The Plot Thickens

By TCM

TV & Film

What's The Plot Thickens about?

Welcome to The Plot Thickens, a documentary podcast from Turner Classic Movies. Each season we'll bring you a story about the movies and the people who make them. Our first season is about a young cinephile who quickly rose to become one of Hollywood's top directors. But Peter Bogdanovich soon found himself a victim of jealousy, hubris, public scorn - and a devastating crime. Along with host Ben Mankiewicz, Peter looks back on his life and tries to make sense of fame and failure. "I'm Still Peter Bogdanovich" is a remarkable story of loss, perseverance, and the solace of cinema.

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Bonus Episode: Aaron Sorkin

01.11.2022

Ben Mankiewicz speaks to Aaron Sorkin, the writer-director of Being the Ricardos, about what drew him to Lucy’s story, Lucy and Desi’s intense relationship, and the danger they faced when HUAC thought Lucy was a communist. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy ...

The Plot Thickens episodes:

01.11.2022 Bonus Episode: Aaron Sorkin Ben Mankiewicz speaks to Aaron Sorkin, the writer-director of Being the Ricardos, about what drew him to Lucy’s story, Lucy and Desi’s intense relationship, and the danger they faced when HUAC thought Lucy was a communist. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy ...
12.21.2021 Bonus Episode: Lucie Arnaz More from Ben Mankiewicz's fascinating interview with Lucie Arnaz, who speaks about working with her mom, growing up on the RKO studio lot, and what made I Love Lucy special. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
12.14.2021 Twilight Lucy sinks into a depression after the failure of her newest show and becomes a reclusive, fiercely competitive backgammon player. Yet she's still revered, and following a memorable final appearance at the Academy Awards, her heart gives out. As the ...
12.07.2021 Boss Lady Escaping Hollywood after her split, Lucy heads east for a chance to star on Broadway. There she meets a new man, a Borscht Belt comedian with a bad toupee and even worse business sense. The new couple returns to Hollywood ...
11.30.2021 The End of Desilu Lucy and Desi's studio expands as they buy the RKO lot and produce new shows under the Desilu banner. The strain of running an empire takes its toll, and Desi falls further into gambling, drinking and philandering as a refuge ...
11.23.2021 Red Scare At the height of Lucy’s popularity, the government kicks off a political investigation that threatens to ruin her career. Why had Lucy registered as a communist 20 years earlier? On the verge of her being blacklisted, Desi goes on the ...
11.16.2021 I Love Lucy With a TV deal from CBS, Desi assembles a ragtag team of collaborators to make a new kind of program, one that would rewrite the rules of television. And they do it while hiding Lucy’s newest surprise: after ten years ...
11.09.2021 Desilu From the start, Lucy and Desi fight as fiercely as they love. After a spur-of-the-moment elopement, the newlyweds buy a small ranch north of Hollywood and call it “Desilu.” They suffer miscarriages and career setbacks, which causes Desi to take ...
11.02.2021 Desi Forced from his native Cuba by violent revolution, 17-year-old Desi Arnaz is a stranger in a strange land. Armed with an appetite for girls and gambling, Desi sparks a dance craze in the nightclubs of Miami and sweet-talks his way ...
10.26.2021 Hollywood For her first movie role, Lucy wears a flesh-toned bodysuit and waist-length blonde wig while chained to a rock. But her clowning on set gets her noticed, and she begins to land larger and larger parts. Soon she signs with ...
10.19.2021 New York City Lucy heads back to Broadway where she meets her first girlboss: fashion baroness Hattie Carnegie, who hires Lucy to model coats and dresses for New York high society. But a mysterious ailment sends Lucy home to Jamestown, followed by a ...
10.12.2021 Jamestown In a small town in New York, young Lucille Ball becomes enamored with showbiz after watching vaudeville acts and silent movies at the amusement park near her home. As a teenager, she falls for a handsome 21-year-old bootlegger, and is ...
09.07.2021 Season 3 Trailer: Lucy From her early years as a model to her triumphant takeover of television, this is the story of Lucille Ball, as never heard before. Join host Ben Mankiewicz as he delves into the private world of America’s funniest redhead and ...
08.24.2021 The Devil’s Candy Bonus Episode Author Julie Salamon joins TCM Host Alicia Malone for a revealing interview about what you didn’t hear during our second season of The Plot Thickens. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
08.10.2021 You’ve Got to be a Genius to Make a Movie This Bad The Bonfire of the Vanities tanks with both critics and the moviegoing public. Brian De Palma leads the autopsy, trying to understand how all these smart people made all the wrong decisions. The only upside is for Julie Salamon, whose ...
08.03.2021 The Best Movie We Ever Made With production now in Los Angeles, Brian De Palma feels the pressure from prying studio executives – and from Bruce Willis, who starts directing other actors on how to be funnier. De Palma gets some much-needed encouragement from his friend ...
07.27.2021 Hollywood Heat As production moves to Los Angeles, the specter of sexism clouds the movie. Rumors swirl among the crew about Melanie Griffith’s plastic surgery, Kim Cattrall's weight loss, and an affair between actress Beth Broderick and director Brian De Palma. See ...
07.20.2021 Wire Without a Net The cast shows its true colors: some are easygoing and relatable, but not Bruce Willis. The New York shoot spirals over budget as the courtroom scene can only be shot at night, and the film’s entire opening is scrapped in ...
07.13.2021 The War Zone Shooting hasn't even started and the movie is already under attack. Detailed leaks and star outbursts are reported daily by a hungry press. Bit parts, courtroom locations, snippets of dialogue, even a single shot of a plane landing at JFK ...
07.06.2021 Reaching for the Stars – and Paying the Price As Tom Hanks researches his role, nobody recognizes how wrong he is for the part. There's more immediate pushback against the casting of Bruce Willis, since his part was written as British. But the hardest decision comes when the director ...
06.29.2021 Lighting the Fire One decision could make or break The Bonfire of the Vanities: who will play the female lead? It comes down to two actresses – established, expensive Melanie Griffith or an unknown, alluring 19 year-old named Uma Thurman. Suddenly the producer, ...
06.09.2021 Introducing The Devil's Candy A blockbuster book, an all-star cast... what could possibly go wrong? For our second season, we're telling the inside story of The Bonfire of the Vanities, a movie that was supposed to be a hit – but wasn't. Come with ...
05.05.2021 The Plot Thickens Returns This Summer We've got two new seasons coming your way in 2021, and the first is dropping soon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
11.02.2020 The Plot Thickens Virtual Event TCM host Alicia Malone hosts a conversation with Peter Bogdanovich and Ben Mankiewicz, who share memorable stories and answer questions from listeners about Season 1 of The Plot Thickens. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
07.14.2020 Henry Fonda, John Wayne and James Stewart Highlights from Peter Bogdanovich’s interviews with three of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, who talk about the unique challenges of working with director and legendary curmudgeon John Ford. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
06.30.2020 Alfred Hitchcock Peter Bogdanovich sits down with one of his filmmaking heroes, Alfred Hitchcock, for a wide-ranging conversation about Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Rear Window and more. Plus, Hitchcock shares stories about being arrested as a child, appearing in his own ...
06.16.2020 Howard Hawks For our first bonus episode, Peter Bogdanovich interviews director Howard Hawks in the Palm Springs desert in April 1972. Hawks tells Peter how he got started in showbiz and provides insight into many of his best movies, including Rio Bravo, ...
06.02.2020 I’m Still Peter Bogdanovich Grief-stricken for years, Peter finally goes back behind the camera and ends up shooting one of his most popular films. But he sues the studio before the movie is released, further endangering his career. While trying to recover, Peter once ...
05.26.2020 Dorothy Alone for the first time, Peter finds love in an unexpected place: the Playboy Mansion. His passionate romance with Playmate Dorothy Stratten ignites his creativity, culminating in his best movie in years. But Peter’s life is forever changed by a ...
05.19.2020 Bogdanovich, The Misunderstood Feeling betrayed, Orson Welles humiliates Peter on national television. So Peter heads overseas to shoot a daring new movie, filming in secret to evade government censors. While his career starts to recover, he embarks on an affair with his new ...
05.12.2020 Babe Ruth Just Bunted Following The Last Picture Show, Peter directs two more major hits, What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon. But then his wife leaves him, and his next three movies are high-profile flops. As his relationship with Cybill is splashed across the ...
05.05.2020 Cybill Peter challenges himself to film an “unfilmmable” book and creates one of the seminal movies of the 1970s: The Last Picture Show. His actors win Academy Awards and the accolades pour in, including comparisons to Orson Welles himself. But Peter ...
04.28.2020 Target: Hollywood Peter meets Polly Platt, his closest creative collaborator – and soon, his young wife. The newlyweds drive across the country to break into the movie business, starting with a low-budget directing gig for Roger Corman. And Peter finally encounters Orson ...
04.28.2020 Bugs A young film buff named Peter Bogdanovich grows up in New York, learning to obsess over the movies the way his father obsesses over art. With his sights set on acting, Peter lies his way into the most prestigious acting ...
04.14.2020 Bonus Trailer: I'm Still Peter Bogdanovich Learn more about the first season of The Plot Thickens, the new podcast from Turner Classic Movies. The first two episodes premiere on April 28. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
03.26.2020 Introducing The Plot Thickens Peter Bogdanovich was a young cinephile who quickly rose to become one of Hollywood's top directors. But he soon found himself a victim of jealousy, hubris, public scorn – and a devastating crime. Now, he looks back on a life ...