301. 'Friday The 13th' (1980)

In the last episode, I drove down Main Street, Modesto for a look at what George Lucas was doing in 1971, namely, putting together 'American Graffiti' and listening to Francis Ford Coppola's over-extended dream of a filmmaking commune located in San Francisco. But what was Steven Spielberg doing then? He was a 24-year-old college dropout who'd signed a 7-year contract to direct television episodes for Sid Sheinberg at Universal for $275 a week.  Cycling through 'Night Gallery' and 'Marcus Welby, MD' and other series, Spielberg was next handed what he called the single best script he'd yet seen: the premiere episode of the first season of 'Columbo'. Written by another tyro, Stephen Bochco, and executive produced by Columbo creators Link & Levinson, the script let Spielberg shoot TV like a feature...albeit on a budget of $135,000 with only ten shoot days.  This is the story of that episode, and what it tells us about Spielberg's soon-to-launch feature-directing career. 

"It's because of the fact that (Star Wars and American Graffiti are) fresh and they're different and they're experimental that I think people like to watch them. Now the whole industry sort of moves in that direction and they become the standard, but people forget that at the time those movies were made, especially American Graffiti, it was a very avant-garde movie." -George Lucas Revisiting American Graffiti with full appreciation for the ways in which this film is absolutely an avant-garde masterpiece of the New Hollywood era.  It's technical innovations are seamless, allowing the humor and character journeys to progress with a kind of magical stealth. When we peek under the hood, it's all the more amazing how truly groundbreaking this film was. And worthwhile to consider how ironic it is that Star Wars would soon come to define George Lucas much in the way that the John Milner character was defined by the expectations of others in American Graffiti. Jeff Burger's  spot-on 1973 review of American Graffiti. AFI Catalog on the film. Mackenzie Phillips on making the film as 12-year-old.  

For a special Halloween treat (or trick...) I decided to put my Sequel Hatred to the test. Having never seen Halloween III let alone Halloween II, I noticed that the 3rd film does NOT feature Michael Meyers or have anything whatsoever to do with the first film.  Sounds right up my alley!  This is what I have wished for when doing sequels on the pod many times.  So...how did I feel after watching the film? You'll find out in real time bc I recorded myself watching the film, so you'll get to hear from whence I started to where I ended up. Any guesses?? Help me give you more of what you want by taking the Audience Survey! It's anonymous & no email or signup required.

Once more into the breach! Daring myself to test my theory that 99.9% of sequels not named The Godfather, Part II suck...I watched F13 2.  Was my theory proven correct?  It doesn't take more than a one-eyed baghead Jason to know that this Jason was onto something. Thankfully, 'Crystal Lake' dares to take the IP in new directions, albeit with an excess of fan service overly familiar to anyone who's seen even one F13 film.    Take the Audience Survey!

Would you believe I've never actually seen Friday The 13th before?  I surprised even myself with this realization.  Since the Peacock prequel series Crystal Lake has become the highest-rated F13 spinoff in the franchise's history, and is omnipresent on social media in a blanket marketing campaign rivaling Crystal Lake in size and depth...I decided to wade in tentatively.   What emerged was a nuanced appreciation for the film's deft stitching-together of the horror and film tropes that inspired it, and a confused awareness that Pamela Vorhees, and not Jason, is the real star of the film.  I enjoyed this film more than I thought I would, even as it causes me to question everything I thought I knew about myself.  Send help! Help me give you more of what you want by taking the Audience Survey! It's anonymous & no email or signup required.

Episode 300: The Lives of Performers. I followed a line from Fame to the documentaries Every Little Step and Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened. Together, they cover so many of the joys and challenges of pursuing a life onstage, and present compelling and hard-won perspectives about the work's peculiar and demanding mix of talent, luck on the audition day, and self-belief in the face of a thousand no's to every yes. It was @bradcalebkane who suggested Fame as an episode. While revisiting the film, I learned its origin story: In 1976, talent manager David De Silva saw A Chorus Line and noticed that one of the songs made a reference to the New York City High School of Performing Arts. This led him to playwright Chris Gore, and the creation of a story detailing how ambition and rejection influence the lives of adolescent students. From Fame I found my way to Every Little Step. The film weaves the struggle to cast the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line with the history of the original 1975 production. It features rare, original audio of creator Michael Bennett interviewing Broadway dancers about their lives and careers and follows several prospective 2006 cast members through the physical, psychological, and emotional gauntlet of the 8-month-long audition process. In a way, the film takes kids who could have (and probably did) come from the High School for the Performing Arts and shows the reality of trying to do this for a living. And finally, the documentary about the infamous 1981 Sondheim/Prince production Merrily We Roll Along, which dizzyingly went from sure-fire career-making hit to an overnight flop that closed after only 16 shows. 35 years later, the film's director, Lonny Price, a former cast member, interviews his colleagues about life, lessons learned, and paths taken and not taken. This film takes our earnest and ambitious performers on another, crucial stop on the performer journey: perspective and how the dreams of youthful ambition shape themselves around different kinds of lives on and off the stage.

"I dare you to do an episode about bearer bonds!" -Fraser Rice, Host, 'Wealth Actually' Podcast CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! Many thanks to my guest, Kiah Lau Haslett for her insightful, funny, and (very important for a guy who counts on his fingers) easy-to-understand bearer bond background.  You can read her excellent piece on the history of bearer bonds here. Also, I've changed the name of the podcast. More on that in a future episode.

In this installment of Sacred Cows, I take a fresh and possibly first look at 'Die Hard', John McTiernan's action classic that I can't remember if I ever actually saw before.   It turns out there is plenty of subversive stuff going on beneath all the action, and it's no wonder that the film did such boffo box office...and also all the more disappointing that it went on to spawn such apparently uninspired sequels; something all the more ironic given the original film's general distaste for Capitalism, greed, and middle-manager icompetence. It ALSO turns out that the love story at the center of 'Die Hard' might just be a little more surprising than the film would at first blush own up to. Join me, won't you?? You know all the famous lines, but let's kick the tires on 'Die Hard' and find out if it's GOATed status is deserved...or deserving of a 40-story free fall off the Nakatomi Tower.

SEQUELS... In this episode, I take a look at one of the most infamous film debacles of all time: John Boorman's ill-advised, poorly conceived, crowd-displeasing follow-up to one of the greatest and most popular horror films ever made. How could it go wrong? From the start, throughout, and even after release. Let me count the ways. Also, a bit on our current moment of performative reclamation of movies that are just demonstrably awful. Resist!

One of the great newspaper movies, a great NYC location movie, a great set-dressing movie, a great acting movie...on and on. The Paper deserves more recognition; it's aged particularly well as a love letter to and from a very particular time in the media business.