Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 228. Allan Arkush

Episode Date: October 8, 2018

Emmy-winning director and producer Allan Arkush entertains Gilbert and Frank with tales of working at the late, great Fillmore East, crossing paths with Ol' Blue Eyes (and Groucho!) apprenticing for the legendary Roger Corman and directing the cult classic "Rock 'n' Roll High School."  Also, Jackie Mason fails to connect, Malcolm McDowell talks to his crotch, Bruce Willis locks horns with Cybill Shepherd and "A Hard Day's Night" changes Allan's life forever. PLUS: P.J. Soles! "The Girl Can't Help It"! In praise of Alexander & Karaszewski! Zacherle introduces the Grateful Dead! And Allan (reluctantly) remembers "Caddyshack 2"! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit mila.ca to learn more. Hi, this is Tom Holland with Frank and Gilbert on Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast. They're both brilliant, and I'm trying to keep up. Listen in. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. I'm here once again with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and we're once again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Furtarosa. Our guest this week is a producer, occasional actor, film director, and Emmy-winning television

director who's directed dozens of critically acclaimed TV shows, including Fame, St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, Parenthood, I'll Fly Away, Crossing Jordan, and Heroes, as well as numerous episodes of Moonlighting and the memorable Dancing Baby episode of Ally McBeal. dancing baby episode of Ally McBeal. He's also directed popular music videos for Bette Midler and Elvis Costello, and he was awarded a Best Director Emmy for his work on the NBC miniseries The Temptations. His feature films include Bloodsport, Hollywood Boulevard,

which he co-directed with former guest Joe Dante, Heart Beeps, Elvis Meets Nixon, the vastly underappreciated comedy Get Crazy, and one of the most beloved and iconic films of the 1970s, Rock and Roll High School. In a career spanning five decades, he's worked with Mick Jagger, Andy Kaufman, with Mick Jagger, Andy Kaufman, Smokey Robinson, Lou Reed, Malcolm McDowell, Bruce Willis, Jerry Garcia, the Ramones, and even Frank Sinatra, as well as former podcast guests Ed Begley, Chevy Chase, Howard Kalin, Andrea Martin, and Dick Miller. Please welcome to the show, former usher and stagehand at the legendary Fillmore East, a deadhead, a raconteur, an amateur musicologist, and a man who survived working for both Roger Corman and Caddyshack 2

and lived to tell about it, the multi-talented Alan Arkish. Boy, that was so complete. We're completists, Alan. You are. It goes well beyond the IMDB. You actually found my bio somewhere. Well, we pieced it together.

You've done a lot of cool stuff. All that's needed now is we get you an affordable coffin and bury it. Like the one Zachary used to get on. Two minutes in and he's got a Zachary reference.

I got a Zachary story. Go ahead. Go right ahead. Okay, so are you guys from Northern Jersey? No, he's from Brooklyn. I'm from Queens. Okay. Close enough. We all were, as they say, tri-state area.

Yeah, yes. We all went through Million Dollar Movie. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And Zachary's Monster Show. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, and Chiller Theater, all that.

All that stuff. So, obviously, I was a huge fan, you know, and watched Zachary. stuff so uh obviously i was a huge fan you know and watched zacherly and the a weekend at the film more east and i'm talking now february 1970 the open one of the greatest weekends of music ever there uh the opening act was a group from la called love with arthur lee second on the bill were the almond brothers and the headliner was the Grateful Dead. Wow. And there was no curfew. And they were there for three nights, and the first night, Fleetwood Mac came and jammed. And that was the Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green. And the Grateful Dead brought a sound man with them by the name of Stanley Augustus Owsley.

And Owsley was also the creator of Sunshine Acid. And not afraid to use it. And Zachary came by on the Friday night show as a fan, as John Zachary walking around. And of course, he was like a hit backstage and everything. And then everyone decided that he had to come back Saturday night late show to introduce The Grateful Dead. I mean, who better? So early in the evening, I was putting the water bottles backstage.

And I turned my back on Osley and two of the dead roadies, names like Ramrod and Parrish. And they put something in the water. and two of the dead roadies, names like Ramrod and Parrish. And they put something in the water. And so everyone who drank from the backstage water was completely dosed. And it was a great evening of music. And as the late show, after the almonds played for like two and a half hours, now we're talking we're at three in the morning. This coffin comes down the aisle with spotlights on it with ushers carrying it dressed in black.

And they bring it up on the stage and tilt it up and the coffin opens and out steps Zachary. Completely dosed. And he looks out at everyone and he says, it's the grateful goddamn dead. And he climbs back in the coffin, they close it. They took him out. Best intro of their careers. You can buy that show. Wow. We wanted to get him for this

show when we started. Obviously, he's somebody who was right up our alley. He wasn't well. He wasn't well. And Million Dollar Movie, I forget the name of the theme song. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da of an apartment building, a few apartment buildings, and lights going on, each one. That's right, yeah. Of course.

Well, as we established before we turned on the mics, that Alan is a tri-state area guy like us, from Jersey. So he grew up with Million Dollar Movie, and all of that stuff. Yeah, Murray the K. Murray the K. Yeah.

Yeah. And Schiller. Murray was my guru. Murray was my window into the universe once I discovered him. Yeah. Yeah. And Schiller. Murray was my guru. Murray was my window into the universe once I discovered him. Yeah. Yeah. I never heard Murray the K on the radio. Did you?

I used to listen to the good guys. I, oh God. It's so strange. He was on 1010 Winds. Yeah. 1010 Winds. Yeah. Eight o'clock to 11 o'clock every night.

Yeah. I discovered him for myself about 1958. So that was my musical education was through murray it's so weird growing up they were like yeah like five guys and you on the radio we just lost dan ingram oh yeah a couple of a couple of weeks ago he was one it was harry harrison right cousin brucey oh cousin brucey oh frankie crocker yeah yeah yeah of weeks ago. He was one. It was Harry Harrison, right? Cousin Brucie. Oh, Cousin Brucie. Oh, Frankie Crocker. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah.

If you listen to FM, Scott Muni. The professor. Oh, wow. Scott Muni's name came up last week. We had Rondell's name. Allison something,

the Nightbird. Allison Steele. Allison Steele, the Nightbird. The Nightbird. She's on that wonderful Billy West does Larry Fine at Woodstock.

Oh, my God. Are you familiar with this one, Alan? No. Oh, I'm going to change your life. We're going to send you Larry Fine at Woodstock. Introduced by Alison Steele. But Million Dollar Movie, I mean, that and your local movie theater,

the Lee Theater. Yes, Lee Theater. Is kind of, am I right in saying that that's kind of your introduction to cinema? Yeah. And your dad was a film buff too. Yeah, my father was a film buff and he would recommend movies to me, certainly to watch on TV.

And they took me, I used to go to the Lee Theater and I distinctly remember seeing Rio Bravo there. Uh-huh. House on Haunted Hill. Oh, sure. Did you see that in a Merjo? Yes, but they didn't have as many gimmicks you know unlike joe dante i did not have a theater in my neighborhood that played like uh tarantula and a lot of those movies the fort the lee theater was straighter you know it's if you wanted to see old Yaller, you would go.

But you had the Linwood Theater too, didn't you? Yes, yes. And the Lee Theater, I think it was July 6th, 1964, changed my life. Now, Tarantula, which was, you know, a ripoff of Them, and Them's more respected. And yet yet I think Tarantula's a much more fun movie. It is more fun. It's less believable than Tarantula.

Ha ha ha! Oh, you have to give up. Again, how often do you get Tarantula's attacked by planes and there's a line in Tarantula where the general says, how are we going to kill him? And he says, napalm. And one of the pilots in the plane that kills the tarantula is Clint Eastwood.

Wow. How about that? He's got a mask over his face. You could just see his eyes. I love the way Joe sends up that stuff in matinee. Oh, yeah. So wonderful. So spot on. Joe told me that Tarantula was the first movie that absolutely freaked him out.

And he had to run out of the theater and little Joe Dante pacing in the lobby can't decide whether he should go back in and see what happens or you know he felt that the tarantula was too scary. He went back in. Yeah. And I remember the special effects that the tarantula was too scary. He went back in. Yeah. And I remember the special effects, like the tarantula's feet never actually touched the ground. Exactly.

But 64 in the Lee Theater, that was a turning point. That was a turning point. That was the first night of a hard day's night. And I was a big music fan was the first night of a hard day's night and i was a big music fan a beetle fan and you know i think before that when i went to see movies i saw movies that were exotic in the sense of look i loved lawrence of arabia and west side story they're all movies but they were not my life you know they were something you went to see that was spectacle or real bravo or shane or any of those and even movies my parents took me to but i went to that movie thinking i

knew something about the beatles beforehand which was a rarity you know and uh knowing the subject matter and richard lester transformed it you know, and did a visual equivalent of what I was feeling inside when I heard the Beatles. And there's, yeah. There's a scene in the train car where they sing I Should Have Known Better with a Girl Like You. At about the three-quarter point after the guitar solo, you know, everyone's bouncing around in the train.

The camera's outside the cage that they're in. And all of a sudden the camera starts dancing with them. And it's like the cameraman can't resist the Beatles. And I was thrown back in my seat. I couldn't believe it. It was like the Beatles had reached out. And I realized that someone was actually making this movie. You know, that someone had said, okay, now bounce, you know, that it was directed. And that was the first movie that I really started thinking about directing.

That early? Unlike when the Beatles were on TV, everybody wanted to form a band. When I saw Hard Day's Night, I I said I'd like to make a movie so you'd been seeing films like King Kong and Rio Bravo and all of these things and just enjoying them as a filmgoer and how old are you at this point?

16 so that's pretty young to know what you want to do what's funny about Hard Day's Night is it seems like the intention was probably just like with the Elvis movies, like make something quick and turn in a quick buck while it's hot. Absolutely, yeah. And it was transformed into something totally different. Yeah, David Picker, who produced it and who I worked with on The Temptations, told me all the inside stuff.

And that when he hired Richard Lester and David Picker started seeing the dailies, he was very excited. But he couldn't get anyone back in UA to watch it back in Los Angeles. As a matter of fact, he came to LA with the finished print of it, and he couldn't get them to show it, to look at it. They were, it'll be fine, to look at it. They were, it'll be fine, it'll be fine. They were so shocked when the reviews came out. It's also interesting that the Beatles knew their onions.

I mean, they knew who Lester was. Yes, they'd seen Jumping Standing Still or something like that. Yeah, and they knew, they knew the sellers stuff. They knew, you know,

they knew, they knew the goons. Oh yeah, yeah. They weren't novices. Have you met Lester in your travels? I wish I had because I've certainly stolen enough stuff from him. You pumped Malcolm McDowell for some information?

I think we did talk about it. We certainly talked about Stanley Kubrick. That's right. Malcolm's in the Royal Flash. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We talked a lot about Kubrick and Lindsay Anderson, who I admire tremendously. Yeah, we'll ask you about Lindsay Anderson.

And how did you start getting into the business, actually? I didn't go to film school right away. Fort Lee High School was not a great school. And I was like a B, B plus student with good college boards and a bad attitude. Sounds familiar. Yes, yes. And, you know, I was against the war in Vietnam. I was a troublemaker. And I didn't get great recommendations. So I ended up in a Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which was at that point all men and an Amish country. And so now the 60s are in full force and I'm in Amish country.

And I went to the newsstand one day and there was that Herald Tribune and a front page story written by a writer that I admire tremendously, Tom Wolfe. And a front page story written by a writer that I admire tremendously, Tom Wolfe. And it was about Ken Kesey and people taking LSD. It was the first chapter of what became a running cereal, which eventually became electric acid Kool-Aid test. And so I read this thing and I'm going, okay, that's it. The world is moving and I am in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So I sat down with my parents and I begged and they let me apply to schools to transfer, and I ended up at NYU and lived in the East Village.

My down-the-block neighbor was Allen Ginsberg. Fantastic. And at that time, there were three political parties. There was the Democrats, there was the Republicans, and there was the motherfuckers. And the motherfuckers lived in my building. And they had a very simple platform. Everything should be free. And it was a wild building.

What part of the East Village is this, Alan? Because Gilbert lived in the East Village. Second Avenue and 10th Street, 159. Second Avenue and 10th Street. Where were you? Yeah, I used to live on Avenue A. Yeah. Oh, my God. When were you there?

Oh, yeah. Well, it's so weird to think now, like, when we first moved in there, people were saying, are you out of your mind living on Avenue A? Because A was horrible. B and C were, it C was like the death penalty. Oh, yeah. And now it's like you can't afford places on B and C. Yeah, you go down there for a nice dinner.

Yeah. So you knew Ginsburg and did you know Abbie Hoffman too? Well, I saw him in the bodega. You didn't really know him okay and abby hoffman was uh i believe fucking one of the motherfuckers and uh so he was in and out of our building all the time and so i was at nyu and in my junior year of nyu uh a teacher got fired and they needed a substitute and and I hit the jackpot. They hired someone who had graduated two or three years earlier who was now looking for work, and that was Marty Scorsese.

About that. Wow. And Marty became my film history teacher and then my film production teacher, and I took a summer workshop, and he was my faculty advisor and all that kind of stuff. And it changed my life. And you wound up scoring him tickets for the band. You've seen my trail smell. Marty always wanted tickets because he knew I worked at the film work. So he was basically a Schnorr Haven back then.

But he had to see the band from the fourth row. And I think he went to see the dead and he liked this band, which I could never understand why he liked them. They were called Spooky Tooth. Spooky Tooth. Yeah, sure. He was really into Spooky Tooth. And jumping out of the interview

for just a second and being self-aware, for anyone having drinking games, listening, I said, wow. Oh, okay, good. Yeah. We've done so many of these now, Alan.

The fans are locked in on the things that Gilbert says. Oh, okay. And they've started drinking games. Yeah, so take a swig or a puff. Yeah, because there's no acid in the drinking water. They're not having as much fun as you did. How did you get to, I'm trying to get the chronology of this. You're at NYU, you're studying with

Scorsese. At what point, what was this? Somebody decided to make a porno? Was that the previous teacher? Yeah, the previous teacher. I knew you guys would get to this. You do very deep research.

Yes. All right. Gilbert, listen closely. Yes. Once you say porn, you don't have to tell me. I'm just trying to get the whole chronology. There was a class called Fundamentals of Filmmaking, and what it was is everyone got 10 minutes of film,

and you made a film with your 10 minutes of film for the semester. And that's something to tell the audience that actual film. Yes, it was 16 movies. Oh, yeah, movie-olas and right? Yeah, movie-olas. And we had these Kodak, I can't remember the number. Oh, Film-Os and I-Mos. Wow.

And they were cast iron. They were made for the military. And you could drop them down a flight of stairs and they wouldn't break. I remember Olex's. So it was actual film that you could touch. It wasn't her. Yeah. I'll tell you, Lloyd. And you had 10 minutes of it for the

semester. And you were supposed to write something. And what happened is the teacher said, you know what? How about if we all pull our film together? I'll give you all A's and we'll make a porno and make a little money. And they made it. And then they showed it to the school.

Now, to be fair, the name of the porno was these raging loins. So it was, it was not that porny, you know. Soft core. It was pretty soft core. And Harry, the teacher, got fired.

Yeah. And that's how Marty came in. And Marty, we went on strike, actually, when Marty joined us. And Marty helped lead the strike. Wow. Because we only had three classrooms. The famous NYU Film School could be housed on less than one floor of a building. And we didn't have any equipment.

And we went on strike. And we wanted a class for ourselves about American film without the rest of the school. Because we'd all seen Citizen Kane. It was now time to see the good stuff. And we got our class. And we got the Servoroatian library thrown off our floor and we took over their classrooms

and then Marty had this incredible course called American Movies. How about that? Good timing for you. Oh, it was, you know,

I was, I had obviously seen some of these movies and not the ones he showed necessarily but, you know, this was the days

of Godard and Truffaut. Sure. He was always into Powell and Pressburger, too, and that stuff. The first movie he showed in class was Shock Carter by Sam Fuller. Oh, Fuller, yeah. That was the opening salvo.

Grow up in a hurry. This is not your mother's film course, you know? So let's get the chronology of this. When do you get to the Fillmore? When did you? I went there, I guess it was my first year at NYU, which was fall of 68, spring of, fall of 67, spring of 68. I graduated in 1970 and I bought tickets to the,

I was going to concerts and I bought tickets to the first show at the Fillmore. And that was Big Brother and the Holding Company. And I then went and saw The Who there. And I would buy like the $2 – it was $3, $4, and $5 a ticket. Wow. So I'd buy the $3 ticket and hang out in the lobby. And there's an empty seat I'd go down to. So I saw Hendrix. And I saw just a lot of people.

And one of my roommates and a couple of people I knew were ushers at the Fillmore. And one of them said, you know, two nights a weekend, I want to go out and have some fun. I don't know what he was thinking. So he said, will you take over one of my nights? I said, absolutely. So I started working as an usher and uh I was if you walked in the theater and you were in the lobby I was on the left and you had to go past me and I tell you what seats to be in and um

that was what I did for about five months and And then there was an opening on the stage crew, and I joined the stage crew. And my job on the stage crew was to get the beer, soda, and food for the bands, as well as work on the crew and do crew work. $250, $350, and $450. No, it was $350, $450, and $550 because of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Unbelievable. They forced them to raise the price. Right, outrageous. And that was a time in New York

when they had all those movie revival theaters, broken down theaters, that would show movies that sometimes you've never heard of. You're going to make me cry, guys. The St. Mark's Cinema was still there. Oh, and the Thalia. Right, and the Thalia. Right.

And the Regency. And the New Yorker. And the New Yorker. And the Garrick and the Bleeker. Correct. And the Elgin. And the 8th Street Playhouse. And the St. Mark's used to be a dollar. Yes, and there was these second-run theaters where you'd get to see two relatively current movies

all over the place. And they would start to do a double feature where there was a connection between the first and second movie. If it wasn't the same director, it was a similar subject matter. Yeah, and I spent an entire summer in the Thalia every day. That was the one that was narrow and long. And you looked uphill and every day they'd have another pair

of foreign films. So my, summer of my junior year, that's what I did. Every, in the afternoon. They had that weird paved floor where the seat,

where it went uphill and you had to look. It was very strange. Yeah. Yeah. It's now the Leonard Nimoy Theater. Is it? Wow.

Yeah, but it's not, it's not a movie house anymore, but at least they preserve it as a theater, which is better than turning it into a dental office. So that was my life. You know, the Fillmore on weekends and at night, you know. Amazing.

And film school. And then when I graduated from film school, I was offered a job working for the Psychedelic Light Show at the Fillmore. I had used them to make the titles for one of my student films, like a James Bond title, so to speak. And so I joined the light show. And there were no film jobs. I mean, basically, all of us at film school had only heard of one person

who had gone to film school and directed anything, and that was Francis Coppola. Right. That was Hofstra? Yeah. It was at Hofstra originally, I think. Yeah, it was UCLA. Transferred to UCLA.

Yeah. mixing those liquids and those swirling lights. And I ran the dimmer boards and was basically like directing which projectors to go on and off and which films were going to run behind the bands. And I did that from 70 to 73. Actually, I went to England and we did light show in England with The Who and The Grateful Dead. Wow.

And festivals and over to Amsterdam for the Pink Floyd and, you know, all that stuff. That was, I wasn't, you know, I was completely broke. But wow, what a, you know, I look back on it. How did, what was the first thing, no matter how like non-paying it was, we said, oh, I'm doing a movie. Well, I did my student film at NYU about my life in the film war. And then I was very close friends with

a guy by the name of John Davison. And John is Joe's best friend. And John went on to produce Airplane and just a whole bunch of great movies, you know. RoboCop and lots of other things. And Jonathan Kaplan, who I'm still, we still have. Over the Edge.

Over the Edge, exactly. One of my favorites. And Jonathan got a phone, we were all broke, you know, and we're trying to find work. And Jonathan gets a phone call, and I'm going to say 72 or 70, somewhere in that time frame. And the person at the other end on the phone says, Hello, Jonathan, this is Roger Corman. Aha. And Jonathan goes, Okay.

We are doing a movie out here, and the director has quit, and we're wondering if you'd be interested. Now, he hangs up. He thinks it's John Davison call. And the phone rings. He goes, don't hang up, young man. This really is Roger Corman. And what had happened is that they had started a movie called Night Call Nurses.

Night Call Nurses. And the catch line was, Night Call Nurses. They come when you call. I remember it. So, Roger says to Jonathan, you know, I need to start this move. Well, Jonathan got the job because

Marty was working for Roger doing Boxcar Bertha. Right. And Roger needed a director now. And so, Jonathan won first prize at the National Student Film Festival. It was the best one in our class. And Roger called him. And Jonathan was flabbergasted.

Roger said, I want you to get on a plane tomorrow and fly out here. Because we're going to start shooting in two weeks. So you need to rewrite the script and prepare in two weeks. Can you do that? And Jonathan was like flabbergasted. He's a New Yorker, grew up on the Upper West Side, you know, and all he could think of, and he said to Rogers, I don't know how to drive.

It's not such a problem. And Roger, as he does, cuts right to the chase. I don't care if you can drive. Can you direct? Jonathan said, yes. And find someone to drive you. And Jonathan's aunt had to drive him around. Hilarious.

Wow. That's fantastic. And so Jonathan got the first job, and he made Night Call Nurses. And then he came back. And by then, I was back from England and driving a cab. I broke. And John Davison was sort of hanging around in L.A. trying to get a permanent job with Roger. And Jonathan gets a phone call from Roger six weeks after Night Call Nurses is open.

And it's Roger, and he says, Night Call Nurses is doing very well in the country. Because he did territories, you know? And he says, if we get the kind of numbers I think we'll get, we should do another one. So just rewrite the story and make it teachers. We'll call it the student teachers. And that was Jonathan's next job. And John got a permanent job working for Roger. And they were saying, come on out here.

So I saved up all my cab driving money. And by now, John's working there and Jonathan and Joe Dante. And John and Joe were the entire post-production advertising and sales department. I mean, they didn't sell to the theater owners but they were doing all the ads and all the trailers and now there's a lot of work and roger was booming now all of a sudden he had foreign pictures so you know john i had been living in john's apartment i think just to get me out of there uh he offered me a job at fifty dollars a week and i took it you know and so i was then jo Joe's assistant and working for Roger.

These are great days. And the talent that was there. Okay. First job. First day. We needed music for a trailer to a movie. You guys are buff, so you'll know the punchline here. It's caged heat.

So I go to's caged heat. So I go to the caged heat editing room, and I don't even know how to run a moviola in 35 millimeter. This is my first day. And I had run it in 16. I figured it was the same. And in those days, Rogers never made color work prints. He only made black and white work prints.

And you'd edit the movie in black and white, and then you saw it in color when it was in the theater. And so I'm watching this on this movie, although one single track in black and white, this women in prison movie. And it's pretty good. And I certainly got a share of naked girls in the shower fighting and all that. But there was this,

Barber Steel was great, didn't it? Barber Steel. There was this subplot about controlling the women with lobotomies that was pretty hard hitting. And I'm really enjoying it. And as I'm changing the reels, I really like the music. And there's a guy there who's watching me watch the movie. And I say, this is really good. He goes, thank you.

I'm the director. And I said, oh, Alan Arkush, what's your name? And he say, this is really good. He goes, thank you. I'm the director. And I said, oh, Alan Arkush, what's your name? And he says, Jonathan Demme. And I say,

I really like the music, Jonathan. He says, well, have you ever heard of The Velvet Underground? I said, sure have.

He says, that's John Cale. And he did the score for me. And that's how I met Jonathan. And I did the trailer for Crazy Mama. Her whole family's crazy. And that's how I met Jonathan. And I did the trailer for Crazy Mama. Her whole family's crazy! And fighting that.

Bogdanovich and Coppola had moved on by this point. Oh yeah. They had passed through. Yes, and because of their experience with Roger, that he got on the film student kick, and he used their career as leverage to get Hollywood Boulevard made.

Right. And that trailer is unforgettable. I still remember it. But I want to talk about some of the people who were there. I mean, Tina Hirsch, who became a big editor. Tina taught us everything. We didn't even know that the sound was supposed to be labeled in red and the film in black.

Tina was like, guys, you got to learn some of this. Was Demi, you mentioned, obviously Jonathan Kaplan, who made some terrific movies. Was Paul Bartel hanging around? Oh, God, I love Paul and I miss Paul. Yeah. What a funny performer. Paul was like the maitre d' of the editing room, you know. It was like a crowd of us,

and everyone was working on the same things, and Paul, obviously, Death Race 2000, and he was working on other stuff, and he'd come by for lunch, and we'd walk around the corner, the place called the Studio Grill, which is now a Rao's restaurant, and we'd all have lunch together and talk movies, and whoever was working on a movie

at that time whether it be lewis teague or cronenberg or john sales or whatever it was just crowded around the table talking movies wow all that talent yeah it was wonderful did you have any idea at the time i guess you've been asked this question you know in hindsight you know like the stuff at the film or did Did you know these are wondrous days? I'm in on the ground floor of something. Well, let me give you one catch line that I did for a movie called TNT Jackson. Okay.

TNT Jackson shall put you in traction. So, no. Cover girl models, they don't need clothes to strike a pose. You know, the thought that something would go beyond this. That was it. You were just trying to get through the weeks. But of course, we did AmarCore trailer.

Right. Yeah, I was going to say, Corman doesn't get enough credit. I mean, we laugh at his approach to filmmaking. It's very colorful. But for introducing American audiences to those films, the Fellini stuff, he doesn't get enough credit. You introduced Fellini to American audiences

basically like it was some cheap porn film, didn't you? Well, that's true. That's true. That was the mandate. You know, Joe and I and John go to the screening room and Roger says he's going to screen a movie. And he had a funny smile on his face. He says, I need a trailer on Monday kind of thing.

And it's Amber Court. And when it's over, you know, that's a genius movie. That's not, that's prime Fellini. And we were just flabbergasted. Roger, Amber Court says, yes, I know, boys. And wow, we got to cut this together. And Rogers says, boys, boys, boys, calm down. I know it's Fellini.

But we're still selling the same thing, sex and violence. Now, the woman with the big breasts, I want that in the show. The boys masturbating in the car, that goes in the trailer. The race car is going by gotta have that and and we cut the trailer together joe cut it really and it's a brilliant trailer and uh but it was like four and a half minutes long and roger came in on monday or whatever it was and uh watches it and uh he says can we make it shorter you know and we, you know, we tried over the weekend. And John will attest to it.

And John said, we could make it shorter and still keep it Fellini. And the smart intelligence and instinct of Roger says, well, then let's give them Fellini. And it had everything in there, and the picture opened huge. I think of the Corman stories, there were so many great ones. You know, the dropping acid. Didn't you have like some kind of catchphrase in the trailer? Well, all the time.

But for the Fellini one, it really made it sound filthy. I don't remember that one. Sorry. Sorry,'t remember that one. Sorry. Sorry, we'll find... I don't remember that. I certainly remember Eat My Dust and all the other funny... Roger goes,

can you get away with that boy? I was going to say, go ahead. And we kind of caught on. See, we had worked there through one summer and we caught on that at the end of the summer when the equipment was not being used and when he had no movies to get in the theater right away he would he said well i think you should take a vacation you've worked so hard and when you come back in two weeks i will rehire you you know And so it was on us. So the second summer, we said, you know, we're living real close to the edge here.

You had two pairs of pants. How'd you know? Yeah. I saw an interview with you. Two pair of pants. Three shirts and two pairs of pants? Two pairs of pants, yeah. Was it 85 bucks a week?

Well, no, at that point, I was really was it 85 bucks a week well no i was at that point i was really living it i was up to like 150 wow okay yeah but to direct my first movie i had to take a salary cut right uh and so we we wanted to keep working we wanted to make a movie and we've been writing treatments and all this stuff and john talked talked Roger into letting us make a movie while the equipment was not being used and while we weren't cutting trailers. And the idea was it would have, we sold it to Roger, which John did on a movie that would have more action than any other of Corman's movies.

And what the deal was, we took all the action from all the trailers and all the action pictures, every Corman movie that we had worked on and some from earlier days and wound a story around about murders on the movie set. And we shot new close-ups and, well,

plot is too big a word for how they're connected. For Hollywood Boulevard? Yes. But we got paid $85 each for making it. The trailer stays with me all these years later, Alan. Girls in bikinis, girls without bikinis,

witty remarks, axe murders, kung fu, and my favorite, green meatballs. It's a great trailer. The reason we got to do it is because Roger did something similar

with Coppola and with Bogdanovich. He had bought, in that case, outer space movies and stuff, and they had shot new monsters for them. And so that was in his head, and he told us where there was footage that we could use. So all the stuff in the drive-in is stuff from Coppola movies and from the terror and things like that. And, you know, I am the luckiest person to have been friends with John Davison and Joe Dante, you know, because they are, we all share this experience, but they are film buffs of the highest order. That's nice. You know, and they, if you guys had known us then, they had a vault full of 16 millimeter movies, all illegally purchased. In those days,

yeah, you had to do it that way. They had hundreds of them and that's, there was no VCRs. There was a 16 millimeter projector at John's and a 16 at Joe's

and 16 at my house and that's what we did. Every night, we'd grab a couple movies out of the vault and run them and I got an education. I'll bet.

In cinema from their point of view. And we also, they had a lot of great foreign movies. It just was so eclectic. And Roger really lucked out. I mean, yes, we all thank him. But he was lucky that we were there because we were film students who loved Bellini and loved all that. And John and Joe knew everything about Roger's movies, everything. So all of a sudden, these people come together.

Yeah. And they are not shocked by what Roger's saying. That's not beneath them. It's what they want to do. And yet when Roger would say, I have the new Kurosawa movie, we were excited beyond belief. And he didn't have to tell us how to cut the trailers anymore. And once we did Hollywood Boulevard,

he knew that we could direct. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. It was great. I think it was John either how he became his assistant or got his own movie that he made a bet with Corman. That's it, on Hollywood Boulevard,

that we can make a movie cheaper and with more action than anything Roger had made this year. And so we made Hollywood Boulevard for $75,000. Joe and I each got $85 for directing it. I love the in-jokes, too, in Hollywood Boulevard. I love, is this the end of Rico? I mean, it's so clearly made by guys who are watching movies 24-7 and just getting off on this stuff.

Sometimes we say, how could we make for our first picture basically the film equivalent of a Roman a clef? Yeah, it's ballsy. It's all about, it's full of in-jokes about Roger and each other, and Paul Bartel plays the director who hates all the actors. Miracle pictures. Oh, yeah. Good picture.

Did Roger appreciate the jokes at his expense? He really liked it. He really liked it. Okay, good. And when we showed him the second cut, there was a scene in it where this producer is saying, see this shirt? $100. How about that, Ma?

Like he's talking to the camera. And the second cut, we had cut it out for whatever reason. Roger said, what happened to the producer talking about his shirt? We didn't see much change. It is very good, boys. He deserves that shirt. He's a good producer.

Put it back in. Two directors, no waiting. Oh, that was our motto. What was some of the craziest money-making, not money-making, money-saving things that Roger Corman ever did? Well, he was always trying to talk us into not using lights at night. Did he use car headlights? That's it.

Because it had worked for him on Creature from the Haunted City. Right, that's right. He told us that. Right. And when he says this kind of stuff, you just go, yes, he knows, you know. I mean, I did this thing called Blast. He owned a blaxploitation picture called The Final Come Down that had Billy Dee Williams in it. And once Lady Sings the Blues was out,

it was a big hit. And so Raj says, why don't you, Ellen, why don't you recut this movie and take out all that political talk, you know, and then we'll shoot some new scenes for three days, you know, action scenes. So I recut the movie and I felt a little uncomfortable. So I actually called up Oscar Williams Jr.

who had written and directed and told him what I was taking out and so forth. And I said, you know, I'll keep stuff in, Oscar. I don't want to ruin what she says. Just make sure Roger sends me a check. And that was it. And we shot for three days. So I'm sitting, you know, Roger's looking at the cut. And he says to me, when the cut is over, you know, I shot for three days,

car chases and, youases and explosions and stuff. And he looks at it and he says, Alan, have you seen many of David Lean's movies? Where is this going? He says, you need to study David Lean. You need more foreground, midground, and background when you stage a scene. And John Cain Holmes says, Roger, we shot this in three days. David Lean wins three days for the clouds, to be right.

But every bit of notes he was correct about. When you made a mistake, he'd explain to you as a director what you had done wrong. And as a producer, what the thrust of the movie was. So that's how Rock and Roll High School got made because he liked the idea of blowing up the high school that was it disco high was disco high and he

liked he realized that there was money in in music movies so that's why it was originally we'll get to rock and roll high school in a minute i just want to ask you if you have any recollection we had dick miller here if you have any recollection of meeting dick for the first time walter walter another walter paisley performance by the way yes i met dick on the set of hollywood boulevard and i kind of knew who he was um but not like joe and john knew who he was and you know what i guess i'd seen bucket of blood uh-huh and i love bucket of blood bucket of blood is one of my favorite corman movies. Yeah, it's fun. Oh, it's terrific. It's a scream. And it's deep, you know, killing

people for art, you know. Is that permissible? And so I guess that's when I started becoming friendly with Dick, you know, because Joe directed those scenes with Dick but then I used him in Rock and Roll High School.

Yeah. And I think on Fame, I got him a part on Fame. We all have worked with Dick. He's like your friend. Well, for Joe, he's a good luck charm, isn't he? Oh, yeah. I mean, Joe doesn't make anything without him. Exactly.

Dick was in Crossing Jordan. Right, right, right. Exactly. I, Vic was in crossing Jordan. Right, right, right. And now while Gilbert heads into the nutmeg kitchen to steal more Perrier, a word from our sponsor. Baseball is finally back. Get in on major league action and swing for the fences with BetMGM, the king of sportsbooks.

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This episode is brought to you by FX's The Bear on Disney+. In Season 3, Carmi and his crew are aiming for the ultimate restaurant accolade, a Michelin star. With Golden Globe and Emmy wins, the show starring jeremy allen white io debris and maddie matheson is ready to heat up screens once again all new episodes of fx's the bear are streaming june 27 only on disney plus

hi i'm mick garris and i'm with g'm with Gilbert Gottfried on the Amazing Colossal Podcast. And now, sadly, we return to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. What was that Corman story we loved? Was it the terror, the wonder that he made because it rained and he couldn't play tennis? Yeah. You know this? He was supposed to play. Sounds familiar.

Maybe he's told it to you himself. Oh, yeah. He had one day. The sets were still up. And he was going to play tennis. That's how we inherited the terror footage. Because that's why the footage from the terror is in Hollywood Boulevard. There you go.

Still trying to amortize it. Nothing ever went to waste at his government studios. No, that's for sure. How did you negotiate your way into making your high school musical? your way into uh into making your high school musical um roger wanted a high school movie and i had written uh in high school i used to have fantasies about um having a rock and roll band come to the school so i could get out of class and i used to visualize it every day along with motorcycle races in the hallways and things like that and go-kart races on the track. And the band who came to the school when I was in high school was the Rolling Stones.

And I had this idea, and over the years, I worked on the treatment of it. And Roger said, I need a high school movie, and I want you to do one with naked gymnastics in it. We'll call it. Bless his heart. Joe McBride, bless him, who's now one of the great film historians. I read his Capra book. Yes, and I just saw him the other

night. He's got a book on Lubitsch. We're talking serious. Terrific writer. Yes. So we start working together and Joe came up with the idea of blowing up the school. He suggested that. And we all just, that was it. That was where it was going to go. And the problem was

that it was still called Girls' Gym. We wanted the students to go out on strike and all this stuff. And then we never got a script the way we really, really wanted it. Because there was a movie that Roger was doing called death sport. And death sport was a movie all of us avoided. So that's how bad that script was.

We were all asked, you know, I had only done one movie for $85. Too bad it was billed by Roger Carman standards. He found a guy who had never directed before, had been a film student, and that guy got to direct Death Sport with David Carradine.

The problem was that David had just finished working with Ingmar Bergman and with Hal Ashby, and now he's doing this terrible biker picture. I don't know if you've seen my trailer from Hellabat. I haven't seen that one, but I'll watch it tonight.

It's all there in that one. And the director- Oh, he was coming off Bound for Glory. Yes. And so the director didn't work out. And Roger said, if you come back, because I have release dates,

and if you direct this, I will definitely make your musical. And so I did. I got a boost in salary. It's a tough negotiation. I got him up to $450 a week for writing, rewriting, directing, and cutting the trailers. And he said, Alan, you're in fat city.

So I finished Deathstroke, which is terrible, just terrible. And we just blew everything up. And that's how – and Joe McBride had done another draft. And then I met – I love this story. How I met the writers of – the final writers of Rock and Roll High School. You guys will truly like this. So because Joe and I were good guys, we looked at and we were hired. You hired film students.

That's who you hired. So film students, word was out and film students would send us their student films. And they would go to the office with the student films from everywhere. And they would say, oh, Joe and Alan will watch them. So we watched a lot of student films. And two guys from Carbondale, Illinois had sent them in. And we're now out in California. And we had their student film.

We were going to give it back with them and give it back to them and tell them it was nice. And we're going to meet them at the office. And they wanted to be writers. And as they're sitting there in the office of Corman, everyone sitting there was trying to become a mutant on Death Sport. They were looking for people to play mutants. And so, you know, the AD or the PA who was going, signing people up, and he comes up to Russ Devonsh and Richard Whitley, and he says to him, are you here to be mutants?

And they go, no, we're writers, but being a mutant sounds really good. And they became mutants. And that's how I got to know them on Death Sport. We gave them back their student film. And they said that they were writers. And so we gave them the script and they had a weekend to write.

I think the deal was 10 pages. And so they wrote 10 pages that was funny. So it was basically Joe's McBride structure and a lot of their jokes, you know. And so it worked out great, you know, and a lot of stuff. And it was, that's how they got that job. And as mutants, they were not so good.

And Roger still thought it was going to be about disco because disco was hot. You had be about disco because disco was hot. Yes, disco was hot, and I had to really explain to him that you just don't blow up a high school. But disco was not rebellious music. Exactly. It's also interesting how you settled on the Ramones because a couple of other bands were actually under consideration. Yeah, and we had a bunch of meetings. Yeah, Cheap Trick were the ones that closed us.

We first went to Todd Rundgren. Interesting. And he was really smart. And he read the script and he says, the problem is, guys, I think this is a serious movie, like Lindsay Anderson's If. Wow. Which was a huge influence on rock and roll high school.

And so, you know, props to Todd. What a compliment. Yes, and he didn't want to do it. And so, you know, props to Todd. What a compliment. Yes. And he didn't want to do it for the comedy, you know. And so I had a meeting at Warner Brothers and names were coming up and somebody said, do you guys know Sire Records? Do you?

I said, I have a lot of Sire Records, you know. I have Talking Heads and all that. And they said, well, how about the Ramones? And it was like a moment in that room where everyone got silent. I thought, that's a really funny idea. First verse, same as, you know, second verse, same as the first. Third verse, different from the first.

I mean, these guys are funny. And we went and met with their management. And I told them the whole story of the movie and put in Ramones songs in those places. I told them the whole story of the movie and put in Ramone's songs in those places. And it was Danny Fields and it was Seymour Stein's wife, Linda. And they were both smoking joints while I was telling the story and laughing and stuff. And then I said, and at the end, Ramones are outside the high school. And as they play the theme song to the movie, the high school blows up behind them. And they both said, we're in.

We're in. Fantastic. And didn't you or the other people you worked with there once make a movie where you said it was basically like the plot in real life, how you made the movie like the plot of the producers oh no no that's that's what happened that's crazy he got yeah he got bialy stocked yeah i when i went to do get crazy which was supposed to be for me about my life at the film more east yeah and um yeah the daniel stern character is you essentially yeah yeah and i couldn't get it sold. We went to this company, and they said that if I made it more like Airplane, which was a big hit, Airplane in a rock and roll theater, they would make it. And so we changed the script, and I did that, and that's the movie that's out there.

And then they decided that it didn't have a great preview, and people were confused why all these different bands were playing. And it was too much like a rock critics movie. And it was also very, very broad and fast paced. Broader than you wanted to make it. Yeah. Yeah. But it was funny.

It's like there's 1,500 punchlines and maybe only 700 jokes. So it's a lot of... And they decided that they could make more money by losing money. So they Bialy stocked it. So basically what they did

was they sold off all their shares to some kind of tax shelter group and then they put the movie out there and made sure that whatever the ads and the paper said, they didn't open it on that day. They'd have the ads be a week off. They would never show it to critics, but they'd invite critics.

And they basically did everything possible to defeat the movie. It was very, very disheartening. And that's how it came out, and it made no money, and they made a lot of money. And I met the guy who was in charge of the tax shelter group, and I told him what happened,

and he figured it out. But that's the movie that led me to television. So that was my next step from that movie. Before we get ahead, and I do want to ask a couple other things about get crazy gilbert gilbert love the bialy stalking thing i

just want just a couple i just i thought of that recently i was bialy stock yeah you've coined a phrase yes it's a verb a couple more quick questions about rock and roll high school which i love first of all pj souls who is the thinking man's sex symbol. Oh, yeah. That scene where the fantasy scene in her bedroom, where the Ramones show up, is a scene that has stayed with me for 40 years.

Okay. The truth about that scene? That scene is a shot-for-shot recreation of a scene from The Girl Can't Help It. Oh, no shit. Oh. The scene where Julie London sings Cry Me a River to Tom Ewell. Wow.

And it's fantasy. And about half the shots are very similar. I think she's in the shower, and that's how Dee Dee got in the shower and all that. So I was doing my homage to one of my favorite rock and roll movies. And all that. So I was doing my homage to one of my favorite rock and roll movies. And, of course, to me, Joey Ramone and to her, which is kind of the theme of the movie, to her, Joey Ramone was as sexy as Julie London was, you know, to Tom Ewell.

I have to say, too, I mean, it's a movie, you know, it's a movie loved by a lot of people. And it ends up being about a lot of things. I mean, it's not only a celebration of music, which is so much of what you're about, but it's about censorship and it's about nonconformity, you know? And it's- It's definitely about censorship. That goes back to my high school experiences and being told that I had to take back a book report

on Franny and Zoe because it wasn't in the school library. Interesting. I had written the book report. It was all the feelings about high school. It was interesting when I went back to my high school reunion after the movie was out. And Mr. Raimondo,

who's the school principal and who said things like, this is going to go on your permanent record. They'll follow you the rest of your life. Comes up to me at the reunion, we're so proud of you and all this stuff. And you did that movie, Rock and Roll High School. We like to think that we contributed to that. And I'm thinking, you didn't see that movie.

Wow. I blow up the school. It's a joyous film, Alan. It really is. And I saw it. And PJ's a really good character. And she's a good, I've had many, many young women come up to me over the years

and talk about how seeing that movie and seeing this young you know young woman you know get what she wants and write songs and be independent and not be held back by the rules a strong female protagonist who's not just treated as eye candy by the way gilbert was talking about double features that had some connection to each other i saw it it with Frederick Wiseman's High School. Oh, my God. That was another big influence. How's that for a double bill?

That's a great double bill. And they fit great together. They do. It opened really badly everywhere. But then in Chicago, late in that summer when it looked like it was dead, dead, dead, the strip in Chicago had openings on two re-releases. So it played in half the theaters with Grease

and the other half of the theaters with Dawn of the Dead. Wow. That's the synthesis. It's bye-bye birdie with monsters. Grady Sutton, by the way, who has a little part in the movie. Did he talk to you at all? Did you ask him? You're a film geek. Did you ask him about working with Fields and Harold Lloyd?

Oh, yes. And now you know. I kept calling him Cousin Claude. Cousin Claude, how are you doing? He's not in the movie very long. Also, the soundtrack. I don't know how you got that McCartney song, but well done. Danny Fields.

Okay. Oh, you know who didn't get the part of, and we want him to do it, but he was afraid of losing his pension. He was the last of the Stooges. Oh, Joe Derita? Joe Derita. Joe Derita was offered the part. Was going to be the principal.

But he didn't want to lose his pension. Or the administrator. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, I can say that to you guys, and you act like, of course. We've had whole shows about Joe Derita. Yes. By the way, Clint as Eagleburger,

let us not forget Clint. He's been here on this show. It's a wonderful performance, but it's a pretty original, audacious character. It's a little bit like Yossarian in Catch-22. A little bit, yeah.

We jump ahead to Caddyshack 2. What are you trying to ruin the guy's evening? Sure, yes, absolutely, yeah. Smart. Could we jump ahead to Caddyshack 2? What, are you trying to ruin the guy's evening? Sure. Yes, absolutely, man. I think we're on a roll. I'm older and more mature now. I can ruin it.

Gilbert shows no mercy, Alan. That's okay. Because we're going to talk about, you know. So, yeah, there's Caddyshack 1, major hit. Still, people love it. Although Doug Kenny was never happy with it. And so Caddyshack 2, just go right ahead, Ted. Okay, so I had developed a movie called National Lampoon Goes to College.

And it was about all the things you go through the interviews and the uh sats and i thought it was a you know a area good for mining from the lampoon yeah at warner's and uh warner's decided that they didn't want to make it and that they said but how about you direct the next uh caddyshack you know we're doing cadyshack 2. And if you want to do it, you'll be on an airplane in five days with John Peters and you'll fly to New York. And we're going to try to find you a star

because I think at that point, Rodney had already turned it down. And that's how, what's his name? Oh, Jackie Mason. Jackie Mason got in the movie. And so we went and we saw Jackie Mason on Broadway. And he was so great.

Yeah, he's funny. Oh, he killed. And I had all the Warner's people. I flew on the jet, you know. The movie was getting made. And I was going to stay and watch Jackie again the next night because I really wanted to get to know him and go out to dinner with him. And I invited my mother and all this stuff.

And the second night as I'm watching it, I noticed that he wasn't connecting with the audience. He was connecting with the audience for the jokes, but he was not reaching out to them. You know, he didn't move anybody, you know, with the material. It was jokes, jokes, jokes. But there wasn't that eye contact and all of that.

And it started to bother me. And when I got back to L.A., I went into John Peter's office. I said, you know, John, I know we all are sold on Jackie Mason, but I'm – Jackie's a great comedian. But I wonder if he has what it takes to be an actor, you know? And John said to me, don't turn a Go picture into a development deal. Wow. And so that's where we went with Jackie and, you know, Chevy was in it. Dan was great.

Dan Aykroyd was wonderful. Was Kennison involved for a couple of minutes or was that only when Rodney was? That I don't know. I think Kennison involved for a couple of minutes or was that only when Rodney was? That I don't know. I think Kennison was involved when Rodney dropped out. He dropped out too. And there was a writer's strike coming up. That doesn't help. And if you listen to Randy Quaid's Oh, he's funny.

Tyraids. Randy's really funny. He's funny, but it's definitely written for Kinison. Interesting. Yeah. If you really listen

to his Tyraids, they're Kinison Tyraids. Well, did you at least ask Robert Stack about working with Douglas Sirk in your favorite movie? And, you know,

Lou Bitch. That guy's into Be or Not To Be. That's right. He's into Be or Not To Be. That's right. He's into Be or Not To Be. Shame on me. But Written on the Wind. I know you love it.

You know you love it. I love Written on the Wind. Yeah. And, you know, it was great to be around Jackie. The thing was that Jackie, he learned the lines, but he didn't have the thing where he'd pick up cues, you know. He'd wait until everyone stopped talking and go, oh, it's my line, you know. So Masters, which is the key to comedy, never happened, you know. So it was kind of that shot in close-ups and tried to be made in the editing room and didn't work out.

And at that point, I vowed, you know what, stay with television. You just came off of Moonlighting, you know, and St. Elsewhere, why don just stick with that yeah you were making some uh making some great headway in television well you said you said the television kind of taught you to tell stories yes absolutely absolutely television is just driving the narrative and uh you know those two series uh moonlighting was the closest i've ever come to the kind of romantic comedies that I loved growing up I mean, I'll tell you guys will appreciate this We were doing a scene in Moonlighting where Sybil and Bruce have stolen a milk truck

and the truck is bouncing back and forth on the road and they're throwing milk bottles out at the people chasing them And there was something about the scene that reminded me of a scene in Preston Searches in Sullivan's Travels, when the big land cruiser is chasing Sullivan, and people are falling down. So I brought the tape in the next day,

and Gwen Karen comes down to set, and we watched the scene from Sullivan's Travels and discussed why it was funny in the framing and we recreated as much as we could that feeling on the set. I could not have been happier. That's great. Well, obviously he was a fan of screwball comedies to have come up with that premise in the first place

and cast it that way. Absolutely. And it was just a funny show. You did great work on that show. And of course I had to bring more dirt into it. Sure. I'm here for that. The two course, I have to bring more dirt into it. Sure. I'm here for that. Two co-stars hated each other.

That's true. They did not get along. And the thing was, and also, Glenn couldn't write the scripts until the last minute. So you got your pages for the next day around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. And that made her pissed off. She needed prep time. Yeah, civil temper. Yeah and bruce would learn yeah and bruce would learn his lines at the last minute so while i was prepping the show my first episode

i had no script so all i did was hang out on the set and i noticed that you got beat up as a director really badly if you said we'll do it both ways you know because they both had different opinions so um i never did that i said we're going to do it you know this way and uh luckily sybil was a big movie buff so i could talk to her about movie stuff and she gave me this whole lecture once about carrie grant and how he was the best reactor in movie history. No kidding. And that she was playing Cary Grant, the way he listens and the way he reacts and thinks on camera. And it was a great lesson in cinema.

She turned out to be a good comedian. Oh, yeah. Sybil Shepard. She got a lot of shit, obviously, early in her career. But they, you know, Bruce's rise was meteoric. Yeah. And it was her show to begin with and so that really played on it and they stopped talking to each other but they had this we would drive around i don't know if you remember they there's a lot of scenes in the bmw with them driving around and when we would shoot those scenes, as we went back to Fox,

they would have the microphones turned off. We couldn't hear what they were saying. And that's when they would talk, when they were locked in the car together. And there was this deep understanding that they'd have with each other. And there are times on that set when it was magic. Would you say that the tension between them

sometimes helped the relationship of the characters? Exactly. I noticed it once when the show went into reruns. And I watched one of my season openers. And the first scene was Sybil coming back from hiatus. Everything was very self-conscious, you know. And she was being funny.

And then Bruce came back and he was doing La Bamba and a funny hat. It was funny, but it wasn't I could feel them pushing you know and I had directed so I you know and then Bruce goes into her office and they just stand there and look at each other and I said there's the show there's the franchise you know interesting you know even after all those years I could smell it it shows like that or lightning in a bottle oh my't they? Oh, my God. Yeah. Oh, my God.

And so casting dependent. I got just a couple of more things about Get Crazy because I don't want to give it short shrift. First of all, that cast. I mean, we've been trying to get Bobby Sherman on the show, but Bobby Sherman and Fabian. Who thinks to cast Bobby Sherman and Fabian as two henchmen? That was me. It's inspired.

And Bobby had to get out of retirement. He was, you know, when an ambulance arrives, he's one of those guys. Yeah, he's an EMT. That's it. Yeah. That's it. Yeah, he's been out of the business a long time. But also those-

And Howard, Kalen. And Howard. We had Howard here. He's a- He's the greatest guy. A treat. It was so fun. It was so fun.

And, of course, a million turtle stories and John Densmore from The Doors. Yeah, it's a great cast. It's an eclectic cast. And the great Alan Garfield slash Gorwitz. Well, that part originally I wanted the guy who was originally in Law & Order, Jerry Orbach. Oh, Jerry Orbach. He looked to me like Bill Graham and he had the humor. Right.

So this is a film that was very personal to you based on your experiences at the film more you've got the bill graham character you're the daniel stern character by the way i urge the tragedy what happened in the film but i urge our listeners to find it on youtube and watch it yeah because it's just it's just got so much wonderful stuff in it and mcdowell thank you so much my god we uh nobody nobody plays an eccentric lunatic like Malcolm McDowell. You know, and he's like... With menace. He didn't want it.

He says, I can't do a movie where I talk to my dick. And I said, why not? He'd work with Kubrick. But he'd also done Caligula. Yes. And so he was intrigued by singing, you know, and playing that character because he knew Mick Jagger and he knew Rod Stewart. So the first night in the studio, he's going to sing Hot Shot, you know. And he gets about one verse in and he says, let me start over.

He does it again. He says, we all look at each other and he says let me start over he does it again he says we all look at each other and he goes I can't fucking sing at all he said we didn't want to say anything but I think we're in a little trouble here

you know we're going to have to do it line by line he says no here's what I'll do I'll do it as a recitation you know to heavy metal

so you guys you know work out the arrangement a little bit and I'll recite it and half sing it and that's what he did and it worked you guys, you know, work out the arrangement a little bit and I'll recite it and half sing it. And that's what he did and it worked. When you worked with Jagger, this is the obvious question,

you worked with Jagger and Bette Midler, did he have anything to say about this homage? No, he didn't. And what's interesting is that Mick Jagger is beyond comparison. And Bette, who hired us to do this video, was just as, intimidated is not the word, she just would get just as choked, you know,

by talking to Mick as we did. So she'd go, oh, I got to call him up. I'm so scared. I'm so nervous. And Harry was like, Bette, you know, come on. We're going to have a good time he was like bet you know come on we're gonna have a good time and so you know we were all a little nervous around there and i actually aside from directions that i gave him i don't think i said more than 10 words to him really it was just he didn't know about get crazy he didn't know he didn't he didn't but we had he was really nice

and he invited us to his house. That was great. I tell you, and I want to, again, say to our listeners, not only Rock and Roll High School, which is a sweet movie, which many people have seen. By the way, did Phil Spector work on that soundtrack? Yes, he just did the one song after the movie was done. He didn't really do anything that was in the movie. Okay, but I want to urge our listeners who follow us and care about the movies we pick and care about the movies we like and get crazy.

There's a Romana Clay. But it's so much fun. Thank you. And it's unfortunate what happened to it, but I don't think that diminishes the quality of the things that are in it. Oh, thank you. Including those performances. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's

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Whether you're a shop owner, a pet groomer, a contractor, or a consultant, you can get customized coverage for your business. Contact a licensed TD Insurance advisor to learn more. And you did the Temptations movie. That was a labor of love. Yeah, that was a labor of love. It was, it's funny. My agent at the time calls me up on

and says uh alan you like the temptations and i said jill is this like a trick question you know she says do you when i said i love the temptations she says well you know they're making a mini series about the temptations i said can you get me a meeting? And she says, tomorrow at 10 a.m., listen to your albums. And I walked out with the job, you know. And working with Otis of The Temptations was. And Smokey. All right. Smokey story?

Sure. Okay. Here's a Smokey story. So at the start of the movie, I had lunch with Smokey. And he didn't know me. And he gave us a lot of great info, and he told us how My Girl was written and how it was presented to the temps. And it was around the piano and the Apollo, and they basically,

he made a wild guess that David would be good for the vocal. And up to that point, Eddie had been doing all the vocals. And then when they got to the chorus, he said to them, guys, just take, they're saying, what should we do? And I said, just take it to church. And I just loved that story. And so when it came to shoot the scene, I didn't really have dialogue for everyone. I just told them about it. And we did a bunch of takes and did it in one shot, like a half circle dolly shot around them.

And it comes out really nice now to make the movie was extremely difficult because of all the hair work that needed to be done and you try to do two or three different periods in the same day and we were fighting daylight one time and trying to get the stuff outside the motown on the lawn and keep it so we could finish while it was daylight and have an early call the next day. And my trusted AT is like working her butt off and my cell phone rings and she looks at me like, you're not going to answer that, are you? And I did. And I said, hi, who is this? And this voice says, Alan? I said, yes. He says, it's Smokey. Smokey Robinson?

Alan? I said, yes. He says, it's Smokey. Smokey Robinson? Oh, okay. And she goes, who are you talking to? And I said, it's Smokey Robinson. She goes, yeah, one minute. You know, I said, what's up, Smokey? He says, I've been watching the dailies. Suzanne, the past, let me watch the dailies. And that scene with my girl, you really got it right. And I want to be involved in the movie. And I said right. And I want to be involved in the movie. And I said, Carol, he wants to be involved in the movie. She goes, one more minute. And so I'm listening. He says, I've actually written a song for the movie.

Would you like to hear it? It might be really good for the funeral scene. And I said, of course. Carol, he's going to sing for me. And Carol goes, all right, we're going to lie for five more minutes. And Carol and I sat down on this curb in Pittsburgh in the twilight and listened to Smokey sing to us over the phone. What a great memory.

Oh, my God. Wow. Wow, you've got to write a book, Alan. I'm actually working on an autobiography, but I'm doing it to the camera. I'm doing it as monologues. Okay, because this is just great stuff and that has to be told what did you learn about the temptations that really like shocked you or affected you while doing the movie um that there is what inside a rock band there are certain roles that everyone has and someone has to be in charge someone has to be

the johnny ramone and otis was the johnny ramone and that causes all kinds of problems and he's the founder they were they were the you know the song pop was a Rolling Stone? That's them. Each one of them are five guys on the road and just all the fun and all the camaraderie and all the women and all that. And it took its toll one by one for them. But Otis kept it going and they just kept finding inspiration. And in a way, it was a huge success

because the family part of it really worked. Their relationship with their family was what carried it through. And I was able to project my love of music on it and how I felt when I heard The Temptation. It shows. And you won an Emmy. Yeah. And it's the scenes where they're, some of the scenes on the stage when they're doing My Girl,

I got my favorite Steadicam operator, and the DP, Jamie Anderson, someone I went to NYU with, Jamie Anderson shot student teachers, so there you go. Portman survivor. And he shot Hollywood Boulevard. So I wanted the steadicam. I wanted the camera times to make you feel like you were the sixth temptation. Like you were in that row when everyone did the steps and you'd move around with them. And there was just a lot of love that went into it.

You get the sense that David Ruffin couldn't have been an easy guy because he had a lot of – plagued by a lot of personal problems. He couldn't have been an easy guy to work with all of that time. Okay. That Otis had to keep all that together. Listen, when Otis came to the set while we were shooting only once, and that was the day we were shooting the scene in David Ruffin's apartment where David is all coked up. Mm-hmm. And in the scene, David and his lackey are doing a lot of blow,

and in comes Otis and the guy with the low voice. It's been a long time. And they are there to say, you've missed three or four rehearsals, and this has got to stop, and if you don't stop, we're going to throw you out of the band. And David turns to him and says, throw me out of the band. Throwing you out of the band. Noid turns to him and says throw me out of the band throwing you out of the band no one comes to see you sing otis it should be called david ruffin and the temptations which is an exact quote now otis is watching the rehearsal and it's over and

he starts to get like this look on his face of deep unhappiness i said is there a problem otis i mean what do you want me to change because this is the first time he's on the set. He goes, no, Alan, there's no problem at all. This is just too much like it was. I can't watch. And he left. And we had just, you know, the cast ended up with those same relationships with each other. That is fascinating. Leon was awesome. with each other as a band. That is fascinating. Yeah. Leon was awesome.

You also got to work with the chairman of the board, so we can't leave without talking about that. Okay. It's in the intro. All right. So I heard about a project called Hoboken, which was being produced by Tina Sinatra. And it just seemed like when I read it, it was just seemed like something I would really want to do because I grew up in northern Jersey.

And so I knew a lot about Hoboken. And I thought it was a lovely story. And it had access to Frank Sinatra's music. Now, coincidental to this, across the street from me when I was in about eighth grade was a house that Frank Sinatra's parents moved into. And Frank had bought them this house. And so they lived across the street from me.

And I used to rake their leaves and shovel the snow for them. And his mom would make me hot chocolate. And I really wanted to, and I was shameless, chocolate. And I really want this. And I was shameless, guys. When I had my interview with Tina, that's the first thing I thought. Tina, how's your parents?

Just to make me hot chocolate. So I got the job. And it was all about Frank. And he's only in it for like 40 seconds. And I loved making the movie. It was a great experience. And editing the movie was so much fun because we had all the music. And I planned all my shots around the music because I had all the music ahead of time.

I could have any Sinatra song, you know. And so the day he's going to show up, he takes off from Jersey in a private jet, you know. And Tina's very excited. He keeps calling him all day long, and we're really excited. I've been studying Sinatra now. I'm reading every single book on Sinatra I could find and watching all the old movies. And he's here, he's here, he's coming, you know, and the door opens and in comes Frank Sinatra. We're playing Young at Heart on the stereo, right? And in comes Frank Sinatra. We're playing Young at Heart on the stereo, right?

And in comes Frank Sinatra. But it's the old Frank Sinatra. It's the very old Frank Sinatra. And he can sort of, he really can't walk very well. And he just looks like an old man. And so I go up and I introduce myself and I look over at the producer, you know, and we both say, okay, it's going to be fine. It's going to be fine. And we show him where his mark is.

And he says, what's my line, young man? I said, Joe sent me. The deal is that her husband, who's dead, has contacted Sinatra because she wanted to date Sinatra in high school, but she chose her husband instead. So Sinatra is going to come and bless the place and give her a flower. And it's her opening night. So he goes off, and I'm looking at the producer,

and oh boy, it's a good thing we got a double. We got an exact double because we knew Frank doesn't want to have any coverage. He's not going to sit there. He does one take. If he does one take in Ocean's Eleven, he's not going to sit there. He does one take. If he does one take in Ocean's Eleven, he's not going to do it like me, you know. And Frank Capra in his biography says Frank, he'd only do one take. Oh, yeah.

So we get all set. We get the shot lined up. And the idea is that the shot is the whole group family there. And they hear a sound like wind blows. And they part. And there's Frank Sinatra in backlight, you know, in the doorway. And Olivia Dukakis walks up to him and he's supposed to nod and say, Joe sent me and hand her a flower. So we're lining it up with this lookalike and we're going, this guy's in better shape than Frank and it's terrible.

You know, we don't know what we're going to do. And so then he's coming in, he's coming in. And so coming in, and people have to walk him because he's the cable. And I go up to him, and he says, young man, what's my line again? I said, Joe sent me, and your hand is a flower. Right, right, right. I got it. Okay.

Are we ready? He said, we're ready. So I go up to olympia and i said uh um i said oh you're supposed to kiss her and i go up to olympia and i say so i start to give her direction right and she goes alan you're a wonderful director but i have waited 35 years to kiss frank sinatra there's nothing you can tell me it's just funny. So we line up and camera parts. And as the light hits him, he's now Frank Sinatra, right? He is the star. He has summoned all his energy and it's all coming towards him in the room.

And as the camera goes towards him, it's like we have no choice but to approach Frank Sinatra. It's unbelievable. And as he leans over and he gives her the flower, he takes her hand and he kisses her and he leans over and kisses her on the lips. And cut. The whole place explodes in applause. And I said, thank you,

sir. Thank you. And he says, it was good? I said, yes, it was. He says, do you want another? I said, if you do it, and he says, let's do another. And I yell, he wants another. Wow. You got two takes out of Frank. So we back up, and we do it.

And now I say, he says, you want some more coverage? I said, yeah, I'd like to go over your shoulder. He says, let's go over my shoulder. So his assistant comes up and hands him a giant Jack Daniels and a pack of camels, you know, because now he's alive, you know. And he's sitting there, and Audrey Landers was in it with his low-cut top. and he puts his arm around and says, honey, you look like you're a little chilly. And he starts drinking Jack Daniels and smoking camels. And he looks at me, he goes, you're doing a good job. You want a bite of this?

And he hands me the drink. And so, well, sir, I think I, let me get the coverage. I go, well, sir, I think I, let me get the coverage. So he does both the angles and everything. And, and like, you know, like a saint on Easter weekend, he flies out. He's gone, you know, off back to Tittleboro, wherever he came from. And everyone, it was just magic. And so everyone in the crew is just like, oh, you know, and just sitting there and Olympia is like stunned

and her makeup person says, so Olympia, what was it like kissing? I mean, what were you thinking? She says, you know, by the third or fourth take, it just seemed like all I could think of was

these are the lips that kissed Ava Gardner's pussy. And it killed in the room. It killed. What a treacle cutter. I know. Wow. I knew, Gilbert, I knew you'd like that.

I knew you'd like that. You guys walked right into it, and I had to give it to you. He knows his audience, Gilbert. Oh, my God. Do you ever. Alan, well done. But I don't know what that has to do with Richard Pryor and Marlon Brando. This is a man that listens to the podcast.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I knew you'd like that. You know, you've been very flattering, by the way. You wrote to me and told me. He said, I don't know how you and Gilbert know the shit you know. I thought I knew you'd like that. You've been very flattering, by the way. You wrote to me and told me. He said, I don't know how you and Gilbert know the shit you know. I thought I knew stuff. But he's in awe of our savantism.

Johnny Quest, I don't know. Johnny Quest. And then we got Tim Madison. We got Johnny Quest himself. What about Groucho? You told me in email there was one Groucho anecdote. I was obviously a huge Marks Brothers fan. I think they were the first comedy team that I loved.

I liked the anarchy of it. It's just seeing it on TV, maybe it was a million dollar movie or something, just the anarchy of it and the way that their world was just like anything could happen in it. And that appealed to me a lot. And I guess, and also when I got to college,

I'd go to the bleaker street cinema and watch them all in a theater with an audience yes how i used to see them oh and groucho was my absolute favorite you know and i read harpo speaks and all that you know i knew a lot about them and so i think i was in la about two three weeks and uh john davison, my friend, said, you know, there's a Leo McCary movie at the Academy tonight, The Milky Way with Harold Lloyd. And so he said, let's go see it. I got, you know, sure. So you have to, okay. I had huge, wild, long hair then, right?

Like the biggest jukebox. Oh, you were seeing the pictures, yeah. hair then, right? Like the biggest jukebox. Oh, you were seeing the pictures, yeah. And I had, I was wearing overalls with psychedelic patches all over it, you know. And Converse All-Star

sneakers, green ones. And so I'm in the bathroom taking a leak. Before the movie, and I look over and right next to me, this person steps right in the next urinal, and it's Groucho Marx. Oh, my God. And so he unzips, and I try not to look. He's peeing next to me. And I guess I was staring at him, you know,

and all I'm thinking is, how do I ask him for his autograph? How do I ask him? And I kept thinking, and it's like he read my mind and he looks at me and he goes, forget it, kid, my hands are full. And, you know, I waited

and I washed my hands a really long time until he came over. And I tried to engage him in conversation, but he was having nothing about Leo McCary. That's right. Leo McCary. Right. Yeah. I did Duck Soup, my favorite. Of course.

My five favorite movies of all time. So you just let him walk out of the men's room and that was. That was it. He was not going to engage. A brush with greatness. Someone who had hair like mine and looked like a psychedelic farmer a psychedelic farmer see now and you you love night at the opera and to me a night at the opera just strikes me as the beginning of the end well it's to your credit alan that you sold sold A Night at the Opera so well and your trailers from hell

pre-episode. Yeah, and I recently watched A Day at the Races again. Yeah. And there's truly offensive numbers, music numbers with Negroes. But the stuff in the operating room is funny.

Yeah, that's the stuff they took on the road. Yeah, all that was good. And A Night at the Opera, you're right. It's, you know, the shtick is great and take me out to the ball game and the party of the first part and there is

no sanity clause and all that stuff. And the stateroom scene. Yeah. The stateroom scene is fantastic. It's genius. But it's the McCary stuff. It's duck soup and then it's also monkey business. That's where the anarchy shines through. Oh, absolutely. So when you did the Night at the Opera trailers from Hell,

the Paramount ones had already been spoken for? I don't remember why, you know. Okay. I chose Night at the Opera. Probably, sometimes it's hard to find the trailer. Yes, and, you know, they never know what's going to come up. I mean, I just have one on Carrie that came out. I was so shocked that no one had done Carrie, you know.

And I asked Joe about Goodfellas, and no one had done Goodfellas. Oh, you did a great job with that one. Yeah, that was surprising. And Shampoo. So the obscure ones you can grab, and I tended to a lot of the music ones. But those three, I was really surprised. So I give five more that are coming up. And what I love about the Paramount ones as opposed to MGM is the Paramount ones, you laugh and miss five lines afterwards as you're laughing.

And Zeppo's in them, which makes them better. Yeah, it does. There's more of a balance. Yeah, you know, and I think I read somewhere that McCary didn't want to do duck soup because Chico was such a terrible gambler that he was always missing shooting days, so he said he wouldn't do it

unless they kept Chico in a cage. So they had a cage on stage where a phone to Chico's bookie, and that's how they kept his eye on him. By the way, we plugged Trailers from Hell when Joe was here. own to Chico's bookie. And that's how they kept his eye on him. Yeah. By the way,

the, we, we plugged trailers from hell when Joe was here. Oh, I think also with Larry, with our pal, Larry Karasuski, who we want to thank for, for connecting us.

Larry is just the best guy. And, and, and such a wonderful writer. I wrote problem child for Gilbert. All right. Yeah. Child one and two.

But I just went, I just went to went to the Milos Forman tribute, so I saw two of the movies that they wrote for him. Yeah, shout out to Larry and Scott, who are not only our friends, but terrific, terrific writers who we admire greatly. But your music episodes of Trailers from Hell, which I was ODing on last night, High Fidelity, almost famous,

a movie I share your love for. Especially the Director's Cup. That's the one to get. Which I haven't seen yet. I think you can get it from Amazon. I'll get my hands on it. But also, and this must have pained you, you were very honest and

forthcoming in your review of Help. I know, because Hard Day's Night is so perfect, and Help, like a lot of things, the Beatles understood stuff the first time they did it. And so when everyone wants them to do it again, and they went along with it, it still has funny, wonderful scenes in it, and the songs are great.

And the songs. Yeah. But the ring and all that stuff is not as much about them. Yeah, I don't think they not as much about them. Yeah. I don't think they was engaged. No. No. As they were the first time.

And it's funny, though, that it's help that's more like the monkeys. Yes. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's true. And speaking of the Beatles, were you, I know you saw just about every show at the Fillmore. Were you there the night that John and Yoko recorded the live album? Oh, yeah.

The night that John sang with the mothers, I was there for that. And Yoko sang with the mothers. Wow. Yeah. When Zappa was there, anything could happen. I mean, you know, the Fillmore was such a presence in New York and the late show people who were from Broadway or people music people who had worked earlier in the night would all come to the Saturday night late show and they got the soprano from the Metropolitan Opera came by and that was a big deal for everyone and you know, and

she was came by she had never been to a rock and roll show and older woman, and they took her backstage to meet Zappa, and Zappa, you know, invited her to sing with them, and oh, I don't know the song. She goes, you come out on the stage. We'll work something out. So she comes out on the stage,

and he says, sing, and they're all vamping along with her, and then she goes, okay, now you got to sing one of our songs. And she sang Louie Louie. How about that? With the mothers. She said, you'll figure out the words pretty easy. And you saw Miles Davis.

You saw Derek and the Dominoes. Yeah, I saw Miles open for Steve Miller and Neil Young. And an early version of Tommy as well? Yes, the first time they played Tommy live in America. How about that? And the theater caught fire during the performance. Wow. Oh.

Yeah. Yeah. That was a night. And the new Yardbirds. Yes. Yes. You know, we were so excited about the Zeppelin, you know, because we are such Yardbirds fans.

And, you know, if you were, you know, you each had a position as an usher. And if you wanted to go down front and take that position right in front of the stage, you know, you could find a set if you liked the band, do it. But everyone wanted to be there for the Zeppelin after the first night. And I wanted that for Saturday Night Late Show, you know. And so we all drew straws and I got that for Saturday night late show. So I was like five feet from them, you know, and how bad, Oh no. How bad was the fire?

Well, what had happened was you probably, I don't know if you remember where the building was or now it's a bank. I think. Yeah. The front of the film war is a theater, but in the corner, there was a bodega. And it was part of the building, but it was a little bit separate in a certain way. And so while we're inside, and I had gone down front to watch, you know, the Hoog they were doing. Tommy is unbelievable. They were levitating the building.

And as I was walking back up the aisle to spell the person at the head of the aisle, the lobby was filling up with firemen. Oh. And there was a lot of cop car lights outside. And as I looked around, I noticed how much smoke was in the theater. And soon the police were there and everything, and the Who were just getting into the ending, listening to you, I get the music, following you, I get, you know.

They're just climbing and building. And the firemen, since everyone's eyes are on the Who, no one is noticing that the firemen are filling the aisles now. But no one had gone up there to stop the Who because it was so intense. It was like going into a furnace. And some cop pushes by me, playing calls. And he runs up the center aisle, and he jumps up on the stage and tries to get the microphone from Roger Daltrey. Now, if you remember the Who, Daltrey always swung the microphone like a lariat.

And Townsend is in complete intensity, swirling and kicking, and Moon is like banging. And Townsend looks over and sees some guy in a suit fighting with a singer. And as they get to the big chords, Townsend runs across the stage and kicks the cop in the balls.

Oh, my God. And the cop goes down like a stone, you know. And so the roadies come out, drag this guy off, and now we notice that there's firemen. But the Who finish, and they are in such a frenzy. The audience is now standing on the seats because it's like it's a Roman Coliseum now. We got blood in the air. And Who count down and go into summertime blues i'm gonna raise a fuss i'm gonna raise a holler i mean and so now it's a rock and roll show out of control you know and uh bill

graham gets out on the stage and he grabs townsend and he grabs you know valtteri and they slow down they stop and bill so calm so cool says we got a little problem there is a a fire drill there's a fire on across the street he was lying you know and there's a lot of smoke in the theater and we're everything's fine so uh the ushers will show you out and within in 10 minutes when we get the smoke out we'll let you back in it doesn't say that the building is on fire you know in the corner of the building that the building is on fire in the corner of the building. And the Fillmore itself wasn't on fire yet. So all the ushers, the audience is like, and so some usher, some genius usher from the tri-state area who had been to 100 fire drills

in his life says, all right, it's a fire drill. Everyone grab a buddy. No talking. And the theater was empty in four minutes. We had all been trained too well. Nice job. I know you said you're going to do a video book, but all of these stories are wonderful.

God, what you witnessed. I know, I feel a little zealot-y. Zalegic. Was's a leechic. Was it a leechic? Yeah, well, point of phrase. Alan, this has really been a treat. Oh, I was looking forward to it.

This is as much fun as I'd hoped. Oh, man, there's stuff we didn't get to. We didn't get to Attack of the 50-Foot Go-Go's, but we'll save something for next time. And next time we get together, we'll just talk about, you know, rock and roll movies.

You've got it. Talk about The Last Waltz and Monterey Pop and we'll just, and we'll talk, Gilbert will talk about some universal horror classics, a million dollar movie.

Yes, let's do. In fact, next time, maybe you get Joe to come in and we'll do it together. That would be fantastic. You guys see each other all the time, don't you?

Yeah, I'm having dinner with him on Monday. Well, we'll do, we'll do it together. That would be fantastic. You guys see each other all the time, don't you? Yeah, I'm having dinner with them on Monday. We'll do an Arcush Dante episode. That would be fun. And I worked with the Ramones on Up All Night. Oh my god. I did a thing where I was the fifth Ramone.

They fit me with a long wig. And what name did they give you? Oh, I forget. But they, yeah, I worked with the Ramones. So you were Gilbert Ramone. Gilly Ramone? I think so.

Gilly Ramone. They still doing those late nights, the screenings in the cemetery? Yeah. Rock and roll high school. About every year or two, they ask me and I go down there. And the movie keeps playing everywhere. And it's so nice. And sometimes I just work with an actress and, you know, she said, I have to talk to you.

And it was like, she was very nice. And she said, she's about, I would say, you know, early 40s. She says, I looked at your IMDb and then I noticed that you did rock and roll high school. And I have to thank you. I was a shy girl in Catholic school who felt like an outsider, just me and my best friend. And we saw that movie at midnight. And I said, I could be like Riff Randall. I could do that. Oh, wow. How cool. And she said, so every day then at gym and free period, we would walk around the outside of the Catholic school in our uniform and sing rock and roll high school Ramones songs.

So thank you for that. How sweet. It's a great outcome. Roger was just trying to cash in on a trend and you made a classic. But he was smart enough to realize my enthusiasm and my obsession with it. And he also did not cut one frame out of it. That's great. It holds up so well.

It basically turned into what Hard Day's Night was. I hope so for some people. Yeah, I think it will. It started out. I think it does and it will. I mean, I guess the original intention was, you know, let's cash in, make a quick buck. And actually, you made a great movie out of it. And it's so nice because even though it was like my second movie, I've continued to work

for 42 years since then, you know. And so it's nice that I'm still working, you know. Got any plugs before we sign off? Netflix, a series of unfortunate events. The Lemony Snicket. With Neil Patrick Harris? Yes. I did the second season pair of episodes called Hostile Hospital.

And to tease you guys, I took the job because I said finally I get to do Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein. Okay. Your boy, that's catnip for him. Yes.

That's what it was. It's that broad. Fantastic. And it's a little duck soup and all that stuff. So that's Hostel Hospital. And I think in two weeks, the penultimate episode of Nashville. Okay. Wonderful.

I've been doing Nashville for about a year now. Wonderful. And I loved your work on I'll Fly Away. Oh, thank you. Thank you. That's so nice. This is a special show. I love that show.

We'll get you back with Joe, and we'll do a crazy freewheeling movie episode. You bet. Okay, man. Thank you again. Thank you, guys. This was a treat, and we thank Larry. All right. Thank you.

We're going to sign off. And I'm Gilbert Gottfried. All right. Thank you. We're going to sign off. And I'm Gilbert Gottfried. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And what haven't we discussed with Alan Arkish? And I think the Sinatra anecdote is now my favorite podcast anecdote because of that great punchline.

I know. Olympia. Alan, thank you so much. We'll talk again. You're welcome. Bye-bye. Don't wanna be time to be no fool Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast is produced by Dara Gottfried and Frank Santapadre With audio production by Frank Verderosa Web and social media is handled by

Mike McPadden, Greg Pair, and John Bradley-Seals Special audio contributions by John Beach. Special thanks to Paul Rayburn, John Murray, John Fodiatis, and Nutmeg Creative. Especially Sam Giovonco and Daniel Farrell for their assistance. Well, I don't care about history Rock, rock, rock and roll high school

Cause that's the way I wanna be Rock, rock, rock and roll high school I just wanna have some kicks I just wanna get some chicks Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock and roll high school Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock and roll high school Fun fun, rock and roll high school Fun fun, rock and roll high school

Fun fun, rock and roll high school Sun down, oh baby BUN BUN! BUNKIN' ROLL ASK YOU! BUNK BUN! BUNKIN' ROLL ASK YOU! BUNK BUN! BUNKIN' ROLL ASK YOU! BUNK BUN! OH BABY! BUNK BUN! OH BABY! BUNK BUN! BUNK BUN!

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