-opted the idea that the American flag was something that was Republican and he was more American than the Democrats.

Yeah, it's just in, say, how you want to scream at times and you think, wait a minute, now, you don't have the right to this just yourself. But I guess it's first come first gets and well that somebody probably thought up some of these things but think about you know people today they wear symbols on their lapels, you know, Ukrainian Americans or whatever.

And they they're trying to co-opt iconic symbol and make people think that they all kind of own it or they're more Ukraine pro-Ukrainian than I am because I'm not wearing a Palestinian ribbon is when ribbon started coming out. And then it became like, well, what does this color mean and what is this for? And it's it it just keeps going.

You know, if people want to co-opt the iconic symbol because they want people to think about them, a certain thing and a symbol can can do it quicker than a word, than words. Other words. Richard Nixon doesn't have to come out and say, you know, I really I'm more American than George McGovern. Just wears a little lapel here.

The flag and the symbol does it like, you know, pictures worth a thousand words I say. So you're a collector, right? How do you choose what you collect? I collect different types of things. But in the historic documents area, there are a lot of very famous historic documents. And so I want to get the ones that are they're available.

But the most I'd say the most famous one I own is the Magna Carta. But but in this country, people know the Declaration of Independence better. So I own probably more copies of the Declaration, anybody. But I put them all on display so people can see. And my whole effort is to educate Americans about our history on the theory that we have a more educated population, we have a more informed democracy.

When that country was set up, they the theory was that white Christian men who owned property would be the guy People voted, but we wanted them to be educated and that we can educate. Now. All voters are better off. People don't know what they're voting about. That's not good. And we don't teach history or civics as much as we did 40, 50 years ago.

Does it lose value then? Because we know. Sure. So, for example, if you don't know, two thirds of Americans, when asked in a survey, what are the three branch of the federal government cannot answer the question. So is that a good thing? It's probably not a good thing. It's better to have people know a little bit more about the history of your country.

Also know the bad things. The theory about studying history is that you want to learn the bad of the past so you don't repeat it. That's the main point of learning history and you can learn about the good and hopefully get a better. But you want to learn something like, for example, when you went to grade school, were you what?

There was a beat in over your head that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were slave owners? Probably not. I didn't have that when I'm obviously older than you, but when I went to school, I was George Washington, the great man, never told a lie, chop down a cherry tree or his father, all that stuff, which wasn't true. And he didn't emphasize he was a slave owner.

Thomas Jefferson said all men are created equal, and he did that when he had slaves with them and he had 600 slaves in his lifetime. So I think we should educate people about the good and bad and then just make sure people can can make informed decisions about the future. And if you put your collection on on display at all times, well, it's a very is places.

So I have collections on display in lots of places around the country. But I, for example, buy a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln signed the original, which is in the archives. He signed 47 souvenir copies of which 20 are left. I own two of them. I put one in the African-American History and Culture Museum and one tours around the country or the 13th Amendment, which I in end of slavery.

I own four rare copies of that. And I put I put them on display at various museums or or exhibitions that people ask me to. Are there holy grails that you're still looking for, that you're trying to get the Gettysburg Address? There are only five copies of that Lincoln actually brought out five copies of They're hard to get those.

One is owned by Cornell, one of the Lincoln Museum, one in the White House, and two in the Library of Congress. I probably market to better by them. But the problem with being a collector is what do you do with the collection? And you can only do three things for them. In the end, you give it to a museum, you sell it and take the prophecy abuse for yourself or you, you know, make a charitable contribution with it or you give them to your children.

I have three children. They're all well-educated. I went to great schools, Harvard, Stanford and so forth. They have no interest in any of my collections, so they don't want it. They just said, We don't care about it. So I could go to museums and give them my collections and maybe I'll do that. I, you know, I'm the chair of the Library Congress Board, so obviously you invite them and I was the chair of the Smithsonian.

And so I think the Smithsonian is great, but I haven't decided yet. It's in my will if I die tomorrow, there's a way to handle it. But I'm always changing my mind so I know you know who's nice to me today is the person who gets it right? Right. With the Hollywood side. That is such a kind of an interesting choice to be on this bunch.

Well, we wanted to do things on all parts of the country. And this was a poor Southern California. It's an iconic symbol. You can find others. But it's interesting. Most people think it's designed to promote Hollywood. As you may know, it was a land development company, Hollywood land. And then it over the years has been it's almost taken down.

It's been fixed, it's been restored, and it's become a symbol of Hollywood. Now, Hollywood, as you know, is doesn't really exist in a meaningful way. All the Hollywood studios are not in Hollywood, but it's kind of a symbol. So if you go to somebody in Iowa and say, if you let's go to let's go to Hollywood, we'll see some movie stars, they might think that there's actually some movie stars walking around all of that, but there's nobody there.

The idea, though, that they would do a second one on the other side of the mountain I think is a really stupid idea. Maybe that's just my. Oh, that's the other side. Yeah. Another take where you could actually have your picture taken in front of the Hollywood sign and it would be easier to get your picture than it would be to, you know, where do you hike to get the best picture of you and whatnot.

And I find, you know, should there be more than one of some of these things? I don't know. Oh, obviously devalues the currency of you're more of them. But for now. But what I really want do is people talk about history and talk and learn more and and appreciate more about American history. Well, the theory that they will make us a better country.

All right. Thank you, Bruce, for that interview with David Rubenstein. You know, I actually met his ex-wife. Did you know that I was? Yes. Yes. Not nobody, Nothing. Nothing. When I wasn't the cause of their divorce or any money woes, Buzz cries. No, no, no. Alice Rogoff is his ex-wife. And actually, I believe the mother of his children is a media publisher.

She she used to own the Alaska Dispatch. She purchased the Anchorage Daily News in I think it was like 2014 or so and merged them to the Alaska Dispatch News. So she was the publisher of that newspaper paper. And as publisher, it took a few editorial staff members to the Poynter Institute, which is now. It's an organization that helps journalists like you, like myself.

It's training and things like that. And we were in a group together and at the time I was the digital director at the Louisville Courier Journal in Kentucky. She was the publisher of the Alaska Dispatch News. Her paper, my paper, along with the Denver Post and The Virginian Pilot, we were in a group together, so I met her.

We talked a bit. We we were collaborating. Did she say you want to look at the Magna Carta? I've got one in my bag. She didn't know. She did not bring up the Magna Carta at all. But what was funny is this is in 2017 and it was part of a year long program. So we went to Florida, we all met.

We all hung out together for a little bit. And then shortly after we met, the paper went into bankruptcy. Oh, no. And then she was forced to sell. So then when we got back to in 2018, she wasn't there. The newsroom was kind of reorganizing and and that was kind of that. But yeah, that our six degrees of separation are you, you, me, David Rubenstein.

Very small. We didn't even have to get to Kevin Bacon. You know, he said his kids don't want these things. So do you think we could be in the will? Maybe we have a personal connection to the family. He's there right with us. Right. I'll take one of the documents I can bring Mom. Right. Well, Michael's. I'll go to Michael's with my my Declaration of Independence and I'll say, yeah, could you frame it So it looks nice.

It's. It's a gift from a friend. You got to wait, though, with Michael's until they've got that, like, buy one. Yeah. I want 50% of the coupon. Yeah. Yeah. I can't do it unless I can save some money. No, no, no. We're. We're going to do it right. But on a budget to do the, the decorating. Want it to look nice so it hangs in our office and we could point to and say, there's my Declaration of Independence.

There it is. The Magna Carta, though. So just now. So I will take the Magna Carta. You're going to take the declaration I get the number because, you know, I write Big I and I'm sure we get at our names on the bottom if you wanted to, we'll just we'll just add John Hancock to the bottom. We can, but we can put some some tape, some electrician's tape or something, and then we'll write our own names on the bottom.

So if we needed to keep it right, we were B, we'd be okay. Hey, you know what's coming up this next week? What's that? We're getting into the big summer movie season, and yeah, it's not affected at all by the writers strike. It is not going to be stopped. Barbie is coming this summer. Barbie, goodness be with us so we don't have to worry about.

Suddenly she's holding out and saying, No, I'm not going to do a movie. It's done. So next week, let's look at those new kind of summer movies. That should be the it's always considered blockbuster season in the summer. And this week we started with the first one. Really, that'll be a big moneymaker and that's Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three, the last one of the films.

So watch that. We'll talk about that one and then we'll will preview the ones that are coming up next week. That sounds good. So before I let you go, though, why do all the blockbusters come out during the summer? What is is it just because everyone's off from school and they're on vacation? I always wondered that, like why?

Why is it like basically Memorial Day through almost like July 4th is kind of the big drop, too. Why is that? There was a little film back in 1975 that changed the course of history. That little film said that people would flock to the theaters if they weren't in school, if they were, and they wanted to have something fun to see.

And it made a huge amount of money. That movie was Jaws. Jaws considered the first blockbuster, and it did so well that they realized they should program for that. And they looked for those kind of high concept films that would be good to release at those times. There are seasons that are big for this. Memorial Day weekend is always big.

4th of July is always big. Labor Day is Christmas and the fall are considered far more, I don't want to say intelligent pictures, but certainly ones that take a little they're they Oscar bait. They're going to be the films that are going to win awards, but summer ones are usually ones that are fun, exciting and have a lot of action in them.

And get you to eat and drink a lot. And you're more willing to do that when you feel like you're on vacation than any other time. So you can blame Jaws for setting off the concept of blockbusters. It is readily recognized as the first big blockbuster. Oh, I did not know that. So little, little history. Some iconic history.

A little history there. Yeah. And Steven Spielberg has to be the king of blockbusters because he had a lot of them. And yes, was his company is behind a big one this summer. That's right. We'll talk more about that next week. Until then, thank you for listening to streams and screens. We're not going on strike.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May the 4th be with you! As always, May 4 is the unofficial holiday dedicated to the "Star Wars" franchise.

Co-hosts Bruce Miller and Terry Lipshetz talk about the classic movies and new TV shows, which include the recent end of the third season of "The Mandalorian" and the second season of "The Bad Batch" plus the upcoming "Ahsoka" series. 

They also discuss the three new movies that were recently announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 in London by Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. James Mangold, Dave Filoni and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy were selected to direct the films.

There weren't many details, but Mangold’s film will look at the early years of the Jedi. Filoni’s movie is expected to tie together the various Disney+ series he's involved with and Obaid-Chinoy’s movie will feature Daisy Ridley, who returns to the role of Rey from the sequel trilogy.

After "Star Wars," the discussion shifts to the more serious topic of the World War II and the Holocaust. National Geographic launches a new limited series on May 1 called "A Small Light" that follows Miep Gies (Bel Powley) and her husband Jan (Joe Cole), who were critical in the hiding of the Frank family from the Nazis.

REVIEW: 'A Small Light' offers new take on Holocaust experience

The show also stars Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank, Amira Casar as Edith Frank, Billie Boullet as Anne Frank and Ashley Brooke as Margot Frank.

Miller has an interview with Powley and Cole, who talk about taking on the roles and how the themes translate to modern times.

Where to watch

Stars Wars & Lucasfilm Rumors

In the episode we briefly discuss rumors and speculation about the future of shows and movies from Lucasfilm, which is owned by Disney. Further details to read and watch:

About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to another episode of streamed and screened and entertainment podcasts about movies and TV. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee Enterprises and the co-host of the program, a Padawan, if you will, to Bruce Miller, Jedi Master of entertainment journalism and editor of the Sioux City Journal. Bruce, it's a little early, but May the Fourth be with you!

You should have said Yoda, because, you know, I'm that old. I had it in the script. I was going to call you Yoda, but I didn't want you to feel that way. I am so Yoda. It's ridiculous. That's it's is apt and it's fitting and it's me. Plus, if I were collecting anything, it would be Yoda. Got to love Yoda.

Always one of my favorite characters. And he didn't show up right away. He wasn't in the first one. The second one? Yeah. Yeah. And I remember now. Okay, so this. This shows you how old I am when they did a big reveal on Yoda for Empire Strikes Back. It was a special press kit that was just about Yoda, and it had a picture and I mean, it was quite the big deal.

I remember getting it in the mail and it's like, Oh, what have we got here? This is really great. But I remember back with Star Wars, we didn't know what it was. We had no clue. You know, they talked about serials, they talked about Westerns. They talked about all these things. But when until you saw Star Wars, you weren't really sure what this thing was.

And I went to a screening of Star Wars back in. Yes, 1977. And I was unsure the place was packed. And I remember a woman in the in the audience screaming out, Ooh, that Wookie. He's really cute. And so that's what I remember about the first time. I also remember that the vehicles didn't look like they had wheels or they touched to the ground.

I thought that was really cool. But it did feel like you were dropped into a world that you had no idea what was going on. It's really amazing when you look back at the Times. I mean, today movies are so overboard with CGI and animation and green screens and everything. The fact that they were able to do a space Western because that's really what it was, you know, you equated it to a Western, but even George Lucas thought of it as a space weren't Western.

And it's amazing that they were able to do what they were able to do back in 1977. When was the last time you've seen the original one? A couple of years, probably. You know, it's one of those things that it shows up on TNT all the time. Or my daughter, who's a really So I've got twin girls, but one of them is just hardcore Star Wars like I am.

So she'll have it on from time to time. So I'll sit down and watch a little bits of it. But what disappoints me though, these days is they effectively retired the original cuts at the movies and they went to the special editions from the 1990s. But even though those were cleaned up, you still have those elements from the original.

Yeah, that the sets are kind of wonky I think when you're running down the hallway and you think, I think I've seen that hallway, it looks very familiar. Well it probably was right when we had it here with a symphony underneath it where they did a live the live score and it's very fascinating. But it was an older version.

So you got a chance to kind of delight in in those kind of simpler things. And I think it works better. I don't think you should have messed with that stuff. I thought you should have left it alone because it is a piece of its time, you know? But hey, if you're George Lucas, you do what you want.

You can you can do that. Absolutely. So it's, you know, with the I guess, the unofficial holiday, May the fourth with Star Wars. Just thought we would talk a little bit. There's there is some news kind of out there with Star Wars. So we just wrapped the third season of The Mandalorian. We do have the new show, Ahsoka coming up in August.

We also wrapped season two, the bad batch, around the same time as Mando. There's another series called The Acolyte, which is due sometime next year. It takes place in what's called the High Republic era, which is is leading into that prequel trilogy that George did in the early turn of the century.

And there's some other things kind of coming along, too. But we also had the Andor series last fall, which did very well, Obi-Wan Kenobi, which was kind of mixed reception on that. So there's there's a lot going on. But they just had the Star Wars celebration in Europe a couple of weeks ago in London. And Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced three new films.

One is going to star Daisy Ridley as Rey. So she's going to reprise her role that she brought forth in the three most recent films from that new trilogy. There's going to be one that takes place in The New Republic, which is post Return of the Jedi. But before the the Rey version comes up. So this is basically taking the the shows that we see on Disney Plus now, and they're going to somehow intersect into some sort of film.

And then there's going to be another film that's going to look at the Dawn of the Jedi in the New Republic. So that's kind of what's that's what's on the horizon. There's been some speculation I don't know how much you follow on this, that Disney isn't particularly happy with the direction of Star Wars because the idea originally was they bought it.

They want movies coming out left and right. Some of those did very well. Some of them didn't sit so well with the fans. And there's been some rumors out there in the Star Wars universe that maybe Kathleen Kennedy's job is is on the line. If she doesn't produce another Star Wars movie. Her contract, I guess, is up in 2024 and allegedly an ultimate aim was place that they need to have a movie out by 2025.

So it's an interesting thing. You've got this huge series, this huge enterprise. I mean, it's a it's a behemoth of when you compare it with all these other tent pole type of, you know, DC Marvel and all these that are continuously putting out films and Star Wars, they kind of sputtered a little bit, but they're still doing very well with the TV programs, it seems.

Yeah, I think there are too many things out there. I really do. We waited so long just to get Star Wars films that now they have a glut of them. I, I don't know that that's in their own best interest is I know they want money. I know they're there. There's really we've got to get more money out of this.

How can we get more money out of this? Let's do this. Let's do that. Come on, we'll have it. Yeah, yeah, let's do TV. Let's do a podcast. Or how about, you know, and it's just this whole range of stuff and there is a limit to it because if you are new to any kind of franchise, you may not go in, you may not be interested in that because it's too much to learn.

I know that was the case with Marvel. People thought that they couldn't get into that world if they hadn't started from the beginning and they need to be a little better about their standalone Star Wars films. And I really think that's where you could fall into Quentin Tarantino's The People who are kind of a marquee name, and let's see what they would do with it.

It doesn't necessarily have to follow everything, or it could just be people who were around during the same era but aren't caught up with this this fighting good against evil. Maybe there were people who didn't pay attention at all in Star Wars land to what was going on. You know, was there a PTA meeting going on somewhere? Could that have sparked something?

Who knows? And then, you know, they never really do want to toy with anything beyond a PG 13. Why can't there be an R-rated Star Wars film? Yeah, that would be an interesting one. I mean, you can you can maybe get to I mean, it is it's space war. So you could take up the violence level a little bit and maybe and they did it with with the comic book movies.

You do have a couple that have gone beyond PG. PG 13, right? It's possible. But you see, it's Disney. So there are kind of those those boundaries that are put into play that I think hinder what they can do. So I. Hey, Kathleen, I'm with you. You just sit there and say, you know what, We can't do everything, but let's try something and let it be standalone.

It doesn't shouldn't have to be part of the trilogy for anything that, you know, the how I feel about those I do not want to have to worry about. I've seen too I die and I don't get the third one. That's ridiculous. But you can easily be in that world and still still show us what's what's going on.

I'm with you with the standalone movies. I thought that Rogue One is perhaps one of the best movies, Star Wars movies of all time. And it's because, you know, we knew what was going to happen, because we knew that it led up to the original 1977 Star Wars with the Death Star. So we knew going in the movie is basically about them stealing the plans to the Death Star.

It was a great movie from start to finish and it's kind of followed through now with Andor the series where, you know, you can only do a couple of seasons of that because eventually there's an end point, right? So I think they really did a great job with that. I'm kind of hopeful that with James Mangold, maybe that's that director that they're bringing in, like you suggest, because he's doing the new Indiana Jones movie, The of Destiny.

But he's done Ford versus Ferrari. He did Logan, He did The Wolverine. He did the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. So he's done a lot of different films and he is an A-list director, so they can bring him. He's got that star power, and it's a little bit different than even when they had Ron Howard, who of course, is a giant in directing because he was brought in to rescue the the Han Solo movie, which was kind of fallen apart.

So, you know, here they're going to let him do it from the scratch. I agree to that. I don't want a trilogy every single time, especially after the newer trilogy, which I thought was a bit of a disaster because it was so disjointed. Right, Right. Well, if you look back at the original, the whatever the you call those first three films, George Lucas handed the reins over to Lawrence Kasdan after the the first one and said, You write this thing, let's see what's going on here.

And I think those new ideas are what helped keep it fresh and keep it going instead of this huge book that somebody has to go, Well, wait a minute now, according to chapter 33 here, you're not supposed to do this. It's chaos. And I think that's why I've turned off from for Marvel. I really don't want to have to try and remember something that happened in or films prior to this one.

Yeah, I think Star Trek had a little problem with that as well, where they're, you know, they're trying to many worlds. And now where are they? I really don't know where Remember the the kind of reboot with Chris Pine? Is that going anywhere? Is that going to be something more or are we going back and looking at old characters like Picard?

You know, what is that? And I think it becomes a thing when money people are making decisions and their demanding things by a certain time because they've got to meet a budget or we need to make so much money by this date that it kind of spoils the creativity of the whole thing. Well, that's kind of the thought, too, with where, you know, if those rumors are true, that that Kathleen Kennedy's job may hinge on on a film.

Is it or bringing back more films, is that you've got the money people. It isn't just about the storytelling when when Lucasfilm was that standalone company because even if you go back to that original trilogy, the first Star Wars movie, if that thing bombed, it ended. You didn't need to wait for two more movies because it had a beginning, a middle and an end.

And at that end, you could have been like, okay, we're good. I don't need to see anything ever again. But they came back with Empire and then return. And I think the other piece of it too, is even though he did hand it off to other directors to kind of tell a story, he was still part of the storytelling process.

So it was his concept where he worked with other writers and directors on the finer points, which I think in comparison to the new trilogy, J.J. Abrams was there. I know he was the executive producer on the second one, but he kind of stepped way too far away. And the movie went in a totally different direction. And then he had to come back to kind of rescue the third one, and it just turned into, I guess, a bit of a hot mess.

But yeah, you know, Disney, there were rumors that they were going to do an Indiana Jones series on Disney Plus and that has kind of been put on hold. And Willow, I didn't even get a chance to see this Willow series on Disney Plus. And apparently season two was canceled because they're like going all in with the Lucasfilm stuff back into Star Wars.

And because that is that is the franchise out of Lucasfilm. So it'll be interesting to see where that goes. The interesting selection and directors of these movies is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. She is a two time Oscar winner because she won Oscars for documentaries, but she's attached to the film. A little bit of an unknown, but I guess her star has been on the rise because she's done some directing work on the Mrs. Marvel series.

Thoughts on her documentaries and short subjects are kind of the gateway to getting into bigger pictures. So she was probably tested through these kinds of things. She has a very female perspective, a feminist perspective that might help play well with something that's seen as a very kind of boys club. And it gives an opportunity for the Star Wars universe to kind of crack open to other stories that could be told, because I think we've kind of worn out our welcome with some of these father son things.

I don't think we need to go into that a little more. But she might bring us a whole new a whole new world of of opportunity. And it would be interesting to see what happens. You know, I want to see what are what people are doing in other parts of that universe. And I don't know that we've necessarily seen that they're also caught up with this rebel forces kind of thing.

And really, though there have to be it's like today there are people that you can't ask anything about the news because they don't watch the news. They don't listen to the news, they don't read the news. And those are people with a story to to tell. And how do they do it? I think sometimes we get a little too caught up in the mainstream of what people are talking about or what influencers are telling us.

We should talk about that. We don't realize that there's a whole subset of people out there talking about nothing that relates to that. So this thing is one of those things. I think he made an interesting point to about a different perspective, because for me, as somebody 47 year old man who grew up on Star Wars when I was a kid, the boys like Star Wars and most of the girls like something completely different.

You know, you had some some girls liked it, but it was a boy's club. And I think they really tried to expand it and attract a much wider audience. Now, I think to my daughter, who's 12, who absolutely loves Star Wars, she wants to watch the shows every single week. And if you ask her who her favorite characters are, it's Rey, it's Ahsoka Tano.

It's these newer characters that they introduced that have expanded the universe to just more than boys and men. And the Jedi can be a girl, you know, A Jedi can be a woman. Look at how animation was largely seen as, you know, female driven. It always has to have a heroine who falls in love and gets out of her situation.

And then they realized, Wait a minute, we've got some boys out there that might be interested in watching animation. And they did do a shift and there were some male kind of dummy and Star Wars was pushed them. They were the ones who said, Get over there, come on, you got to do some male animated films. And we're seeing them now.

So I think same thing could happen with Star Wars. So once again, may the force be with you, Bruce, but we'll turn our attention now to a much more serious job and anybody. I do. Yeah. You also on April 20th, one two on people at 420. Yeah we're not not in Wisconsin. I'm based in Wisconsin. That stuff's not that's not going to talk that way, right?

Yeah, not here. Not at our borders. That is correct. No, but we're we're going to shift over to a little bit more serious topic now and one based in actual reality coming back from science fiction into history. A slight bit of research. Is that sound like enough? No, sir. But there have been Holocaust films since the early 1940s, 1940 was the first time they ever mentioned a concentration camp in a film.

Since that time there has been a Holocaust related film. Every year. It's interesting to see that that's that's lasting like that, but it's one of those things that you need to remind people because otherwise they're going to say it didn't happen. And I think a lot of times you'll see in the documentary categories of the Academy Awards, there will be something about someone.

Now that generation is dying out. There aren't many more Holocaust survivors around who can remember what went on or what happened. But what we're finding now is that people are kind of stretching their their boundaries of what stories they already know. And one of those ones is a diary man. Frank, That was a huge, huge, huge book. And it was taught in schools.

I don't know if it still is because I don't know if it's on a list somewhere. And then they say we can't teach that one in schools. But it was what a girl viewed the Holocaust situation like. She was hidden in an attic over her father's business. And they couldn't leave. They couldn't go anywhere. And they had their own kind of world, if you will, hoping that somebody they could get out because the Nazis wanted to do something with them, i.e. they wanted to kill them.

And so we saw that perspective on the Anne Frank story. We saw her perspective because her father saved the diaries and brought them and said, you know, is this something we could publish? Is there something here so that people know what went on in our world? And now there is a new limited series called A Small Light, which focuses on Miep Gies.

Yes. Miep was a secretary of Otto Frank, who was the one who helped him during all of this. She, he said, would you help me get things to my family? Can you be there for us? And will you promise not to tell anybody? In retrospect, meet said, You know, I didn't do anything. It was a small light that I was able to turn on in a dark room and it what she tells us is that there are things we can do, things that maybe we should be looking at now in our own world, where we can make a difference in somebody's life.

And we see this with bullying in schools. We see this with loudmouth politicians who are shouting each other down and for no good reason. They're they're sideswiped by people who never asked for this kind of attention. And it becomes a very volatile situation that we don't need to live in. And I think what this limited series tells us is that there are little things we can do along the way that can make somebody else's life a little easier.

And why are we doing that? Why am I standing by and not saying, you know what, you're a bully and you need to stop this right now? I always had parents who would stop me and they would say, You are not doing that. We do not do those kinds of things. You are not going to bully somebody. But today it seems like we're a parentless society where nobody tells the people who are in authority or power, you can't do that.

You can't treat people like they're somehow lesser than you. You can't make fun of them because why? What are you gaining by that? You're doing nothing. So this is this miniseries here at Roundabout Way. This was me on a soapbox. Did you see that? Dare you to just get the idea that picked up on it. The series lets us know that there are little things we can do, and I think it reminds us that we don't have to be some Schindler's List rescuer kind of person.

We don't need to be that guy who runs in, saves a bunch of people, and then you're considered, Yeah, that's what we need to do. It can be something as simple as maybe talking to somebody else, maybe comforting someone during a tough situation. Maybe it's bringing food to somebody. You know, it's so, so simple. And this is a very slow kind of building Mini-Series I'm not saying it's a slow miniseries because it's not, but you see how she grows, how meat grows in the process of all of this.

I think it's fascinating. It's one of the best things that we've seen on TV this year. And it starts May 1st, I believe it is is the first first two episodes, and it's eight episodes in all. I got a chance to talk to Bell Powley, who plays Miep Gies, and Joe Cole, who plays her husband, Jan. For them, they were you know, they weren't filled in on what their story was until they started researching it.

And interestingly enough, and you'll hear this is that they did not realize that John didn't talk about it. He really did not want people to know his part because he didn't think it was that important. And Miep didn't write a book until many, many years later talking about what she did in all of this. So it's a fascinating, fascinating story.

I think you'll be really taken in by it. And you'll also see how contempt jury they are. You know, it's not like the when we see a film that's set in another era, you go, oh, they're old timey people and they just do old timey things, right? And they wear old timey clothes. And these are like so contemporary.

You think, I think I could hang with these people. I think these are people that I would like to be around. And that's where sometimes when they do do films about these things, they tend to take away that kind of humanness and they want to set them up on a pedestal and make them something other than real people.

And this is one that shows you the real people behind the story. All right. So let's go to that interview and then we'll come back and wrap up the show during this. When did you guys say, could I do what they did? Was there a point in when in the making of this where you thought, do I have what it takes to do what these two did to hide people, to kind of divert people?

I think that's what's important about the show. Hopefully it's going to make a lot of people think, could I do what they did? Because it's about two very ordinary people. It's not big sweeping historical statement or like larger than life characters. These are literally just two young people who are going about their lives. You ended up doing really, really extraordinary thing, and they have the same attributes that loads of young people have.

I mean, they were newly married. They love going out dancing like she was a big party girl and then their lives were turned upside down when they made this really heroic decision to have hired these eight people. So hopefully it will make lots of viewers think, would I be able to see this Is your answer? Yes. Or is it?

I really would. It's hard to. That's such a hard question to answer because it's so late. You just sound like such an arrogant, provocative. So, yeah, I mean, I think what they did was so extraordinary and so incredible. You know, I, you know, thankfully will never be put in that position, you know? But what one kind of a role models for you.

But, you know, one incredible thing they did is I see today that there are parallels because, you know, and you go, well, why am I not stepping out of my comfort zone and just saying something to people, say, you know, you're wrong. Yeah. But it's also, you know, the show's called a small light because, I mean, famous quote, anyone, no matter who you are, can turn on a small light in a dark room so anybody can do a little something for somebody.

So I'd like to think I could definitely do a little something for somebody. You know. And what they did was was a little something. Somebody turned out to be a huge, huge thing. And they represent a huge number of people also doing that all over all over Europe. You know, they weren't the only ones. I remember seeing another movie about this, and I think I did interview me to really?

Really. Yeah. And I did. Really? Yes. Yeah. It was a TV movie that they had done, and I think Mary Steenburgen played her. Yeah. And I don't remember her being as playful as you are in this. Well, obviously, it's in Tony and Joan's take on her and that and that writing of her. But I read her book and Frank remembered a few times that was kind of my main source of research.

And her voice really does come out in that book and she does talk like you get the sense that she was quite cheeky and playful and she talks about how much she loves going out dancing and partying with her friends and how she found her husband so attractive. And, you know, the funny kind of conversations she had with Ann.

So and then obviously that filtered through Joan Rita, our writer's voice. She very much has those sentiments herself and then filtered through mine. Our take on her is that But I do believe that she was right. That was their relationship a true love thing, or did it grow into a love? It's interesting question, isn't it? I feel that was true.

A true love. Yeah. Because because they there was this huge barriers in that way. You know, y'all was married previously me did was wasn't married at 20 sort of into her mid twenties was read at that time and sort of spoke about how she could have gotten her brother come out and she could have got a man who would that and talks about not wanting family and doing things that, you know, possibly do anything in a very different way to how they would have done things in those in those times.

There's a there's a there's a process of how how you live your life. You have kids early. You get married, you stay at home. So she's doing things very differently. And John was previously married. So I think that I think definitely that it's more romantic because they really wanted to make this work. And and he had to divorce his partner and all the rest of it.

It's like it's a social faux pas. Those things. Did they do all those things in the bathtub? Because I thought, Oh, that's really cool. I mean, I don't know. I know they used to they used to to get away from everybody. They'd go like that. They said that that's a great thing. I think it's a huge, huge idea.

Kids were running the bathroom and Susanna direct and like one of the first conversations I have with her is that she really wanted to make this relationship, even though it's a relationship in the forties feel real. Like we wanted to have those small moments of like them chatting together in the bath or like him asleep in bed and like seeing her get ready for bed and like all of the things that make a relationship feel like a tangible to an audience.

Sure. Because even though it's in the forties, I feel that was know that a lot of guys don't meet like they don't and that was it was the prep for that And so and I think that's the problem that too many people make is that or they think it's a whole different era and it's a whole different thing and it's like they're us.

Exactly. Yeah. What did you two learn from this? What did this teach you? I mean, this is a really good question. I mean, historically, it taught me no end to is, you know, just on on the surface, sort of people have become into this. The prelude is a sort of is the and frank story. Right. So everybody feels like they know I'm frank and they know the story.

And it was a young girl in the annex and the rest of it. But I feel like the reality is people don't know the story. And how many episodes of you said you mention that you've seen two. Okay. So there's so much that you're going to hopefully learn and become aware of what was going on outside the annex, what was going on in the streets of Amsterdam.

Yeah. So on a kind of more superficial level, if you were like historical level, here's a great deal for me. Just, just sort of kindness can, can win over everything and love and love, kindness and compassion, peace, bees, evil and beat hatred. And and just a reminder to everybody, the title of the show know every day you can fight.

You can show the other acts of kindness and they and they feed into one another throughout the day. Sure, you can do that. And so there's always little things you can you can always look good, look for people who look to you. And yeah, I just learned so much about I'm like heroism and bravery on like a small scale from like to ordinary people.

There were so many I've even seen two episodes, but like, as you get like into the depths of this show, there was so many anecdotes and stories that we tell that you will watch and be like, That must be made of what these people did. And we had that literally. Every time we got a new script, we were like, Whoa, Tony, Joe, like, is this really do they actually do this?

Think the lengths that these people went to when they were literally just a secretary and a social worker and a young people was absolutely insane. So, yeah, I learned so much about being brave and also the amount that one human being can actually do so that that the best, most unfathomable stories are often the ones that are real.

Yeah. So we've got it. Well, this Tony's made this up. This is too extravagant and sure and crazy. And it was always true. Thank you guys so much, love. It's amazing. But nice to meet you in great fun and good luck with this. I hope it all turns out to be a huge hit. All right, Bruce, thank you for those interviews.

The show sounds fascinating. I think I'm definitely going to tune in and I think we've talked about this before. But, you know, for me personally, I have some Jewish heritage. So to these types of stories I really like to hear, you know, I enjoyed movies like Schindler's List, but even when I was in college, I took the history of the Holocaust, which was just a fascinating semester, very depressing semester.

But one of the things they did is the professor, who was a retired rabbi, brought in a friend of his who was a Holocaust survivor. So he spoke to the experiences of what he had to go through, you know, in a concentration camp and showed the tattoo on his arm of, you know, how he was numbered. And one of a couple I've seen a couple of survivors in person.

And it's sad because there's really not many of them left. So it's great that we can have stories like this, find ways to to have these stories, to share those experiences, but also, as you said, have a contemporary message as well. And I think there are applications that we can look at. Hopefully, we will never get to the point that our situation today is what it was back then.

I've been fortunate to interview a number of survivors and they all have a different story to tell, different things that happened to them, different kinds of people who came into their lives and were the ones who really helped them through a situation. There is a documentary called Nicky's Family that you must see. It is so good. It's about a British, you know, a businessman who helped these children get to safety during World War Two.

And he would find them places where he could live. They were they could live while they were separated from their parents or if something happened to their parents. And he he kind of he did this very clandestinely. He was a businessman. He was able to go over to places and he would create passports for them. He would do all this stuff.

And he helped kind of get these kids out. It was hundreds that he was able to help. And in this Nicky's family, you must, must, must see it. You see him finally realizing the impact of his work. And they have this kind of, if you will, it's a program, a this is your life kind of thing. And they're introducing that he had done this and telling other people about it.

And again, he thought he really I don't know what I did that was all that great. But when he realizes, you know, that somebody is making something out of this, they say, well, now the person next to you, she was one of the ones you helped, and the person next to her was somebody you helped. And before you knew it, it was everybody in that theater was somebody who he had helped and he had never met them.

Wow. And here was the chance to see how the man was really, really moved by this that, you know, you do things that you think are the right thing to do, but you never see the results of it. And it is so powerful. But that is one of my favorite films of that era. And it shows exactly what somebody did and how.

And children of those Holocaust survivors and how they wouldn't have been around without him helping them out and by just doing what he thought was the right thing to do by creating passports. And you'll see where he cut things out and pictures out and made these passports and got the papers they needed. It was fascinating that this man would do this kind of stuff, and he was knighted for his work.

But it's just fun to see this old man just get really tickled by all these people. It's a really cool thing. So that's that's what I think we're our takeaway is that we can do something. Absolutely. So yeah, that's definitely one I'll put on my list to check out. Bruce What are we looking at in the coming weeks?

Well, you know, I also like talk about getting to talk to people that make a difference. David Rubenstein is a billionaire who's done a lot of different things, but now he's doing a TV series about American icons, things that are iconic in the United States. Now, I said right away, Well, Mount Rushmore, of course, isn't that an icon?

And he said, well, maybe if we do another season there, it might be in there. But he looked at things like the Hollywood sign would be an icon. And it's things that really immediately you identify and you can see something there, but it's a fascinating discussion we have about what is iconic and what does somebody like him with all that money do?

And he does collect things. The Declaration of Independence, He has a couple of those. I think he has the papal papers. He he has a Magna Carta that things I've got lying around the house. I think they're in the basement in my house somewhere. I just had to dig them out. But this is what he is interested in.

And he says he does it because he wants other people to be able to see these things. And so he loans them to libraries and museums so that then we can go there and say, you know what, people did do these things. They did exist. So his Magna Carta is like me owning a couple of copies of like a Mike Piazza baseball card.

Basically, if you kept it in good shape. Or is it near mint? One of those kind of things, you know, because that is there are some guys sitting in a room that says this is a seven. It's just right. Somebody actually gets paid to do that. Yeah, but here's the job I know.

And then, and so we have that coming up and then in a couple of weeks too, we're going to look forward to the summer. The summer, it's the big summer. We're going to do it. So there are movies besides Indiana Jones coming out. That's all. Barbie, Barbie, Barbie movie. We've got to get into that, man. Awesome. So we will come back in a couple of weeks and do that.

All right. Well, until then, thank you for listening. And we'll be back soon with another episode of Streamed and Screened.

Be the small light.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's spring, which means it's time for another season of Major League Baseball. And on this episode of Streamed & Screened, Bruce Miller quizzes co-host Terry Lipshetz on his favorite baseball movies.

Watching the New York Mets isn't always easy, so the list of movies that includes "Bull Durham," "Field of Dreams," "Fever Pitch," "The Bad News Bears," "The Natural," "A League of Their Own," "Eight Men Out," "The Sandlot," "42" and "Sugar" can get you through a long season. 

They also touch on TV programs such as Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary that originally aired on PBS, the adaptation of "A League of Their Own" for Amazon Prime Video and "Brockmire" that aired on IFC.

The conversation then shifts to the the Amazon Original limited psychological thriller series "Dead Ringers," which is based on the 1988 film by David Cronenberg starring Jeremy Irons.

The new series stars Rachel Weisz and we have an interview with co-star Poppy Liu.

The show wraps with a look ahead to a discussion about "A Small Light," a new series coming to National Geographic on May 1. The show follows Miep Gies, who helped hide Otto Frank and his family, including Anne Frank, from the Nazis during World War II.

Where to watch

About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome everyone to another episode of streamed and Screened and entertainment podcasts about movies and TV. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee Enterprises and the co-hosts of the program, along with first ballot Hall of Famer Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and a longtime entertainment reporter. I set you up. Good, good, good, good. You did good last week.

You were a little disappointed I didn't hold you in high enough esteem. There you go. You know, I called my people. My people said, get him on that. What's going on? This is not right. But that's very good. I'm so thrilled. Baseball movies? Yes. Are you a big fan or not? I am. So, you know, we kind of preview beforehand what we might talk about on the show and I told you yesterday, I am very behind on things right now.

I've been watching a little bit here. I'm a little Mandalorian, a little bit of Barry. Season four is back Succession is back. But I'm squeezing these things in because the New York Mets are in the middle of a West Coast swing. So I'm watching games at like ten, 11, 12:00 at night. I'm a huge baseball fan, Bruce. That's all I like.

I buy the baseball package so I can watch watch the Mets every game. And I pretty much I probably get 120 games in a year easy. The Mets are your team. They are? Yeah. I'm from New York. Just because my dad, he was a he was a Mets fan. Okay, So I grew up in New York. In Jersey.

So it's the jeans. It just. Yeah, do the jeans. That's how that works. And I'm a glutton for punishment, too. Well, you know, it's a lot like being a Cubs fan. It is. When you have that winning gear, it's it doesn't get any better than that. But think of the all the baseball movies then, that you've been able to squeeze in in your lifetime.

Which do you like? Which ones stand out for me? Like every year. I don't do this quite as much now because I've got the kids. I've got a lot of lot of things in my life. But I used to be for the season or between the spring training and maybe that first month of the season, I would make it a point to watch as many baseball movies as I could year after year.

So the ones that I would go to and so and I did it this year. First movie, I always pop on Bull Durham, always Circle Durham. Yep, because it takes place in the minor leagues. So to me it's like I'm getting ready for a full season of baseball and I love it. It's a great comedy. 1988 you've got Kevin Costner playing that aging catcher who should be kind of higher in the minor league system at that point.

You know, he should have been a major leaguer at that point, but he never could quite crack. It wasn't quite good enough for for the big leagues. So they send him down to A-ball to work with a young pitcher who is Tim Robbins. Crazy, crazy. He's off the walls. He doesn't you know, he's a bonus baby and he's got to show him the ropes of both minor leagues of being a professional baseball player.

But it's also kind of life coach as well. So and then I love it. Brandon Come on. Sarandon And of course, Susan and Tim Robbins, it's they ended up they never got married, but they they ended up going into a really long term relationship and they have a child or children, I mean, yeah but yeah so there was a that Bull Durham who's jerk struck something, right.

Yeah. So Bull Durham is is my go to start movie of the baseball season so not field of dreams Field of Dreams is kind of like that Number two which is another you know Kevin Costner Costner's got that trifecta of baseball movies. So that is actually the one that I turned on second. And I watched it. It was a little bit tough to watch this year because it's about relationships.

Is that that relationships between sons and their fathers. It came out a year after Bull Durham, which is kind of funny, but yeah, Field of Dreams, I threw it on. I showed it to the kids for the first time. They enjoyed it this year, but I was like ball in my eyes. Out from start to finish. My my father passed away recently.

He's a huge, huge baseball fan. And it was a little tough to watch, especially in that last scene, you know? Yeah. You know, you can forget the field of dreams if you like. Oh, you have already have, Yeah. And did you run the bases? I did know. So I don't know if you know this, but if you go on Sundays or at least when I went at the time, I don't know if they changed anything, but if you go on a Sunday during the summer, they bring out a collection of ballplayers, they walk out of the cornfield and they put on a little bit of an exhibition right there.

So it was like, Yeah, yeah. Well then did you get you got down on the field though, didn't you, to take pictures and stuff. Yeah. Oh yeah, Yeah. We, we kind of hung out, We sat on the sidelines, we watched the game is a little, a little long in the tooth, you know, they probably could have shortened it up a little bit, but we took the kids into the corn and walked out and saw the house and bought some trinkets and.

And then drove. That was good. Yeah. Do these refreshments or not? They have a concession stand. I believe that you can make some purchases. It's been a few years. I think I was there in 2016, so it's been a while. So this was before they put that big stadium up for. Yeah. Okay. And I know they've I know they've expanded and added in like a more proper concession stand and merch and all that stuff.

Like they had things. Then I bought a shirt and something else. A little field of dreams boss, maybe a little toy, but sitting in a box somewhere that I can't find, you know, that was always our vacation. When I was a kid. We would always go see, I'm sorry, the Minnesota Twins, but we would get there before I think anybody did, you know, because the parents were always making sure that we weren't late.

And we would sit there and the stadium was empty. There was nobody there. So I had already kind of scoured the whole place, looked at every piece of merchandise. There was eight, like nine different things. And then by the time the game came, I was okay. I could go home. Now that park is in the Mall of America.

That's right. Home plate in the Mall of America. But I always remember that. And the twins never won when we were there. So we had to be the bad luck charm for them. Well, I have a little a little Minnesota Twins trivia for you or a fun fact. Okay. So the old days, not super old, but do you remember Tom Kelly, the manager of the twins, in the 1980s?

So Tom Kelly, he grew up in South Amboy, New Jersey, which is kind of the area where I lived. I played Little League with Tom Kelly Jr. You're kidding. Was a kid. He was okay. He was good on the team. And there was a time where we were playing a game when I think the twins were in town to play the Yankees and they had an off day.

This was the year before Tom Kelly was elevated to manager. I think he was the third base coach at the time and he was hanging out on the on the sides and just watching and taking in the game. But Tom Kelly Jr who sadly passed away he's he's about my age. He's in his mid-forties and he he passed away a year or two ago.

Oh no yeah tragically but he had a huge glove which was given to him by a player. So it's like way too big for a 12 year old, ten, ten year old, whatever it was at the time. He had this big puffy jacket that said Hubert Humphrey Metrodome on it. It was fun. Yeah, well, did Dad yell things to him or was he pretty good?

He he stayed as low key as possible. He didn't want to. He didn't. I think he he knew his place and that was not managing ten year olds. Did you have those those bad parents though, that did that. I mine were pretty good with watching. I know there are definitely I've run into him I coached softball now there come on I periodically my my parents are pretty good but I've I've had issues with other parents and yeah I hey I know we're have you speak okay well then what about the A league of Their own?

Did you like that movie? Yeah, that one's another favorite of mine. But Tom Hanks and I, I have yet to watch that remake the Amazon Prime TV series. You know what? I'm very disappointed. They are only going to do a handful of episodes for season two to kind of butt up. But I think it started in one direction and went in a whole different direction.

It was more about, Oh, what's the term I want to use it wanted. It really leaned into the LGBTQ audience and you know, they wanted to somehow say that there were a lot of gay female baseball players back in the day, but it that derailed the whole idea of women being treated equally on the field. And I think it got away from the sports aspect and went into a whole other thing with even like a factory nearby and so I was not as the first episode was fine, but then it started waning and I thought, I don't know if I can watch this anymore.

And it's not that I have anything against anything that they were doing. It's just it seemed like bait and switch. So I still want to maybe go back and watch that. The movie itself with Tom Hanks. I watched did a few months ago with my daughters because I thought it would be a really good one for them. They're about 12 years old now and I, I really think it's important in this day and age to make sure that they see really strong female role models.

Sure. Because if you think about it, I mean, things like even high school sports, they weren't playing high school basketball until like the seventies. I mean, college basketball for women wasn't really a thing until it didn't really break through until the early 1980s. I don't know. Yeah. And it's really taken a long time for for women. And I don't even think they've gotten equal footing to this point.

It's much better than it used to be. So I think it's really important for my daughters to see really strong, positive role models like that in sports. So I it was one that I really wanted to watch with them and they enjoyed it. They did? Oh, good, good. How about how about the natural I'm throwing ones out at you.

Yeah, you can do that. The natural. I like it. I don't love it. I think that's one where a lot of baseball fans absolutely love the natural. I thought it was a little bit over the top and kind of almost unbelievable. I do like a sense of reality with my baseball movies and there's tons of of legendary baseball players who can do extreme things.

I just thought that that was just a little too much for me. I think it was too glossy. I think it didn't have the the the reality that it needed, you know, what, about 40 to 42 with Chadwick Boseman, that. Oh, I did watch it. I have not I'm trying to think when I did it was really good.

I, I think, you know, that's another one of those movies where from a historical standpoint, I love watching that kind of movie I like, especially Jackie Robinson. He, you know, seeing the story the way he broke it. And I love movies that are historically accurate or true. And as somebody who studied history in college, too, and being a huge baseball fan.

So yeah, 42 solid movie. Yeah. Well, Chadwick Boseman, if you go back and look at his list of work he played a lot of people who were who existed and that he was so versatile that he'd play these ones. It's amazing that he wasn't nominated for one of those roles because they were always very inspirational and very, very believable.

I mean, you bottom is any number of people. Yeah, how he dug in and actually did the work to be a baseball player. So you'd buy the the kind of things he'd do on the on the field. It was interesting. Okay. Sandlot love the sandlot, you know. So there there's one where I still haven't shown it to the kids because I think my wife isn't too thrilled with some of the themes in it.

Yeah, it's kind of in that they're, they're 12. They can probably watch it. It's fine. It goes back to I mean, they've already seen it in school. They probably have. I grew up seventies into the eighties. We played so many baseball games in the mid eighties. We would my summers as a 11, 12, 13 year old, we would wake up in the morning, we would walk up to the baseball fields that were at the end of my block.

We would play in to lunch, we would go home and get lunch, and then we go back and finish playing until the parents got home and had dinner. So for me, like The Sandlot was just an extension. It was life. It was life. Yeah, exactly. You're killing me, Smalls. Yes. Isn't it funny how that film did produce lines that you can repeat and have repeated?

I'm sure it was Bad News Bears then. Were you a fan of that? Yeah, and that's probably of the early movies. One of my favorites. Now they did what was it? Bad News Bears did a bunch of them. They were big. Yeah, they were bad. That original, though, is a classic and I think it gets into even if you played Little League, you always and I was on one of those teams where the coach was like, I had a coach one time who the reason why he was coaching was part of community service because he like it through a trunk.

It was like literally the Bad News Bears. We didn't have uniforms. It was really weird. So yeah, the Bad News Bears, I could very much relate to it. It was a fun movie. Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal It's just it's a good one. Well, and they took that template and used it for other other films like The Mighty Ducks.

I mean, you could see the things that they had. It's just let's just switch the sports. They'll never know. It's the same film. It is the same film. Yeah, that's all The Mighty Ducks was showed showed the Mighty Ducks to my kids. They did not enjoy it as much as they didn't like it. Now. Yeah. Yeah. Different sport.

Yep. What other ones do you like? Are there one and out one for me. So I'm a I'm like just a I could be like a crazy fan. I've mellowed out my old age a lot, but fever pitch. Do you remember fever pitch? Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore. So that one, it's it's based on a Nick Hornby movie.

Their book Fever Pitch A Fan's Tale. But it's the book is soccer, Right? And they turned it into a movie where Jimmy Fallon is a crazed Boston Red Sox fan whose team never wins and they fail him every year. And he goes through this whole ritual but at the same time is trying to have like a relationship with with a woman.

And, you know, I always thought it's funny that they were doing it. And then while they were filming that movie, the Red Sox actually were good and they had to shoot a new ending for it to capture the fact that the Red Sox won the world Series. But it's a fun one. It's from the same author of High Fidelity.

So if you're a fan of of his book, High Fidelity or the movie that came out years ago and even there was even a Hulu TV series, but it's a similar theme, I like to think that I was never quite as crazy as Jimmy Fallon's character in that movie, but I probably was a little bit close. You know, I think it shows that Jimmy Fallon isn't really an actor, Right.

But they worked well together. Drew and Jimmy were a good pairing on the screen. It was you know, you don't really need all the extras. I, I do wonder what it's like trying to film something like that, you know? Do you just kind of you're at the park and you do it on the off days and then they bring in the do they have extras or do they just film on a day that, you know, there is a team there?

It's it's fascinating to see how they they might play that whole thing. But one of the ones that I like is a series. Okay. Brockmire Oh, yeah. Brockmire. Hank Azaria Yeah, this kind of washed up. ANNOUNCER Yep. Has to go to this. This I don't even know what league it would be team to be the announcer there. And I always thought it was so funny how they tried to maintain the semblance of, yeah, we're, we're, we're professionals.

We're. Yeah. What do you mean? And they were so bad. Yeah, but. And Hank can really do that. Yeah. Pretty good at playing that. That kind of a role. I love the first two seasons of it. It kind of fizzled out in that last one. I don't know if you made it through the whole way. It was that that last season was in the future, set in the future, and baseball was kind of on the demise and Oh God, no.

It was it was really weird. I enjoyed it. I tried to get if I had another friend that got me into it that he really liked it. We kind of crushed through it one weekend together and it was really good. I've tried to get a few other people into it who just couldn't get into the concept. I think you have to be a certain level too, of baseball fans may be appreciated.

He did. Hank Azaria modeled the character off of a little bit off of Lindsey Nelson, who is a broadcaster for the New York Mets back in the sixties and seventies. So did he. Yeah, I guess he did. Yeah. It was a little bit more of a deadpan approach to broadcasting. Maybe I like those kinds of films because it's about losers.

Yeah, Yeah. And for some reason you want to just cheer because if it's a winning team, think of any movies that were winning teams. I don't know that there were. It's always the come from behind concept that seems to to work. So Major League major League. Oh, my point, which is funny because I love Ted Lasso, but Ted Lasso is nothing but a major league rip off just soccer instead of baseball.

But and I love them both. But but Major League is another one, which I think has all those quotable moments that you can dig out all the time. And it had such a fun ensemble cast of Charlie Sheen. Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Wesley Snipes. It's fine. And it was filmed in Milwaukee, even though it takes place in Cleveland.

That first one. Wow. My grandparents went to one of the filming. They they needed fans to fill the stands at county, State Old County Stadium, which is very similar to Municipal Stadium in Cleveland. And did they say it was fun or do they say they enjoyed it? I really was going back. They went and they spent the night.

They were I guess they were given instructions to like cheer at this moment and then they would have to cheer six times because they had to keep redoing the take. And that it's kind of funny knowing that having that context that it is County Stadium and that they had to cheer at certain moments. If you go back and watch the movie, even though I can't see my grandparents anywhere in the movie, I can kind of envision them being told, okay, like cheer now, don't cheer now look happy, don't look happy, that kind of thing.

Because you can start sort of pick through those moments in that movie a little bit. Yes, yes, yes. Well, somewhere I have baseball cards from Major League. Do you? Yeah. They sent it back in the day. And don't ask me where it is, but, you know, when the vast heap is sorted and multiplied, we'll find it in there and I'll give them to You can have.

I appreciate that. You know, Topps, the baseball card company occasionally has done it was like weird subsets within their annual sets of cards and they did one a few years ago with cards for the it was like the anniversary of Major league. And they did cards for that. And they they've done a couple other movies. I can't think of them all offhand, but they've had they've had a few of those in the past where they were.

Yeah. You know, they're I had to buy them on the secondary market. I had yeah. They weren't crazy price but they, and they included some inserts like, you know, autographs from Wesley Snipes and but how many did he do. Like two. And then you're really a rapper and you can't find one of them. Yeah, exactly. And that one where the honors kid that's where that went you know, from a historical standpoint to eight months out is another good one.

The 1919 Black Sox scandal. Yes, it's a little dense. And I think when I first watched it, when it came out, so that came out in 88 and it was probably around 13 or so when it came out. It was a little dense for me at the time, but I've come to appreciate it now. It's just the audience, you know, you were expecting sandlot and instead more than you cared to know.

Another thing that I do like to pop out, I haven't watched it really this year, but was the documentary Baseball by Ken Burns for PBS, which is just a really deep dive into each inning, is basically a ten year span, more or less in the history of baseball. And you can tell that he's a fan. Yes. Just by the way, that all put together.

And I'll I'll stop because I can't think of the guy's name, but he brought a I'm a Negro League player and he was featured heavily in the in the series. And the guy was the sweetest man you've ever met. He was just it was really fun to talk to because he talked about a game that maybe we didn't realize it was there.

You know, you're out in in Iowa. Yeah. Do you ever see the movie Sugar? Sugar? It's from 2008. It was kind of a low ish budget. I don't know if is made for TV or just one of those that went short term in the theaters and then flew out. But it was really if you if you get a chance, go back and check this one out.

It takes place in Iowa. Okay. It follows a player that gets signed out of the Dominican Republic, which is is a big thing in baseball. And it follows him for basically a season where he goes to spring training. He doesn't speak any English. This player, along with several other players who don't speak English, they go out to breakfast every morning and the only thing they know how to order is pancakes.

So they they get pancakes every single morning. And then he gets assigned to a team in the Quad Cities and he basically lives with the host family for the whole year but is struggling to adapt. And it follows him through this entire season up until kind of like the end where he he runs into, you know, problems. And it's really heartbreaking because I think they tried to make it as accurate as possible to what a foreign born young player who kind of, you know, he signs a bonus.

It's probably you know, it's not a ton of money. It's but but for for a young player who's poor in the Dominican Republic who maybe gets a $10,000 bonus or whatever it was, it's a huge sum of money that he can support his family. But then he's dropped in to America and he doesn't know how to live. He has no connections, he doesn't speak the language.

And it's really heartbreaking. I must see that sugar, sugar. I'll look for it. No, I didn't see it. It was not here. So I didn't have the exposure to that. But that does sound fascinating because, you know, there are kind of tropes that they rely on, which is, you know, the losers becoming winners, the bad boy suddenly deciding that he's not he's not going to go in that direction.

So you don't get to really see what the reality of the of the thing is. And I always wonder, you know, what about those who get cut? What happens to them and what career do they have after that? And do they still talk about their baseball years or are they you know, that's that's in their past or do they live in the past?

And that's all, you know. So there's a good Pete Rose story in there somewhere. So you would I think you would like sugar then because it kind of gets into that check that one out definitely for well, the season has begun. Are you are you as dedicated this year as you were in past years or are you pretty sucked in?

I mean, the Mets 101 games last year and they're looking pretty good this year. So I'm I'm I'm going to be locked in for the better part of the summer and will probably be crushed by the end of it. It's going to make it all the way. Come on, you guys are. I'll be crushed. I'll I'll. It always ends in disappointment for me.

That's that's life of a mets fan. And then you say, well, I'm just wearing this shirt because I'm a rapper. That's right. That's my, my, my phone. Yeah. You know that the League of Their Own is one of those things that we see now with a trend, as I can see it in television, which is rebooting ideas or concepts and putting them out there on the small screen in a different way.

And they did twist that one in a different way. And also the new Greece one, the rise of the pink ladies that goes in another direction as well. And there are other ones down the road, but one that I wish we could talk about is Dead Ringers. The show was a David Cronenberg film with Jeremy Irons, and I remember seeing this thing and it was a scary as you could get because they were two doctors.

And you know, at the time when I saw it, I always believe that you trusted a doctor. A doctor was he was citing gospel. So if he said that you needed to use some weird thing that he had invented, like the Mantel brothers do, I would go for it. Right. And then I guess we're a little savvy or now about all those kinds of things.

But they've changed. They've shifted it. So it's not twin brothers that are in the medical profession. It's twin women. And they're they're still called Beverly and Elliot Mantle, both played by Rachel Weisz. And they are interested in obstetrics and what they can do with that and how they could control life and birth. And I mean, it opens up a lot of areas that the first film never did, and it talks about the the high cost of medical care and how it isn't necessarily a, you know, kind of a what we would consider a public kind of nonprofit kind of thing.

It's a profit center for people. And there are rich people investing in the kind of concepts that the mantles come up with, and they're seeing it as a great revenue stream. And this thing digs into that concept where, you know, they don't really care if they're hurting people in the process. They're going to make some money off of this.

So it's fascinating to see how they go through all that. It's a they open it up to a different world and the cast is largely female and the people behind the cameras are female, too. So they're giving a female perspective of all of all of this. I got to talk to Poppy Lou, who plays the assistant to the Mantles.

I don't want to call her a maid, but she's certainly there all the time with both Beverly and Eliot. And she gets a chance to see how kind of corrupt they are and what they're doing. And the fascinating thing and you'll see this when you listen to the the interview is that Poppy is a dual in real life.

She actually does have birthing experience with other people. And she talks about the life of a dual life. But it is fascinating what she was able to glean from all of this and what she learned from the process. So that's in our interview with Poppy Lou from Dead Ringers.

Poppy, can I ask you about being a do a lot. How does that play with this? Did this give you, like different insight or different a different view of everything that goes on in the film? Yeah, I mean, I was a jeweler before this project happened. It kind of was just like a really serendipitous marriage of like worlds and interests.

But yeah, I like, I think being a doula is something that so near and dear to my heart. I think about sort of the reproductive state of this country a lot and that I think to like encounter a script that is so captivating and compelling as a story and also is very deeply embedded in the themes of, in my mind, reproductive rights, reproductive justice, the the difference in birthing experience for different people based on their background, their race, their class status, on how much the medical system fails us to have that as an undercurrent, a backdrop for this incredibly visually captivating, dark, moody, sexy story.

So cool. I was fascinated by the way the monitor is an aspect of it, how, you know, it's like having a child knowing that we're making money off this and it's like, wow, it literally is, though. Have you seen the documentary called The Business of Being Born? It literally I mean, like even I think this is no shade at all.

It's like doctors or unions, like heroes. Incredible love. But it really is the medical system, you know, like like it's really based off of an industrial factory mentality where, like, people are like the products, like you want them in and out as fast as possible. It's based on efficiency, it's based on cutting costs because that's how everything is based, you know, And it ends up being that like the care and like what people actually need to have, like a holistic and even holistic, but just like a, like a positive experience is it is not is it prioritized by how the system works?

It's really like, get in, get the baby out or like whatever, and like la la la la. And I think you encounter care through like individual people, but not because of like the system. That to me, that was even scarier than all of the kind of other things, especially when we saw the Cronenberg film where they had all those kind of tools and whatnot that scared the hell out of me.

But the idea that everything is so kind of old and calculated, I guess, is what I see it, is that for you, you dealt with both Beverly and Elliot. Yeah. How good is that or how easy was that? Or how fun was that? It's easy and fun cause it's Rachel and she's a genius and it's incredible. But I mean, yeah, we for the scenes where they're where both twins are, and then we just.

We have to sell them twice or twice as many takes everything. She'll play it as one of the twins. Katie Hawthorne was incredible, who is both Rachel's body double and also plays the young version of Rachel's mother in the final scenes is incredible, everybody. And she'll stand in for the other twin and you'll just then, you know, they'll be like a 30 minute or whatever changeover Rachel will get from Beverly to Elliot or Elliot to Beverly come back again.

And like, I think even when you watch it the way that these two characters are so specifically different, like, like there's even a scene where the two twins, like, they play each other as themselves. And the fact that that's done with so much like, like the specificity and realness, like, I think Rachel's a genius, you know, she's playing two different people and then she's playing them play each other.

It's it's fun.

All right, Bruce, thanks for that interview. You know, you were talking a little bit about a lot of program now seems to be remakes of things or maybe stuff that's been sitting in development for a little while. We're in this threat of a writer's strike it I correct right. But what is going on there? Well, and it could really delay the fall season.

It could make content, you know, kind of disappear. They would end up doing a lot of game shows and things that didn't need scripting. But what they also did back the last time I can remember is they took old scripts and reshot them. So they didn't need to have new writers. They just did old shows and I'm sorry I can't get one off the top of my head.

But it didn't work. It was a concept. It didn't work. Reality TV, however, was a good answer to all of that because they said, Well, we really don't need a script there. You know, they're just talking mirror. And so I think they would lean in heavier in that aspect and maybe they would bring back stuff and say, we're going to remake it.

I don't know. Interestingly, next week we're going to talk about a small light, which is a National Geographic miniseries. And they had done a movie about the people that are covered in this, but not in such an extensive way. And it's about the people who helped the Franks hide out during World War Two. MEEP Jeez, does that name ring a bell?

Meep Geese. She was a an assistant or a secretary of sorts to Mr. Frank and he just he said, you know, we've got to get out. Can you help us? And she didn't pause for a minute. She and her husband were very good at keeping their secret, hiding them, bringing them food, doing all this kind of stuff. And they really never got the attention that others thought they should have because they were very courageous in what they did.

Well, now this miniseries opens that up and gives you a real good look at what they actually did and others like them and what kind things they were able to do during World War Two. But I talked to the the stars of that show, and they're a unique perspective, particularly since, you know, they're young and they didn't have a point of reference for a lot of the things that were going on.

So that'll be next week. A small light and we'll talk to the stars of that. I saw that live Schreiber is in that is he's out of frame Yeah yeah he you know he's not in it that much but it is one of those ones where you go I didn't recognize them because it isn't it isn't one of those kind of roles that he's used to playing it is, it is a a leap for him as well.

Okay. Well, I'm looking forward to that one because as I said, I love historical dramas and as somebody who's got Jewish heritage, it certainly will, you know, be a little bit touching for me as well. They went on location to film a lot. They didn't film the Anne Frank House, but they did film nearby a lot of places.

There's one where they jump in the water and what you'll find I thought really interesting about this is that they were far more contemporary. I mean, you know how we think of people in the past, how kind of maybe closed up they are and these are not these people aren't like that. And they were very fun. And Miep is one of those ones who just will.

She's not going to think about it if she should do it, just jumps in and does it. And she's very good when she's dealing with the Nazis and how they want her to talk. So you'll enjoy I think you'll enjoy how it how it spills out. And it also tells us that we too, could make a difference if we only speak out and and do what's right.

Wonderful. Well, we'll we'll dive more into next week. Until then, thank you for listening. Until then, batter up.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the end of the road for an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning comedy series.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is back for its fifth and final season, with episodes dropping weekly starting April 14 on Amazon Prime Video. 

For this episode of Streamed & Screened, hosts Bruce Miller and Terry Lipshetz, provide a (mostly) spoiler-free analysis of the the program, which is a favorite of both. Also hear from the stars, including clips from Rachel Brosnahan (Miriam "Midge" Maisel), Alex Borstein (Susie Myerson), Tony Shalhoub (Abraham "Abe" Weissman) and Kevin Pollak (Moishe Maisel) who reflect on the characters, the series and whether we might see them all reprise their roles in the future as part of a feature-length movie.

Bruce also has an interview with Michael Zegen, who plays Midge's ex-husband Joel Maisel, who offers thoughts of his own on the program.

Whether you're a longtime fan of the show or looking for an introduction before you binge the whole thing over a long weekend, you'll want to give this episode a listen.

About the show

Read more: REVIEW: 'Mrs. Maisel' ends with marvelous update

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

Cast:

Created by: Amy Sherman-Palladino

Executive producers: Amy Sherman-Palladino, Daniel Palladino

Producers: Dhana Gilbert, Matthew Shapiro, Salvatore Carino, Sheila Lawrence

About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

A lot of young women trying standup comedy for the first time, which is so awesome and long overdue. It's been incredible to hear how his legacy has already affected people, and I'm really excited to see how she lives on.

That voice you just heard was Rachel Brosnahan, who stars as Miriam ‘Midge’ Maisel in ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee Enterprises and a co-host of Streamed and Screened, an entertainment podcast about movies and TV. Joining me, as always, is the incomparable Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and a longtime entertainment reporter.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is back for its fifth and final season with episodes dropping weekly starting April 14th on Amazon Prime Video. Bruce It will be an end of an era for one of the most popular shows on that platform. Certainly big shoes to fill.

First of all, why was it not the marvelous Bruce Miller? This is now this is how this should be. This is how he introduced me. Right. It's interesting because this is a show that I think people lost track of because of the big gaps between seasons. Was it over? Is it over? And when they see this fifth season and I've seen the whole thing, they will go, Oh my God, there's so much in that fifth season because they do a lot of time jumps.

So you're not going to just see one season, one year play out. It goes into the future and you find out things about her children. You find out things about her husband, her ex-husband, her friends, Susie. All of those people come into play at some point. And so it flashes back and forth and it's I think it pays.

It rewards the people who have been loyal. And you get to see a lot of fun. So there is and I you know, I'm really I should say nothing. But there is one kind of cute thing where they're showing, you know, did she have a lot of dresses? And they show the racks of her clothes all. My God, what is this?

She did have it because I don't think she ever wore anything twice. No, I don't remember it. And you also, I think, see growth in Mrs. Maysles comedy career, how she's able to tell, you know, I always thought, is she making this crap up on the fly? And every night, is she not writing this down so that she can, you know, retell it at another place?

It seemed like every every routine she did was just of the moment. And you see how she does all that. And there is a scene in the last episode that is on Be Livable, and that's as much as I can tell you on the spoiler end of things. But okay, no spoilers. You know, when you first watched it, what surprised you most about it?

For me personally, I was sucked in because I'm a native of New York City, okay? And for me, my wife is from just outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin. And it's been an interesting ride because she's she's Catholic. I was raised Catholic, but my dad was Jewish. But for me, it's kind of seeing that cultural the cultural phenomenon of New York, the Jewish culture, even though I'm I didn't grow up in the fifties or sixties, I was born in the mid seventies, but for me I could relate to it.

And I thought that they kept this show like it's fiction, but it's also really easy. And I think it was that reality that kind of kept bringing me back. So a couple of things, if you don't mind me throwing these out, because we're going to be talking a lot about I mean, we're basically going to just talk about the show with Mrs. Basil.

Yes, this is the Mrs. Maisel episode. So first off, the beauty of streaming is if you have not watched this show yet, just go back and watch it. You know, go get Amazon Prime if you don't have it already and start cranking through them. My wife and I didn't start this until the 2020 lockdown. There was already in between season three and seven season for that really long gap they were talking about.

But we had nothing to watch during it. So we're kind of crushing through Netflix and Hulu and anything we could find. And we hopped into Mrs. Maisel and for some reason I didn't know much about it at the time. I was saying, What is this like some superhero thing? Because it kind of played with some of those Marvel titles that you hear.

But it's a it's a comedy. It takes place, I guess, you know, like late 1950s, early 1960s. Rachael Brosnahan plays Miriam Midge Maisel. She's a housewife with very strong Jewish personalities in her life. Between her her husband and her parents and her in-laws. Alex Borstein plays Susie Myerson. She manages The Gaslight Cafe.

Becomes a manager.

She wants to be a manager. She's there. Michael Zegen is Joel Maseil while her husband and there's a Tony Shalhoub is in it as her father. There's a lot of actors you will know. Kevin Pollak is her father in law. It was a Jane.

Lynch turned up as.

Jane Lynch. Yeah. So it's it's an awesome ensemble cast. So and it's also a lot of reality. So Luke Kirby plays Lenny.

Bruce.

Right? So he's a real person, very controversial comic of the time, but becomes Midge's friend over time and helps guide her career. Midge Maisel, a fictional character, but she's based on Joan Rivers, who had a relationship with Lenny Bruce and started at the Gaslight Cafe, which was a real location. It's where, if you've ever heard of a musician named Bob Dylan, you've heard of Bob Dylan before.Bruce Never heard of him. Never heard of him.

So he was a young man. Robert Zimmerman out of Hibbing, Minnesota.

Probably did. Well, is he did.

He did well. So he came to New York City and was kind of brought under the wing of a folk singer named Dave Van Ronk, who is who is the mayor of MacDougal Street down in the village of New York City. They performed at the Gaslight. This is a real location. So it's the beauty of this show is, you know, you're getting a little bit of a history lesson of the time and it but it's still a fictional comedy.

It's hilarious. I love it. It's very you know, some of it is kind of on the surface kind of comedy and you pick it up really quick. But some of it's very deep, too, and it kind of gets into, you know, the place of women at the time in the 1950s and, you know, kind of being you're the housewife.

Take care of the kids. Joel wants to be the comic. He's the one that's going to be the comedian. And of course, the tables get turned. But yeah, you're right. I mean, with the dresses, even as the show progresses and, you know, she's short on cash, sometimes it's like, how can you afford this apartment? Where are all these dresses coming from?

It's ridiculous.

The clothing budget does not suffer. She will always have a great outfit. What I find fascinating was each year it got bigger. You know, you start out and it's kind of like, Oh, this is doing a period show is expensive. And they didn't. They just threw it out there. They went to a summer camp, you know, and that can't be easy to recreate, particularly of that era.

Then they go to a USO show, which is huge in an airplane hangar. They go to Paris, for God's sakes. This season, you're going to see them in New York and you're going to see a lot of landmarks in New York, particularly Rockefeller Center, which they use like a drum. They are around that building all the time. So that's that's fascinating to see.

And the cast, there are so many people over those four seasons that get a return visit in the fifth. So it's it's kind of like a reunion. And you go, Oh my God, That was from remember when they did that? And she was in that. And then there's also a bit of, Oh, how can I how can I say this without saying this?

It reminds you of if you saw my favorite year, if you saw laughter on the 23rd floor, if you saw any of those kind of looks at what Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris did during the early days of television. With your show of shows, there are references to those kinds of things, so you get a real sense of the time.

I think you really get to see what the fifties and sixties were like. There's a sort of Johnny Carson character. They mentioned Jack Paar in the course of the the series. What I love are these time jumps where you find out exactly what happened to Mrs. Maisel. What did she fizzle out and become? Nothing. Did she come a big star?

Was she like Joan Rivers? You know, that is an easy comparison. But there were other female comics of the time, Tony Fields, if you remember that name. I don't know if it moms Mabley, these were all ones who were working that Phyllis Diller. And they kind of had to be aggressive in their approach to comedy because otherwise they were going to just be bulldozed over.

And I think that's what you get out of out of Midge, is that she is not going to take no, but she is going to get knocked down.

I can't wait to dive into this. It's exciting. I always love those just the characters. They even if they're playing such a really small role, it feels like they're playing a much larger role than it actually turns out to be.

There are little in this one, you know. I don't know if you ever remember those kind of industrial shows that used to be big in New York, where it would be like, Oh, soap or whatever. And they do a huge thing for all of their their corporate people around the country. They'd come in for a day or whatever a weekend, and they do an industrial show, which we are.

A lot of Broadway people would get on stage and sing the praises of, you know, Lox or whatever it might have been, or a new car. And they did these elaborate stage shows and fact there's a documentary out about them that is just fascinating because it's a world we don't know. We weren't in that industry. We weren't in that that thing.

But people made a lot of money off that writing those shows. And you get a sense of that as well. There's a big convention of sorts that that Midge happens to be involved in. So you get another you know, it's this history lesson that you're getting a lot of stuff, even though it's not a real person. You know, if she were real, I think you'd look at it differently.

You would say, Oh, well, you've got to have this moment. You've got to have that, and you really don't know what could happen. And Joel does not get shortchanged either. You know, I thought that maybe he would kind of just disappear as the years go by. And he has a very, very strong presence in the final season.

That's great. I always loved his character. I always was afraid that as the ex-husband, estranged husband, he might just kind of slowly walk out of the show. And in the fact that not only has he remained at the forefront and kind of done his own thing, too, he's found his place and kind of escaped the shadow of his very overbearing parents.

But the fact that he's still in it and that his parents are still in it just really makes the whole program him.

And they do interweave those things, too, you know, that he was building a club. He was trying to get a club off the ground. And you'll see more of that in the next season. And his parents are big players with Mrs. Maysles parents. Interestingly, I don't think you see enough of Tony Shalhoub. I think he has a very secondary presence in in this year's show, and that's surprising because he won an Emmy for it, and I would have thought they would have leaned in a little more, maybe he just wasn't available to do a lot more.

That's interesting. I also wonder, too, if it's is it part of character development, too, where they they want to highlight certain characters each season kind of give them because he did seem to have a very prominent role last year.

When he was doing The Village Voice and he's a critic. And now he's getting the reaction to what life is like as a critic, which is I think, just fascinating.

That's your favorite part, isn't it?

Yeah, that's the cool part. Yeah. I lean into the critic aspect. I don't do I care about the comic? I don't know if I do, but I do care about the critic.

You know, you talk a little bit about the characters and the reality and whatnot. One of my favorite things from the series and this is because, you know, and we've talked about this my my fan of of I'm such a huge fan of music. I have a very large record collection and just I feel like I have a pretty solid knowledge and I'm watching I think it was season it was season three when Midge was out on tour, was Shy Baldwin.

Right. So she was doing comedy to open up for his big band performance. So he was performing. He had that ensemble band behind him. There was the one character who kind of became her friend of sorts. Carol Keane, who is a fictional musician. However, she was based on a real person. She played. Carol Kaye, if you at all familiar with her, is a legendary bassist, and she's part of what's known as The Wrecking Crew.

The Wrecking Crew in the 1960s was this group of musicians that would come in and they were studio musicians. So you would have performers who weren't necessarily the best bands. They would go out live. But when it came to actually recording the albums, the producers were like, Let's you guys are in quite good enough. And it was even the Beach Boys, like the Beach Boys, didn't perform their own instruments in the studio.

In a lot of cases. It was a lot of times it was The Wrecking Crew. So Carol Kaye, the real person was the basis to put down the bass line. That famous bass line in In These Boots by Nancy Sinatra. The bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. So that was Carol Kaye and the fictional character in Mrs. May's All, who is also the bassist in the band and a befriended Midge and that season.

So that was for me, another piece that I just really love about this.

That's where rewards you for being astute in other areas, correct?

If you if you know things like if you you know, if you don't if you don't know these things, that's that's totally fine. You're just going to be entertained for for an hour or however long the episode is. But if you if you're familiar with pop culture in any way, you don't need to just know the real people like Lenny Bruce.

But it's knowing little things like The Gaslight Cafe. Carol Kaye, These types of people, you know, they are based on actual folks, even if it's just very loosely.

Yeah, it's fun to see who they might be. You know, Sophie Lennon, Who is she referring to? Who is she trying to be that you would know as a fellow comedian? You know, is she somebody that or is she just whole cloth, a fresh character? And that's I think that's kind of picking the brain of Amy Sherman Palladino, the creator of this show.

If you know her from Gilmore Girls, you know that she loves dance scripts, she loves the idea that there's there are more words there than really you need to do a half hour or 45 minutes of a show, but she packs it and I would assume it would be very difficult to to learn all those lines, particularly when she wants that kind of rapid fire way of talking.

And that's how she is. She's just like that. She usually wears a hat, too. She loves wearing hats. She's short. She's not unlike Susie. I would assume that a lot of Susie's personality comes from Amy, and her husband. Daniel is also a producer on the show, and he writes as well. So they're they're kind of in sync with what this mindset is all about.

And I'm sure she had a grand plan as to where she was going to take this whole thing. Now, you can easily see that they might have gone seven or eight years with this, but I think the idea of cutting it off now opens up other opportunities like a movie. And I think for them, let's let's try and make the fifth season as packed as we can and then we can go on and do those other things and not have to worry about time limitations or we've got to meet a deadline to get this on the air by a certain time because it's it's expensive.

It is hugely expensive.

Bruce, I don't think you know this, but you have just set up the perfect segue way into, oh, wow, some audio here. So we already heard from Rachel. Now we're going to hear from Tony Shalhoub, who plays Midge's father. He talks about how they didn't know how long this series was going to go, but felt that both Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino were able to wrap up the story perfectly the way it was supposed to be.

So let's let's cut ahead to that clip.

From what I understand, even though we didn't know how many seasons it may go or may not go, Amy and Dan always had, they always had the final scene in their heads. They always they didn't know exactly how we were going to get there, but they knew where we were going to land and then I think we all by osmosis, we all felt that cool.

All right, so that was Tony Shalhoub. Bruce, does that sound accurate, like what he's talking about? Does it feel like the series wraps up perfectly?

I think it does for me it did anyway. And I thought, like I say, the last episode is one you can't miss because it's and I, I cheated, all right? Because I was afraid I was doing an interview and I thought I better see the end just in case this character is dead. I don't want to end up asking, Well, like, you know, what about those later years are, well, I'm dead, so I won't be in those later years.

But that wasn't the case. There wasn't anything. But I did watch the last episode before I finished off the other ones before it, and the last episode is a great example of standalone television. You could take that episode out, not see any of the rest of the series, and you would still get a really good sense of a story.

It's like a little mini movie in itself, and it's interesting how they all are able to get friends in. There is a roast at one point that has a lot of comedians that you know, are friends of a lot of the actors that are in the shows. And there are ties. I think Rachel's husband is a character in the show.

There are people that are all people who've been on Gilmore Girls, people who've been on Bunheads, people who have been, if you will, loyal over the years. And they repay that loyalty by giving them a shot in this last season. I mean, it's remarkable. If I sat and made a list of all the people that I saw, I, you know, a character that they introduced last season played by Gideon Glick, he's this magician and kind of an offbeat magician.

And you go, What is this? I love that character. And he returns this season and he has a lot of really goofy things. He's afraid of flying. So that's a fear factor. And there there is a picture that you'll see out there somewhere that is JFK, the the airport. So you'll be able to see what that looks like inside.

And it's just fascinating to see these characters. The last time I saw it was Catch Me if you can, and just to look at that and now there's a hotel there that you can stay at there. It's very commercial where you could go and actually do tourism things there. But it is featured in this season. Again, huge, huge landmarks that they're using in New York.

I think it's fascinating to to realize that somebody didn't say no. Nobody was saying them, No, you can't do that. We can't afford to do that. It's like I'm sure she dreamed it. And very much like Susie, where she's not going to let somebody else tell her no, she's just going to keep going ahead and doing it. And I think that's in a nutshell.

Amy.

Amy Palladino I can't remember the timing of this. Was the JFK airport at the time, or was it still Idlewild?

Yeah, it was, Yeah, it was, but as I know it is.

I know I always wondered because it transitioned.

It was not named. No, it was not named JFK because, you know, and interestingly, I don't remember that they've even mentioned that Kennedy has died at that point. But you'll see the eighties, you'll see the nineties, you'll see the seventies, you'll see various different time frames over the course of the of the of the episodes.

Wow. So another character that was mentioned and we talked briefly about her was that of Alex Borstein. She plays Susie Myerson. You know, you had mentioned the connection with her to Amy Sherman-Palladino and whether it's the connection there. But we have a we have a clip of her also. Now, if you're familiar with her, she's also the voice of Lois on Family Guy.

She's a comedian. She's been around for a really long time. But I think this is kind of like probably her biggest breakthrough screen role that I can think of on screen role. So we have a short clip of her talking about her relationship with Midge. So let's go to that.

For a bit. Like Mutton, Jeff, It makes no sense. And yet there's just this chemistry. There's something that draws these women together and they've got each other's backs and it's not about finding a mate. It's about achieving something in their lives that they want. It's about filling a hole within and they complete each other.

All right, Bruce So that was Alex Borstein talking about the relationship that Susie and Midge have. Is that connection? Because that was always one of my favorite things was the interactions between Midge and Susie and kind of the weird polar opposites that they are, but they have this great presence on screen together. Do we get more of that in this first season?

We do. And you also get fighting. And that's as much as I can say about that. You know how they it's like on a soap opera where they love to put people together and then they like to tear them apart. And I think this falls into that. You know, there's there's a reason for them to be at each other's throats and maybe they both don't pay attention enough to what the needs are of the other person.

But you see how how Susie is just giving her life for this person that maybe she might be a little too protected. You know, Mitch can Mitch has the ability to go and do this because she has her parents to fall back on if she really needs them. Her husband, her ex-husband is still there in the picture for her.

She doesn't have that kind of if I don't do this, I don't know what will happen to my life. There is a safety net for her, and we've seen that over the years where she's taken jobs at other places and done other things and she gets a new job this year. And that's a safety net of sorts, too.

But there's always this comedy where Susie has nothing. Susie is like she's all in and she will do whatever she needs to do to further the career of her client. Hopefully there will be more clients, but you know, you look at it and you say, Oh my God, she's just doing all this for one person. Is that friendship?

Is that is that, you know, just survival? Is it? She's enamored with her. What is the what is the deal for her and why is she doing this? And you get answers to all of that stuff. It's just it's really fascinating. I remember when they went to the to the Catskills and they were staying there and I think she had a hammer or something.

And she was like trying to do things with the hammer. And you go, Oh my God, this is unreal. And she's always treated like dirt by everybody. Everybody sees her as like their batboy for anything that goes wrong. Susie, we're going to go to you.

Yeah, She said that season at the Catskills was just incredible. I mean, they basically took it was pretty much the entire season was more or less on location up there. And you still had to work her in somehow. And she obviously she doesn't dress like somebody that belongs there. So she just walked around with that hammer and like, I think a plunger, too, just looking like a maintenance worker and nobody would question it because that's what she did.

But that relationship, you know, even though we're we're avoiding spoilers for season five, we had that adversarial give and take relationship between them throughout all the seasons. Because you're right, she didn't have anybody. Susie doesn't have anybody to fall back on, so she has to make a living, which meant at times taking on other clients. You know, she didn't want to be Sophie Lemon's manager, but she needed the money and then kind of had to deal with that abuse as well as the abuse of of Midge, who couldn't believe that she would support Sophie Lennon, who is her her nemesis.

Right. Yeah. So, you know, that that to me has been just a great, you know, relationship. But it always comes back to when they meet in the diner, which is such an iconic New York thing. Like, I just love I miss diners so much. Bruce Living in Wisconsin, there's no diners out here. People who think there's diners out here, there is no diners out here that is.

Have a drive thru with it, too, right?

But it's such a it's just such a new York, New Jersey, East Coast cultural thing where you go to a diner and you get that triple decker club sandwich or the pastrami or whatever it is and a pile of food.

You come all the other way, it's on you. Who knows everybody's order.

Yeah. You know, you get that big pickle spear which probably sits on every plate, and they just move it from plate to plate so I don't touch it.

The end. They do. Go back to the diner. You'll be seeing that and you'll be seeing various and sundry combinations of people talking. So it's a it's a key place. And like I say, these sets that they build the apartments, the business places they go to, it's unbelievable. I don't know how I would love to see what the budget was for this because it had to be huge because it looks good.

And I there's a thing and there's this coming season where they mention something as a giveaway, okay? And I thought, oh no, that it's it's wrong. It's not the same time. And I had to look it up to make sure that that was within that time span. It was exactly in that time span. You know how you would say I like a yo I don't want to see what it is because again, this is one of those things.

But if it was a yo yo and you say, well, yo, yo, what year was a Rubik's cube? That would be one a Rubik's Cube. Why are they giving away Rubik's cubes? They weren't available in 62 or 61 were they. I don't I think they didn't come until the seventies, but that's not yet. But there is another thing like that.

And damn, if they didn't nail it. And I looked it up and it was exactly right, it it fit with the time frame. You'll see stuff like that that it just you want to play gotcha with them and they, they already know they're much better than we are at vetting these kinds of things.

Yeah, they, they're really good. It's just nailing history. It is a history. Even though it is fiction, it is a history lesson throughout pop culture, history lesson.

Were there characters that you really like that maybe aren't around or have, you know, dropped in for an episode or two?

Well, you know, the Carol K one was one that I really liked. The magician that was in there in season four when Midge was working at that theater. And, you know, it's kind of the adult content. It's not quite a strip club, but it's that kind of like a doll that the manager of that club was. It's just a lot of those little characters like that.

I really love the characters that I really felt a personal connection to, and we'll kind of kind of move this forward too, with some some clips that we have coming up. So we have Michael Zegen, who plays Joel Maze, all his parents. Kevin Pollack plays Moisi Maisel, his father, and then Caroline Aaron plays Shirley Mays or his mother.

So I had mentioned earlier that that my mom was Catholic, my dad is Jewish. His parents, um, his mother died. My, my paternal grandmother died. I was probably about 15 years old when she passed away. She wasn't a very devout Jewish person.

My grandfather was he was it could be. Yes, it was.

That was probably about it. My grandfather was always a little bit more religious. And then after my grandmother died, he got remarried a year or two later is very quick. And the woman that he married, her name was Mildred. We all called her Millie and they became very devout again. He would go to temple. They kept kosher, but but Millie had a very unique personality.

So when the show started and I started watching it, and when Joel's parents were finally introduced and Shirley Hazel comes on screen, I turned to my wife immediately and I'm like, Oh my goodness, that is Millie.

That's Bella.

Is Millie. Looks like Millie. Sounds like Millie. Acts like Millie. This is not like you can think that that there's there's acting here and we're over the top and there's no way people could be like this in real life. Surely Basil is Millie or Millie was Shirley. Mabel, whichever reality. So it to me there was just that personal connection that that strong, very strong personality with her.

And in the father, I would I don't think my grandfather was any way like my she they had certain crossovers but you know Shirley and Millie were two peas in a pod.

Shirley is a big fan of pop culture, and she knows all the names that Midge might throw out there. She has like she could give you an encyclopedia about the person, and she's so excited about everything. And of course, when Midge invites them to come to various and sundry things, oh, she's right there. She's ready to come. Whereas her own mother is like, well, this interrupt with what I'm doing.

I don't know if I want to come and see you perform in front row is always Shirley. Shirley is there. She's all, This is wonderful. You're doing a great job. I love you, you're great. And you'll see they do a lot with them during this next year, so you'll enjoy that.

I'm looking forward to that because that interaction with them and in some ways to my my maternal grandparents who were Catholic, they never interacted that often with each other. But there is always a very strange relationship between like my mom and her parents and my dad and his parents when they would interact. It was very I don't know if his adversarial is quite the way, but culturally very different.

And I kind of get that with this show, like like Midge and her parents were very much one way, and Joel and his parents are very much another. And there is that that onscreen dynamic that I just love. And it kind of clicks with me a bit.

Yeah, and they're together a lot. The four of them do a lot of things together. You'll be you'll be thrilled.

You know, speaking of Moisi, Mazal, we do have one more clip of Kevin Pollak, and he's talking a little bit about the future of Mrs. Maisel. So let's go to that.

Yeah, we're not going to ever say goodbye. And I predict now for you, in 4.3 years we'll be here talking about the amazing movie. There I said it.

Kevin Pollak leaves a little bit of that door open. Could we see Mrs. May's old movie?

I think it's the door has been cracked. Look, the way they need content these days and you know that it'd be an Amazon film in a minute. And, you know, so they put it in theaters. They could get a lot of attention for it. And then you just put it on streaming again. I think we've seen the model for all of this.

And like I said, it would help pay the bills for all that expensive stuff that they're using because it looks like a Cinemascope film. It's shot. Well, it has great I mean, the scoring, they created original songs for this. Now, really for a half hour you're going to do that. And the sets, the costumes, the whole and, you know, the first season they won a lot of Emmys for those kind of below the line things.

And I think this year they're going to be well rewarded for what they've done because it is so vast and so unbelievable. But, you know, it did not go unnoticed by the actors. I think they believe that they landed into a great situation. And I don't think it was by chance either that they were selected. I think these people, they knew who were the hard workers, they knew who the ones that would deliver for them.

And it it it seems like it's a brutal show to do because it isn't just getting up and saying a line against somebody. You know, what's interesting is you'll see a little a clip of a TV show that stars Hank Azaria and Sutton Foster within the show. It looks it has a bit of Dick Van Dike to the quality of it.

And Sutton Foster kind of seems like a mary Tyler Moore. And you think the idea that they would write this script for a show within a show that really isn't seen that much, you get a couple of lines out of it. And, you know, they did you know, they probably wrote the whole script or this sitcom that they were trying to reference in some way.

And it's done in black and white. And you get all of that that kind of little homage. But clearly they are fans of the medium. They are ones who want to make sure that it comes across and you do get that sense of what the time was like. You know, it was not easy being a female comedian in New York, Hollywood, wherever.

And I don't I think now it just seems too easy because we see comedians all over the place, you know, doing a one hour special on Netflix. But the idea that somebody would have had that or got that an unreal, unreal. And if I was able to interview Joan Rivers Times and she net, you know, as much as she was kind of oh what's the term I want to use not boisterous but she was you know, she seemed like a very like she would just tell it like it is and not worry about the consequences.

That was not Joan. It was a character that she was portraying. She was the most loving, wonderful person who would would take you under her arms and just treat you like a friend. And that's the I think that's the same kind of disconnect you get here with Mrs. Maisel. She is two different people, but I can see easily that she is the the Joan Rivers is the template for Mrs. Maisel, even though their lives are much different.

They don't they don't wind up the same way. They don't have the same dynamics. There aren't the same, you know, cards being played. But there is that kind of idea that I'm alone. I really am alone in this venture and I've got to do what I want to. Another series that it kind of seems similar to is Hacks, because you see Jean Smart showing what a comedian's like after the big days are over and how does she keep that going?

And there's a glimpse of that with this fascinating because I think I think Joan Rivers is the mothership for all these kinds of things because of what she did do and the idea that look at Joan went to QVC and sold crap just to make money, you know, and what she had to do, she alienated Johnny Carson at one point and then she had her own show.

But the one thing that she valued most was The Tonight Show. And there was no way they were going to let her back on with that because she had, you know, went as she had. She'd gone against the master and she wasn't sorry enough for Johnny to make this really work. And I think that was a big failing in Joan's life, is that she felt that somehow that relationship was not really repaired and she never got The Tonight Show.

She didn't get things she wanted, but in the end, she did get a lot. And she is viewed as somebody they all look up to. You know, they say, well, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Joan Rivers. And I think that's the path that you're looking at with Mrs. Maisel as well.

So with Mrs. May's all leaving Prime Well, not really leaving. It's going to be there, but but this is a big tentpole production for them. What's left for Prime. They do have a lot of shows, but I also don't find myself going to Prime very often for original programing. It feels like a weird, weird platform to me compared some of the others in some ways, maybe a little bit like Apple Tv+, which has several big productions.

But when there's nothing there, you know, when you run out of something like Ted Lasso, it feels like there's a long gap until something else comes. What what's your thinking on on Prime right now?

I think, though, they're doing movies and a lot of those movies will draw the attention. And so I think that's where they'll get whatever. And they also have a lot of limited series that are ten and down or eight and done. And I think that for them is a better model then a series that who knows if you know the the the suits the executives who are in power may not like that series.

And there it's just like network TV. As soon as one regime is out, there's do we have support? You know, unless you're the number one show on television they'll be looking to dump. Yeah.

So we've been sprinkling clips throughout this episode, which has been fun because we don't always have audio from so many different people. But we do have one more and it's a little bit more than just a 1015 second clip. We have an interview. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, I got to talk to it to Michael Zegen, who plays Mr. Maisel. And it's fascinating because I was always under the impression that his job could be gone at any minute. I really thought that Joel is not necessary to this show. He was important in the first year, but would you stick around? And so we got to talk about that and what this last season was like and what, you know, what what comes next.

He is working on the Penguin, which is the new I think his HBO Max series with Colin Farrell, and he's a mobster in that. And so that's an excellent he'll be doing it Fascinating. And he feels very blessed, very blessed that he was a part of this because he knows it's magic in a bottle and you don't get that many times.

Michael, how is it to say goodbye to this? I would think that would be very, very difficult.

It is You're you're correct in you're you're sentiments. Yeah it's it's it's definitely difficult but it's some I don't know it doesn't feel like it's ended just yet especially you know we we still have all this and we're going to France together and I you know we still have this group text chain. So it's I don't think it'll ever quite feel over over.

But I, I, you know, I know the reality of it. And we're not going to be filming anymore, which is devastating.

Well, the last season is so stuffed with information. I mean, there's a lot there to unpack. What was it like when you were doing it? Did you say, Oh, my God, I can't believe this happened? And that happened. And, you know, there's a lot.

There is, but there's always a lot. I feel like, yeah. And, you know, there's a lot of dialog. I actually think this year the scripts, they're always long, you know and I guess in our show is is supposed to be like, you know, 55 to 60 pages, our scripts are like 90 pages to 100 pages. So they're always long.

I do feel like this this season, though, they were longer than most.

And the locations, I mean, you're everywhere, you're doing the years, the whole all of it. That's why I thought it seemed like an awful lot. But maybe it's let's get it done and then move on to something else.

Well, the show is big. It's been big from the beginning. You know, we went to Paris in the in the second season and the Catskills and Miami. So it's it's it's always been very big. And yeah, I mean, there's a lot of stuff, but somehow it just it still flows just as nicely as ever. And it's, you know, it's still.

Mazal.

When it started, did you feel, oh, they're going to get rid of my character at some point.

I, I was just saying this in a in a previous interview. Yeah. In the first episode when I read it, I thought that was it for Joel and I thought it was going to be a guest star. I didn't even I, I looked at the you know, I was auditioning for it. They send you the cast breakdown and it said that he was a series regular.

So I was like, Oh, even better. I had no idea. I really honestly thought this is it for him. And later. But but, you know, luckily that wasn't the case. And they were able to to create this this whole journey for and this evolution for this character.

And there have been so many subplots of his that he just kind of owns. That must be a real cool feeling to have them kind of right for you, if you will.

Yeah, we all get our subplots. But yeah, I mean, I think Joel's is is probably, I guess the most separate from from everybody else is they all kind of I mean, look, he's still in Midge's orbit, obviously, but but I think, you know, he's probably the he's like Pluto as opposed to, you know.

Tony's not Venus. Right. What were you miss about this show? Because you had such a huge cast and of really great people?

Well, that's what I mean. That's in that's it in a nutshell is the cast I, I, I, I'll miss everyone terribly isn't. And really, it's not just the cast, it's the crew. It's it's you know, our writers, Amy and Dan, obviously, I I'll miss everything about this show. Literally everything. This has been the greatest experience of my life so far, you know, work wise.

I don't I was just talking to Tony and Kevin Pollak and they were saying, you know, by the way, no way, you're going to top this. So, like, they felt bad for me because they they were saying they're like, you have like years and years left. We only have like three and, you know, and I'm on it. It's over for me, basically.

But I mean, I don't believe that, but I do I do believe that it's going to be very hard to top something like this.

Do you think it's because of the writing that made it such an iconic show or was it something else? Is it spending a lot of money and doing a lot of things, making it bigger than normal?

I think that the money is certainly helps. You know, luckily we had Amazon behind us and anything really Amy and Dan wanted they got because I think, you know, Amazon loved the show just as much as we did. But what was the first part of the question?

Well, did did you think that it was going to be this this big, this kind of whatever, or was it the writing that really kind of sold all of this thing?

It's really everything. It's the writing. It's like I said before, the crew, I mean, we had, you know, people at the top of their game in every, you know, whether it's lighting or set design or acting. I mean, it was just the whole the whole project was just lightning in a bottle. And and I think that's that's really just what made it so special.

But yeah, did I have any idea I, I didn't know that it was going to be this big. I knew people were going to like it. I liked it. So, you know, I, I think I've got pretty good taste. And, you know, my if you look at my resume like I've done really good shows before and I've done shows that people watch.

But but this was this took it to a new level. And, you know, right out of the gate, we we got nominated for all these awards and we won and we won the Golden Globe, you know, And that that was like, okay, yeah, we were right. Like, this is something special. And and now, you know, then we had to top that.

And you got the Emmy. So there you go.

Yes, We did.

Talk about, though, Amy, as a as a force. I have my views of what she'd be like. I always see her in a hat and I always think she's like, she's marshaling troops. But is it like that or what is she like on on set?

She's honestly just the best. You know, you talked about the writing. It doesn't get better than that. And and honestly, like, I'm a little sore about the fact that for, you know, the past couple of years at the Emmys, she's not even nominated for writing. I mean, this is the best written show on TV, you know. Yes. There's succession.

There's all these other shows. But like in terms of comedy, it doesn't get better than this. And, you know, it's so rare for me to read something, especially when I'm home alone and I laugh out loud. That doesn't happen. And that's been happening on this show from day one. The minute I read the pilot, I was I was laughing.

And and so, yeah, she's she's just, you know, there's there's a level of trust involved with her that that is unparalleled that I haven't I haven't experienced with anybody else. She shows up to set. I mean she's a former dancer, you know, and she thinks like a dancer. So, so even even our background actors, a lot of them are dancers.

I don't know if you know that, but it's true. A lot of them are dancers and it's it's always a dance when we're rehearsing a scene because we don't have rehearsals, like prior to showing up to set and doing the scene. We, we, we get there on the day like, you know, 530 in the morning, whatever it is, and then we start blocking it out.

And sometimes they're huge scenes. But I mean, you know, she's she's obviously in charge and there's this level of trust that I'll just do anything she wants because, you know, she knows what she wants. And to have a director who knows what they want is sometimes I mean, honestly, in my experience, it's rare.

So what is it like watching Rachel do stand up?

I mean, Rachel can do anything. You know, she's she always talks about how nervous she is. Like, I don't buy it. Like she's she's a she can do anything. She she's that type of actor where again, it's that level of trust. Like, I mean, any time I got to work with her was a joy and all of our I think you know all of our scenes that we got to do together were always my favorite.

And yeah, I mean, you know, she talks about how nervous she is, how the audiences keep growing and growing for her character. And honestly, like, that stuff doesn't faze her. She was born to perform. And, you know, I don't I don't know if she would be a standup comedian, but but I'm sure she can handle that as well if she wanted to.

Hey, and you can, too. So that might be even the next step. So. Hey, thank you so much, Michael. I appreciate it. And I thank you for all those years of really great television.

Oh, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Thanks, Bruce, for that interview with Michael Zegen. What do we have on tap?

Well, I'll tell you, I do. And tell me if you don't agree when you start watching this, this series by, because I think it's going to be in for a lot of Emmys, you know how they come and go. And they kind of had a down year. Never. They weren't getting nominated. And the things I think this year they're coming back with a vengeance.

And I don't know how you could deny Rachel Brosnahan, the Emmy for best actress. Really? There are there is a moment there that you will go, Oh, my God, I'm glad I watch this series because it builds to this moment and it's unbelievable. And you'll, as you heard from Michael, you know, watching her was just unbelievable. But next week, we're going to talk about dead ringers.

Here's another opportunity. And you wondered, where is Amazon going? Well, this is another series they've got, but it's a limited series. It's based off a movie. If you remember the movie by David Cronenberg, starring Jeremy Irons, he played brothers, twin brothers who were odd, to say the least, and they were involved in obstetrics and making all kinds of weird tools and instruments and whatnot.

And they had freaky obsessions. They I mean, watch the movie. You'll see what I mean. It was one of those movies. Take me out for the longest time. Well, they've redone the movie and it's now a limited series, and it features two women as twins. Beverly and Elliot Mantle are now played by Rachel Weisz and Rachel really digs into it.

She's and she has lots of fun. And you'll see a different Beverly and a different Elliot. And then it's at one point they play each other to try and dupe their friends. So it's a fascinating look at characters, but I do think they made a horrible land. I just kind of have that feeling knowing how the movie went.

But that's next. We were talking to people who were involved in Dead Ringers, and that'll be coming as a limited series later this month.

All right, Bruce, thanks again, as always. And tune in again next week for another episode of Streaming & Screened.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Streamed and Screened, we dive deep into the latest entertainment offerings, from new movies and TV series.

A trio of musicals are dropping, including "Schmigadoon!" on Apple TV+, "Up Here" on Hulua and "Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies" on Paramount+.

New movies like "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" are in theaters and no gaming knowledge is required.

We also chat about the return of HBO's hit show "Succession," which is back for its forth and final season, discuss the early success of "The Night Agent" on Netflix and talk with actor Jesse Metcalfe about his role in the film "On a Wing and a Prayer," which will get a limited theatrical release and is streaming now on Amazon's Prime Video platform, just in time for Easter.

Where to Watch

About the show

Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Podium.page and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Transcript generated by Podium.page
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0:00:03
Welcome everyone to another episode of streamed and screened and entertainment podcast about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. Rises. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and cohost of the program with Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and a longtime entertainment reporter. Bruce, Spring is here. Weather is getting better, but it it seems like we might be heading back to the movie soon. A lot of good stuff coming out. You know, we're in that period now. Where you're gonna see new stuff that maybe won't be Oscar bait, and it isn't quite holiday fair, you know, like, or it's lie is big time, Memorial Day is a big time, Labor Day is a big time. They all have tentpole, which are kind of considered the big money grabbers. Features, but there will all be also be a lot of these ones that, you know, there's a place for them and they'll make money. So we're starting to get into that era. And we're also seeing, like because of the holiday period, there will be a lock out there so that everybody has something. You will find something for grandma, something for mom, something for dad, something for the kids, and if you hold a bunch to the theater, you'd say, well, that's just all those separate ways and see what we wanna see. So there are enough enough movies out there to keep us kind of interested, but there are also TV series that are are popping now too. And I don't know why this kind of Third season is rising up, but there are a lot of things that are happening. In fact, it's odd. There are three new musical series. That are popping right now. What what is that a second season? But Schmigadoon!, did you see Schmigadoon! last year? I did not know.

0:01:42
This spoof of Broadway musicals. So last year, they did forties and fifties. This year, they're doing sixties and seventies. And it was supposed to be called Shnicago but they realized that they couldn't change the name without, you know, kind of confusing people. So it's called Schmigadoon!, but it's said in Chicago. Okay.

0:02:02
It spoofs musicals for, like, a pippin, a hair, Jesus Christ superstar, and it's about this couple that kind of wander into this goofy town where they all will act like characters from these shows. He and Michael Key and essentially strong are the are the two who enter into the world. And then it's just a herd of Broadway people. Then the people who are behind the cameras on Broadway or behind the scenes rather have made a thing called up here. And Up Here is kind of a What would it be like if musical set in New York City? And it's big names, the people who did Frozen hamilton, you name it, they are doing something, and it was their big pandemic project. And so they did this whole thing, wrote this whole thing, got it all together, and now it's finally premiering.

0:02:56
And then finally, the the last of the three big musical shows coming out is Grease Rise of the Pink Ladies. And that's a prequel to the grease that you see as a movie. So it set four years earlier and how did those pink ladies kind of come to be a a gang, if you will, and what do they represent? It's a way for them to kind of correct some of the myopic views of the movie. So you're going to see a much more diverse cast. You're not going to hear the songs from Greece except the title song. And then you'll see other characters. And there is hope that at some point you will see Sandy and Danny come into the thing in, like, your three or your four if it lasts that long.

0:03:41
So it'd be, like, freshman kinda coming into Right. So you say who is that one? Yeah. I don't think he would hire John Travolta to come in and play himself as a high school freshman. But, you know, strange or things have happened. Could they bring in John Travolta to play like a teacher, kind of. But it would also be bringing him back kind of because he started on Welcome Back, Kotter. And he could almost turn the tables on him career wise.

0:04:10
I like the way you think. Doesn't matter how that goes. Yeah. And they can get them to do a cameo or a thing. Huge. But I think it's got a built in audience as it is because kids love to sing those songs and it's filled with a lot of original content. A lot of original songs that were written just for this. So those are just three musicals that we've got coming on streaming and television networks.

0:04:36
And then you get all of the the kind of the creepy ones that are out there. There's a bunch of creepy shows HAR does really well. And for some odd reason, at last night, I watched a preview of a horror film that's how do I explain it? It's a gay bachelor party where they go to an old mansion and they are gonna have a say odds to call on a mother who killed her son in the house. The concept. I mean, how do they come up with this stuff? It was another pandemic project, but you're gonna see a lot of horror films around this time as well. So those are the big things itself. And then the big ones that we've got, duchess and dragons, honor among thieves, that's already in theaters. And it'll do really well because it's very adventurous. It's like an Indiana Jones film. So I never play dungeons and dragons. Did you ever Nor will I.

0:05:33
I think it has too many pieces, too many characters, too many things to learn. And this is very good at kind if it's like the the game at all, it pulls you through it, and it makes you understand what they're doing and where they're going. And it's kind of a dumb down version, I would assume. But it does allow you to kind of laugh with them and add them. And then there's a Hugh Grant. Remember how we talked about Hugh Grant at the Oscars and how he was kinda snarky with one of the interviewers? Well, that's That's the character. He was he was probably just coming off the set or whatever because he's very kind of Pattington too in his approach to this, but he's the villain, and he's trying to steal this daughter away from Chris Pine And they've got to try and rescue her. That's all it is. It's just to rescue, search and destroy. So it's some so it almost sounds like even though I'm not a Dungeons and Dragons person and you aren't It's entertaining. It's something that you don't have to be into it. Yeah. And Mario brothers is another game that they are are throwing out there this time.

0:06:41
And I think it's finding how you can make something that really has no plot have a plot. That's the the goal of all these things. Yeah. I could give you, you know, sorry or scrabble or something as a series or a movie. But what's the plot? You know? And at least with these are adventures of some sort where they're getting to somewhere, they're always on levels. We're always going to another level. With this. And I think that's what you'll find with these. They're realizing they've got to have a plot.

0:07:12
Imagine if they did monopoly the the TV show. It would be twenty hours long, and you would just be frustrated and hate yourself at the end of it. At some point, somebody tips the the gameboard. That's how it always I've never finished a game of monopoly ever because somebody gets mad at the person who buys up all of the properties and puts hotels on them and you have no money and so you're just bankrupt. And then they leave and they're mad. They're sitting in another room. And then you've got two people as well. Do we really wanna continue this if it's not we're not having everybody else? And then you just throw the table away. I've never finished it. I've never figured out who is the winner of a monopoly. It's such a frustrating game.

0:07:50
I'll I'll play it. My kids love to play it and then I'll get rope and Sure. Sure. That sounds like a grand idea. And I'll be the banker fourteen hours later. I'm just like, why are we doing this? This is the worst decision of by weekend. Right. You need something like Yatze, where it's done after a few roles, and then you're even gonna move by any more. That'll be a good Yatze, the movie. Yatze, the movie.

0:08:13
So I've been watching some shows too. Were you a fan or a fan at all of succession on HBO that is back? I well, you know, this is the last year. Right? I was not a hardcore succession person because it reminded me too much of reality. It is. It's like what's going on in the media world beyond us, way beyond us. But you see these it's very fox news ish, I think. It's like the the family that's running all of that. And that's all it is. It's you know, Logan Roy, who's played by Brian Cox, is the head of Waystar RoyCo.

0:08:50
And this fourth season just kinda picks up a few months after the end of the third season. So if if you watch the end of the third season, there was a lot of drama his the three younger kids who were looking to kinda up him up end him, the plot was turned, the tables were turned because Shiv's husband, Tom, kind of played the other side, Logan Roy. So it kind of picks up at that point. You know, the three kids are trying to make a deal for a company. The question is, is will they kind of hold him hostage he looks on load, but he's also gonna hold on to his Fox News channel, ATN. He's gonna hold on to that, and he's looking to make a move And then Connor, who's the older son, who's played by Allan Rock, who was Cameron Fry and Ferris Bueller's day off. He's looking to get married, but he's also running for president, and he's polling at, like, one percent. So that's not going well.

0:09:50
You know, we're back in the thick of things to session. It's one of my favorite shows that they've done in recent years. It's part of the reason it it's is is succession the best show ever to come off of HBO. No, but it feels like it's just another in a long line of very good programs. Do you see where I will end? I mean, can you see kind of hints that this is the end. Yeah. I mean, my assumption is that we'll get a resolution on the company in somebody's gotta come out on top. You know, whether he sells and the kids take over or or what.

0:10:25
But who knows? It could be just you know, like, reality is reality, and sometimes it's just, you know, something will happen at the end, and we're gonna be, like, what happened to Tony Saprano? We'll just cut to black really hard. And and like you know something will happen after it, you're just not gonna do a season five. It it could be, you know, if you may remember Rupert Murdoch just stopped a paper in London. It had so many lawsuits and everything and they just said, we're done. And maybe the ones that they do is they just you know, or somebody gets sent to prison. And then, you know, it's left open. So if they wanted to do a movie, they could do a movie, then you figure out who actually is the one that's running the place.

0:11:02
So who knows? Well, I'm glad it's good. It's it's one of those ones that I started watching and I was just too nervous by it because it reminded me too much of everything. And so I just let it go and I'm okay with that. I don't need it, but I know that those who love it are clearly devoted, hopelessly devoted. I am hopelessly devoted. I love it. And I I will I'm gonna be sad when it's off the air because it's just it's one of those programs that It had it even had large gaps in between c's and not just because of the pandemic, but because of the locations they were filming at.

0:11:35
So it always felt like season one ended, when is season two coming? Season two ended, when is season three coming? Because it wasn't on that traditional twelve months later, it's coming back. It's coming back at weird intervals. So it just feels good that it's back, and then I'll I'll be sad to see it go It's just great drama. And, you know, it it is the reality, you know, that that, I guess, you don't like. You you wanna get away from the reality. But I I kind of find it fun in just this context of of media and what's going on in the world today. And it's watching entitled people get annoyed about things that, like, what who how is this even a problem in somebody's life? I would love to have that when you're having.

0:12:17
Do you like the way they just drop an episode or do you really like when you could binge it? I go back and forth. I mean, I I like the binging concept because it just especially if it's a show that I'm watching with my wife, which is kinda going on right now with Netflix in the night age which I'll I'll mention in a moment. But for a show like this, I I just watched it by myself. She watched season one with me and kinda liked it, and then tapped out in season two. Just really didn't want to keep going with it. So from that perspective as a weekly program, I'm fine with it because we'll watch things together during the week. And then, you know, she goes to bed early and I might stay up a little bit. I'll watch it on my own. So I I don't need to have all ten episodes right there. So I like I like both concepts.

0:13:03
It just depends on the program. Do you feel like I've gotta see it right away when they drop it on Sunday night? Or Oh, yeah. Like, kids go to bed. Daddy go to bed. Everybody go to bed. It's Terry Scott. Watching his show now. Right? Everybody leave me alone to tuning into succession. Speaking of, you know, those bingible programs, Netflix dropped one. Kinda out of the blue. I wasn't really looking for it or paying attention for it, but it's called the night agent. And it's trending on Netflix right now. It seems to be pretty popular. It's got some good write ups on rotten tomatoes from from fans and reviewers.

0:13:44
So it takes place, like the concept of this, is that there is a FBI agent. He's played by Gabriel Basso. And at the very beginning of it, he prevents a bunch of deaths on a subway explosion. He finds a bomb. Right? But what happens is there's some accusations by conspiracy nutjobs and, you know, was he involved with it? So he kinda has to take a year off and and they fast forward a year to where he's working in the basement of the White House, sitting in a room with a telephone that probably will never ring, but one day it rings. And it's to to take a call from a like a devout agent in the secret agent and to kinda help them through a situation. Meanwhile, you have this other character Lucy Ann Buchanan, who's kind of a newcomer to acting, doesn't really have a whole lot of credits where whereas Gabe Gabbasa, he played J. D. Vance and Hillbelly, LG. So he's been out there before But Lucy Anne, a little bit more of a newcomer, she plays a cybersecurity person entrepreneur who loses her company, you know, so she's got this company at the start, fast forward a year, and she's staying with her relatives, her her aunt and uncle.

0:14:57
Who are all of a sudden murdered and she has to make the phone call. They're like, you gotta call this number, get help. And that number goes to Gabriel Baso in the basement. So it's it's a spy thriller. It's pretty intense. You know, it's who's playing? Who? There's the the thought that there's, you know, some some bad actors in the White House. What's gonna happen? It also stars Hung Chow. She plays Diane Far, the White House chief of staff. You would of course know her. She was nominated for best supporting actress in the whale.

0:15:30
So we've got a few names in this program. It's pretty good. I I've we've gotten roped in only a couple episodes in I'm not gonna drop any real spoilers. That's just the basic plot development to get you going through the first ten minutes of of episode one. But, yeah, it's it's a pretty good show and and we're gonna keep coming back to it. Did you ever see the Knight Manager Tom Houston. He played the manager of a very high end hotel, and he was also an agent where he was trying to dupe a lot of people that come into the hotel, basically. He had all this access to stuff fascinating series. They're gonna do another season of it. So if you happen to see that floating around, don't confuse the two, but it's very much that kind of duplicity that you wonder about. What's going on here? This is this is kind of fascinating. I'm I'm intrigued.

0:16:22
Let me rail for a minute about Netflix. Because they have the worst way of letting people know about something that's coming on. I mean, until you hear people talking about it, you have no clue that these things are popping. And they just will drop and they'll get foreign language series that were huge hits in, you know, whatever is Slavia. And they'll just drop it on there. And then you'll hear everybody talking about this. And maybe that's their their method. But I find it's really kind of undercutting because then you think, well, I'm missing out on something. How come I don't know about this? And then sometimes they'll do way too much where you'll see Adam Sandler on every talk show there is talking about the movie he did and it's okay. So I really wish they would be either a little more discriminating about what they push or help us through it a bit.

0:17:18
I don't remember ever getting any messaging because I'll get those emails maybe on a weekly basis saying, you know, based on the shows you've watched, hear something coming to Netflix that you might be interested in. I don't remember ever seeing anything for the night agent. You know, I've seen plenty of other things out there, but that one just we're we're literally out of things to watch because we kind of finished up one show looking for something new and we're just skimming through the Netflix and what's out there and we we kinda got sucked in by a trailer and thought, okay, well, let's let's give it a whirl. The categories that they have and that, you know, when you go to that kind of the directory page, you might like. And then you're thinking, what have I watched that they think I would like this crap? And there's a whole bunch of, like, goofy films that you think, I this is not me. Are you profiling me somehow? I don't know what you're doing. I don't know where you came up that I wanted to see elf part three, but, you know, it's on there. So I that's another thing that just throws me. And then you keep scrolling down because they have different different categories for things.

0:18:24
Shows people are talking about. Shows nobody's talking about. Shows you could talk about comedies that you haven't seen in a long time. You want to watch this. Now maybe you want to watch it again. You know what? It just keeps going. You think, oh, please. Please. Please. Please. So be careful what you watch because it might come back to haunt you. Yeah. There's my rant. Was that my rant for the day? That's your that's your rant for the day. But yeah. And, you know, it's funny how Prime Video, which used to be called Amazon Prime, but it's now called Prime Video, have been putting out an awful lot of product. In fact, I've been inundated with a lot of interviews. You'll see as we go along, but they have air coming out this this weekend, which will be huge in theaters. And that's the story of Nike when they pitched Michael Jordan to be their standard bearer for basketball shoes. And fascinating look at a true story with Ben and Matt. That'll be big. But they've got a lot of these other series too where they're remaking things, re kind of molding things.

0:19:31
And one of the things that I actually saw was a what they they consider a faith based film. Faith based film. Now, I don't know what that means to most people. I always think, oh, it's a religious film. You're trying to show me a religious film. Is that what it is? But it's not necessarily that. It's it just says that people believe in some kind of higher power. And this one is called on a wing and a prayer.

0:19:59
And it's a true story about a a businessman who takes a couple of lessons of flying lessons, but doesn't really, you know, think much of it, and then ends up in a plane with his family and the pilot dies. And he's gotta figure out how do I land this plane. Because I really wasn't paying attention that much when I was, you know, in classes. Because I figured I wouldn't need this. Right? So they get the dead body in the back of the plane, and then he gets behind the in the cockpit and starts trying to figure out how do we land this. And they bring in help from the outside. One of the people they find is somebody who actually flew one of those planes and he's played by Jesse Metcalf.

0:20:47
Jesse Metcalfe, you may remember was the gardener, the hunky gardener that Eva Longoria fell for in desperate housewives. And this is his way of trying to move into a different layer of filmmaking. So for him, it was a good move to let people see him as something other than the hunky garter. And then he was on a long time on hallmark channel. He he's been in every Christmas iteration you could find, and he was also in Chesapeake Shores, which was a series that they had on the Hallmark Channel. So I was able to talk to him and we have us his interview, I believe.

0:21:25
And you'll find out about what actually happened with on a wing and a prayer. I guess faith based, there's there's that element of Is there divine intervention to perhaps intercede? I think they're pitch on this is there are angels among us who help us through these kinds of situations. And the angels could be even the person on the ground that tells you what button to press at the right time. Gotcha. And the film also, it stars Dennis Quade. Correct? Dennis Quade, Heather Graham. So there are some some big names in this. Yeah.

0:21:55
Dennis Quinn plays the the guy who has to pilot the plane. Okay. Heather, the name is his wife. I replaced his wife. And, yeah, and you'll find other you know, they do a little bit before we get into the plane, they do a bit of back story. So you get to see what he's kind of a, I think, a very swaggerish businessman. You know, they're kind of or if you will would say they're kind of full of themselves. So I think it's a humbling experience for him when he gets up in the plane and realizes, hey, I don't know how to do this. He thinks he's a big barbecue guy and He wins barbecue contests and but not they have a huge in the film. They have a huge house that looks impressive, very impressive. And if he's going flying private, come on. He's gonna have a buck or two. Right? Right. End of the film, you get to see the real guy and the real people who helped him out. Okay.

0:22:48
So Dennis Quinn, he's it's interesting because he it feels like he's in these types of feel good movies he's done it before. He was in that movie, the rookie, that Disney movie, where he he was a a baseball pitcher. It it was a true story where, you know, he came back at ages like forty, whatever, and made it to the big leagues despite, you know, our injury. So it feels like he likes to do these feel good movies now. He likes to make money too. So I could be behind it. But I'm I'm tired of seeing him in these kinds of roles, to be honest. I'd like to see him as a good old villain because I think he's really good at playing a villain. And you know, maybe he doesn't have to be the star. Maybe he's like the third build, who always is a villain, by the way. If you ever look at a movie, Which one is the villain? Look who's third in the villain? They're always the one who's the villain. So maybe now with your when you're looking at the night agent -- Mhmm. We can see his third build. That's your problem at all right there. But yeah. And he gonna it's it's a feel good one for the holiday weekend and the holiday week.

0:23:56
It will be in some theaters and it will also be on Prime Video. So you'll see it on your Amazon Prime channel if you have that. If you bought enough crap on Amazon and you have the free shipping, you'll get this show. So you'll be able to see it. But it's it's nothing complex. It's something that you could watch while you're doing something else. And then you go, okay, that's good. I I understand what was going on there. It's a happy movie for this time of the season. So We have an interview with Jesse Metcalfe, so let's go ahead and listen to that.

0:24:34
Have you ever been in an emergency like this in any kind of transportation thing or not? I was on a private plane once where there were some concerns. I wouldn't say it had really gotten to this level. I certainly didn't have to crawl into the cockpit and lay on the plane. But I I understand people's fear of flying. I mean, I started flying at a very early age. My mom would ship me off to my grandparents at, like, six or seven. So I I don't have a fear of flying, like, at all. And actually, you know, after the experience I had, the wonderful experience I had on this home. I'm considering getting my pilot's license. I think it'd be really, really amazing.

0:25:18
Yeah. Look how good you are. You can help somebody. Yeah. What is that like when you're going through things and what is this? I don't know what these words are, what they mean. How do you you know, get a grasp on that so that you can convey it in the right way. That's that's a great point. You know, I had to look basically everything up. There's a lot of aviation jargon specifically for my character. And I definitely had to at least have a cursory understanding of what I was talking about. Certainly walked away from this movie with a greater appreciation for aviation and for pilots.

0:25:53
When you're sitting there and you're like giving them instructions, who are you talking to? Is somebody else reading the lines of things to you? Or I mean, because you're very into you're good at being intense in those situations. I'm like, Who is he talking to? I'm sure they're not there. Thank you. That's a that's a high compliment. I appreciate that.

0:26:11
Generally talking to, you know, either the assistant director or sometimes like you're standing. Really, anyone who's available to read the dialogue off camera and You know, I'll be honest with you. Not a lot of care is is taken when, you know, someone's reading this dialogue off camera. It's usually pretty flat and monotone. You know, you can you can ask them to pump it up a little bit. But it's really, you know, it's our job to bring all that emotion and energy to to our performance, you know. I mean, that's that's what we do as active guy.

0:26:46
I didn't get to meet I didn't get to meet Carrie, unfortunately. Hopefully, I'll get to meet him in the future, but I just basically looked up everything I could find on him, print interviews, what little video there was of him out there, I mean, the picture that was painted of him within our script was more than enough for me to grab hold of as an actor. Sure. You know, this coming at this time in your career, what is that telling you? Is it are you going in another direction? Is there something new that we're seeing with this film? Well, it's funny that you asked that. I mean, that's the plan. I mean, you know, I definitely want want to move away from the matinee Idol and move into more serious roles and, you know, work with you know, more producers and directors that I that I really respect. I mean, such a great team on this project with Roman Downey, Autumn Bailey Ford, Sean McNamara, who I I had previously worked with, and I was really excited to get the opportunity to work with again. I think it was just it was the right team on this one with the right script and I'm really proud of what they produced.

0:27:54
I mean, it's a very watchable movie that really keeps you on the edge of your seat. You know, they talk about this being a faith film or a faith based film. And I don't think that it's you know, I wouldn't use those terms for it. I think the faith is is underlying. Absolutely. But it isn't something that hits you over the head. You know what I mean? We're a lot of those things, they're like, oh, I'm not going to that. No. No. I I agree with you completely. I mean, honestly, I don't I don't consider this faith based movie at all. And I I think this this movie is of the caliber that, you know, could have gotten a theatrical release. I mean, it's just it's It's a different landscape these days. Very happy to have been picked up by Amazon Prime Video. They're really behind the movie. Yeah. I mean, you know, when people believe in a project and they know that the the the the content is good, I mean, it's just it's a it's a good feeling, you know, to have to have that kind of momentum.

0:28:51
Take me back to those days of desperate housewives. How how really unreal was that? I was it was incredibly unreal. I didn't anticipate the success of that show at all. Coming off of daytime television, moving into a nighttime show, but that felt very daytime. It was a easy transition. I mean, look, it wasn't the most challenging role in the world, but I tried to bring, you know, your vulnerability and and depth to the role. But, I mean, it was a it was a whirlwind, you know, that just, like, kinda swept me right off my feet. I didn't anticipate the success.

0:29:30
And to still be talking about the show twenty years later, I mean, I guess it's achieved some level of, you know, iconic television status which is something I'm, you know, I'm I'm proud to have been part of. Did it did it just kind of throw you coming so early in your career? Or was it You know, I I I had been in the business for for five years on daytime television, but, I mean, you know, daytime television and primetime are just, you know, their their night and day. Right. They they really are. You can we can work on daytime your entire career and he, you know, the average person might might not know your name. You know, so to to become a household name pretty much overnight was was definitely interesting.

0:30:17
Was it good to learn those lessons early on? Or do you say, oh, I'd be much more prepared now if I had that, like, real heat? Well, hindsight is twenty twenty, you know. So I I'd be much more prepared now, definitely. And I'd like to think you know, I'll I'll have some of those big opportunities again. I I mean, I'd like to believe that that the best of my career is is still ahead of me here. You know? Yeah. I I know I know I know I'm ready for it now. That's for sure. All we need to look at is this year's best picture winner and you look at those people and you say, all of them were at some point told you're out of the game and look at them now. They're on top of the game. So it's just It's very it's very only one project away, you know? Right. This could be yours. You never know.

0:31:06
Then you you have your kind of I I I love to see these different periods that you've had. You have your hallmark period. What is that world like? Well, I mean, the hallmark channel was very very good to me. They allowed me to executive produce some projects with them and kinda, you know, be involved in the creative and the casting of those projects. I really learned a lot during my hallmark period. And, you know, I'm I'm proud of a a lot of the work that I created during that period as well with this show that I did for them called Chesapeake shores where I played, performed, and wrote some of the music for the show. Right. I mean, you know, I I give a hundred and ten percent to everything that I do. I mean, I I'm one of those actors that really cares. Maybe I care a little too much, but, you know, I like to look back at different periods, as you say, and and be proud of those periods. So, you know, that that was a great time in my career.

0:32:06
In the learning process, do you go, oh, that's something I'll never do again? Or is it, okay, this is how I would change those things up if I did this again? Well, there's always lessons. You have to find the lessons in everything you do in life. But specifically in this business, You know? I mean, you wanna continue to become a better actor. You know, I I am very interested in doing more producing and executive producing. So you know, you have to learn those lessons, but it's really about it's it's it's it's about relationships and it's a it's a it's a very people oriented business. It's a collaborative art form and you have to work well with others. And, you know, I mean, those are the best lessons, I think.

0:32:50
What is it like when you wanna create something? Is it hard to actually get others on board with you? Or what do you to me, it'd be a big sales job. I'd have to sell others on my vision and I don't know that I could do it. While producing is a big sales job, isn't it? You know, I mean, generally, you're trying to find financing for ideas that you have. And that that can be a little soul sucking at times because as artists, you know, we don't wanna be, you know, making phone calls and sending emails begging people for money. You know, but there's also some great facets to executive producing or producing as well, you know, kind of like being in charge of the entire picture.

0:33:33
Which sometimes, you know, when you're just an actor on a project, you know, hire to do one specific thing, it can be a little limiting. Specifically when you see things that could be better or, you know, maybe, you know, holes in a story that could be patched up and you have ideas for that, you're not always you're not always in the position to share those ideas. Would would you ever not act? Would that ever be in the cards? Would I ever not act? Yeah. Yeah. I think I think that could be in the cards. I I think I would like to move behind the camera, you know, specifically in producing roles. And and and I have I have an interest in directing. I mean, I went to New York University for writing and directing teach school of the arts But over the over the years, I've seen how much work directing is. I mean, you're literally, you know, the first person on the set, the last person to leave and up all night preparing. So, you know, I I think producing might be my lane. Better. Yeah. Is another thing.

0:34:36
You know, and how they I forgive me for not knowing what this is like, but when they're judging you to to cast you in a role, based on a look, how how do you deal with that? I I would find that very difficult. Well, a lot of people say that there's a lot of rejection in our business, but I think you can't look at not getting a role as rejection. Because getting a role is like finding a needle in a haystack. You know, there's so many variables as to what our producers and directors and casting directors are looking or for a specific role. So I think, you know, you have to just put yourself out there, give the best audition possible, and if it doesn't go your way, just let it go. I mean, easier said than done, but dealing with the rejection would be the very difficult thing. Well, why wasn't I right for this. Exactly. I mean, hey, nobody likes dealing with with rejection, but that's life. It's life. Right?

0:35:32
What's next then after this? Are you already working on something? Well, I have two other films coming out this year. I mean, three, actually. One's called the comic shop. Which is kind of like a Kevin Smith esque story about a disgruntled comic book store owner who had some trials and tribulations in his life. It's kind of a interesting story. Then I have another one that's on the festival circuit right now called the Latin from Manhattan. And then I have a a a a a VC Andrew series of movies coming out on a lifetime where I I play dad in the early sixties. So it's it's my first dad role, so I'm kind of excited about that.

0:36:13
See, I've seen -- Oh. -- I've seen -- Oh. -- I've seen -- Oh. -- I've seen -- Oh. -- I've seen -- I've seen -- I've seen -- -- I've seen -- -- I've seen -- I've seen -- I've seen -- wonk long. I've I've seen some of the footage actually doing a ADR for the for the movies and I I play opposite this adorable you know, effervescent actor of Breck Bassinger, who's from from the series star girl. I play her father And it's very, very charming actually. I'm I was really, really pleased with it. I'm excited for people to see it.

0:36:40
Well, you know, if we're ever on a plane together and something happens, I'm calling you into action here. You're gonna be helping land the plane Okay. I know nothing about that. You might wanna call Dennis, but hey, you know. Yeah. I would run up and down the aisles going, no, we can't do this. This is not good. This is terrible, but it was very fun to watch you in this. I enjoyed it. Thank you so much. Alright, Bruce. Thank you for that interview. What else do we have on top? Coming up. Big big big kind of surprising thing. Rachel vice, Oscar winner, Rachel vice.

0:37:16
Is in a new adaptation of dead rangers. It's about twins who are in the birthing business, if you will, and if you may remember Jeremy Irons started in this film in the nineties. It was a David Cronenburg film Well, now, Rachel has the part where she plays two characters. And she's trying to get this clinic off the ground, a birthing center. And she has to appeal to various and sundry people and how it's a very kind of political world to be in the medical field, but it's also really, really creepy. So when you see this, you'll see the creep factor. One of the people we talk to is Poppy Lou who plays their kind of assistant, and she has a big handle on the differences between Beverly and Elliot Mantel. So we'll have that next week and we'll talk about some other kind of creepy ones that aren't coming. Alright. That sounds good. So we'll look forward to that. Thank you everyone for listening to another episode of streamed and screened.

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