Bonus Episode - Not-So-Live from Indiana, It's Saturday Night! - Go Flix Yourself

[00:00:06] It's the Go Flix Yourself Podcast with your host Ben Conowitz, featuring Brad Oman and Nate Lauchs. And here's the podcast!

[00:00:20] Hey everybody, it's another episode of Go Flix Yourself, but this time we're gonna be talking specifically about one movie and that's why we did that crazy intro. We're gonna be talking about Saturday Night.

[00:00:30] Yeah, this is just a bonus episode we wanted to do because as you guys probably know we are big fans of Saturday Night Live. We have our own podcast called the 10 to 1 Podcast where we recap and review new episodes of SNL.

[00:00:43] Sometimes we'll talk about the old SNL movies. We did a three-part ranking of SNL Digital Shorts. We just love Saturday Night Live and because of that we were very excited about Saturday Night.

[00:00:52] It's taken us all a while to see it because of some shenanigans and tomfoolery that happened. I saw it over a month ago now.

[00:01:01] In Toronto.

[00:01:01] In Toronto at the premiere. If you go to Slash Film Daily, which is the podcast that Slash Film does from about a week ago?

[00:01:09] Yeah, you don't need to do that though. You just stay here. Just stay here.

[00:01:13] Don't tell people to go away.

[00:01:13] I think I mentioned-

[00:01:14] Don't tell people to go away. Bye.

[00:01:15] If you want to listen to interviews that I did with director Jason Reitman and writer and producer Gil Keenan-

[00:01:20] Yeah, listen to that after you listen to this show.

[00:01:22] And cast members Gabriel LaBelle, Dylan O'Brien, and Rachel Sennett, feel free to check that out after this.

[00:01:27] But we just wanted to take some time to have a little bonus episode to really dig into this movie because Ben and Nate finally saw it.

[00:01:35] And just to get right into it, guys, what did you think of this movie?

[00:01:39] Hated it.

[00:01:42] Classic SNL's character right there.

[00:01:44] Let me say this. I saw this film by myself in a movie theater at 4 p.m. and I was engrossed every minute of it.

[00:01:52] This film was so good. It reminded me, it had parts of almost Aaron Sorkin type of chaos, right?

[00:02:04] Walk and talks.

[00:02:05] Yeah, walk and talks. But also, it had its own feel to it as well.

[00:02:10] It wasn't, he wasn't, like, you know, Reitman wasn't ripping off of Sorkin.

[00:02:16] No, it wasn't the picky repartee of a Sorkin.

[00:02:19] But it carried that, I was never bored, right?

[00:02:23] No.

[00:02:23] And so it just kept on going.

[00:02:26] This movie's been hour 45.

[00:02:27] It's one of the only times I'll say this.

[00:02:29] It could have been 210.

[00:02:30] Oh, for sure.

[00:02:30] And I would have been totally fine with that.

[00:02:32] Yeah, 100%.

[00:02:33] It was uncut gems level stressful at some point.

[00:02:37] It was, I took my entire company to see this.

[00:02:40] We shut down La Porte Seamless Gutter on Friday.

[00:02:42] We had an employee appreciation day where we did, like, the gutter Olympics in the morning,

[00:02:46] which, just a quick sidebar, I built a downspout elbow discus that was probably as big as a

[00:02:54] hemorrhoid donut but made out of all aluminum.

[00:02:56] And we had these guys whipping this on a baseball field.

[00:03:00] Hemorrhoid donut is my least favorite flavor.

[00:03:04] And because I'm 43, I know what a hemorrhoid donut is now.

[00:03:07] Yeah.

[00:03:07] So our 17-year-old, 18-year-old phenom that just graduated high school and joined us,

[00:03:12] he's built like a brick shithouse.

[00:03:14] He threw it into the outfield.

[00:03:16] Oh, my God.

[00:03:16] Like, this thing should not travel more than 20 feet.

[00:03:18] And he just yanked that thing right out there.

[00:03:20] It was awesome.

[00:03:21] So we're all riding high.

[00:03:22] We go over to the South Bend Theater, the AMC.

[00:03:24] It looks like the zombie apocalypse.

[00:03:28] Oh, the South Bend Theater sucks.

[00:03:30] It was-

[00:03:30] Well, no.

[00:03:31] I mean, the theater inside was fine.

[00:03:32] Oh, no.

[00:03:32] It sucks.

[00:03:33] The outside-

[00:03:34] I went to Michigan City.

[00:03:35] Yeah.

[00:03:36] That also sucks.

[00:03:37] No.

[00:03:38] Michigan City's really-

[00:03:38] So we got there, and the movie is at 1 o'clock p.m.

[00:03:40] Eastern time, 12 hour time.

[00:03:42] We're the only cars in the parking lot.

[00:03:43] And this thing is from a bygone era of cinema where it's the AMC 16.

[00:03:49] This thing is a monolith.

[00:03:50] It is enormous.

[00:03:51] And we're the only people-

[00:03:52] We walk in, there's one employee.

[00:03:54] It looks like, literally, it's made for a zombie movie.

[00:03:57] And we walked up, and my employee's like, is it open?

[00:04:00] Well, you figure, it's Friday.

[00:04:02] It's midday afternoon.

[00:04:03] Truly, but still, we were the only people there.

[00:04:06] Yeah, of course.

[00:04:06] And no, everybody-

[00:04:08] These are blue-collar employees that-

[00:04:09] Hank Gutter for a living and my office staff.

[00:04:12] Everybody came out of that theater with a way different opinion than they had going in.

[00:04:17] Because I'm making them go to this movie.

[00:04:19] And they're getting paid for it, so they don't care.

[00:04:21] But they looked at it as like, what am I going to get out of this?

[00:04:23] I wanted to show them, this is somebody trying to pull something together that is chaos.

[00:04:29] And that's what you guys are doing every day.

[00:04:30] You know, we're asking a lot of all of this to come together and to hang Gutter and to be professional.

[00:04:37] It's nice, good boss work.

[00:04:37] It really was.

[00:04:38] It was really good.

[00:04:39] But selfishly, I just really wanted to see this movie.

[00:04:40] No, of course.

[00:04:41] So I guess I may have read this, but I wasn't-

[00:04:45] I didn't know it, maybe.

[00:04:46] Because it seemed new to me that the reason SNL essentially got greenlit

[00:04:56] was because of a contract dispute with Johnny Carson.

[00:04:59] Yeah, so-

[00:05:01] Is that new to us?

[00:05:02] No, no, that's been around for-

[00:05:03] Is that new to you, Nate?

[00:05:04] It's new to me.

[00:05:05] I did not know that.

[00:05:06] No, yeah, that's a part of that.

[00:05:08] Did you see what he did there?

[00:05:08] I did not know that.

[00:05:10] I did not know that.

[00:05:10] That's a famous Johnny Carson.

[00:05:12] I don't know if you knew that.

[00:05:12] Did you know what you were doing?

[00:05:13] I didn't know that.

[00:05:13] I didn't know that.

[00:05:14] Did you know what you were doing right there, though?

[00:05:15] No, but I didn't know that.

[00:05:16] Yeah, that is a part of SNL history.

[00:05:18] There was a thing where they were running Johnny Carson reruns at a time.

[00:05:24] And it was a whole thing where they wanted to have something else new in there.

[00:05:28] And they wanted to show that they didn't necessarily need to do that.

[00:05:32] The movie makes it seem like Johnny Carson was a little more antagonistic than he really was in history.

[00:05:38] He ended up being a supporter of the show.

[00:05:42] Sometimes you have to create villains.

[00:05:44] No, for sure.

[00:05:45] And there's plenty of instances in that movie.

[00:05:46] But none of them felt like they were like-

[00:05:49] I've heard some complaints from SNL purists out there like,

[00:05:52] Well, that's not really how it was.

[00:05:53] It's like, yeah, because this is a fucking movie.

[00:05:55] And you dramatize and you add stuff to it.

[00:05:56] You think Eduardo Saverin really smashed Mark Zuckerberg's computer?

[00:06:00] He didn't?

[00:06:00] No, he didn't.

[00:06:02] Wow.

[00:06:02] And so you add things to create drama, to create tension.

[00:06:06] And that's how it works.

[00:06:08] So yeah, I'm surprised you didn't know that.

[00:06:10] You're telling me that Johnny Carson didn't call Lorne Michaels on the day of the show

[00:06:14] and call him a piece of shit, basically?

[00:06:15] As far as we know.

[00:06:16] Okay.

[00:06:17] Yeah, and so that part of the film, right, dramatized for sure.

[00:06:22] But I didn't-

[00:06:23] I guess I wasn't-

[00:06:24] I guess I'm curious if the studio did, though, pit them against each other as much as the film kind of-

[00:06:32] No, it was never really a thing where it was about pitting them against each other.

[00:06:36] It was just about showing Johnny Carson.

[00:06:38] It's like, okay, well, fine.

[00:06:38] We'll put another show here.

[00:06:39] And then you won't get any residuals for repeat rounds.

[00:06:42] The other thing that I-

[00:06:44] I have this kind of long curiosity with Dick Ebersole.

[00:06:50] Because Dick kind of has become a villain in the SNL universe in some sense, right?

[00:06:56] Yeah.

[00:06:56] Because when he took over the show and NBC gave him the show from Lorne, he made a show

[00:07:02] that wasn't great.

[00:07:03] Yeah.

[00:07:03] Right?

[00:07:04] And he wanted to move to essentially all digital shorts and-

[00:07:07] All pre-tips.

[00:07:08] I'm not sure if painting him as a villain is necessarily the best thing.

[00:07:13] Because I think that everyone knows that what is known as the Dick Ebersole years are the maligned years of SNL,

[00:07:19] where the show is not very good.

[00:07:21] You don't see a lot of favorite sketches that came out of there.

[00:07:24] You basically have Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo and a handful of other good things that came out of it.

[00:07:30] I think it's more so is that he just had a much different approach than Lorne Michaels.

[00:07:34] He's a much more practical guy.

[00:07:36] He also had a different job, right?

[00:07:37] Yeah.

[00:07:38] And so he is working for the man, right?

[00:07:41] And he's-

[00:07:42] But I feel like Dick Ebersole did want to get the show made, though.

[00:07:47] No, he really did believe in the show, I think.

[00:07:50] Which many people didn't, right?

[00:07:51] Yeah.

[00:07:51] Right?

[00:07:52] And I think that you-

[00:07:53] One of the things I love about Cooper Hoffman's performance, because he really does, I think,

[00:07:57] have the most thankless role in the movie.

[00:08:00] There's that scene there that's so good.

[00:08:00] Yeah.

[00:08:00] He does a great job of just being the business guy who's trying to keep Lorne on track and make sure the show actually gets made and has some kind of focus.

[00:08:11] And so I don't ever think that they paint him.

[00:08:14] They paint him as a guy who's maybe a little bit out of touch with the cool counterculture side of SNL.

[00:08:18] But by no means is he a bad guy.

[00:08:20] But I guess in even SNL lore, he doesn't have the highest reputation.

[00:08:25] No, of course.

[00:08:26] But I guess for some reason, I've always been somewhat sympathetic to him because the role-

[00:08:32] I think some people don't understand.

[00:08:34] His role to play is to work for the studio, right?

[00:08:39] And I'm going to guess there are times when this show gets canceled, if not for Dick Ebersole, right?

[00:08:45] Yeah.

[00:08:45] Saying, no, we're going to let-

[00:08:47] I'm going to fight for you.

[00:08:49] And so I really appreciated that scene in the staircase.

[00:08:53] It's a great scene.

[00:08:54] Where they're talking about-

[00:08:57] Oscar-worthy, Brad?

[00:08:58] I mean, that's probably one of the-

[00:09:00] If anyone gets nominated, that could be a clip that you would play to show the performance.

[00:09:04] That again, it's often so much more complicated than people think it is, right?

[00:09:11] No, listen.

[00:09:12] I'm trying to get this show made.

[00:09:14] You think I'm just a stuffy suit.

[00:09:16] I am playing the game so that you can do your job.

[00:09:21] So you have fun, right?

[00:09:22] You think I'm the no guy.

[00:09:24] I'm actually the yes man.

[00:09:25] And you just don't fucking realize it.

[00:09:27] I am the parent right now.

[00:09:28] I am right here fighting for you.

[00:09:30] And I'm trying to get them to say yes, right?

[00:09:33] But in order to do that, I've got to tell you no sometimes.

[00:09:35] Yep.

[00:09:36] And I guess that was one of my favorite parts about this film was playing the complexity, right?

[00:09:41] We focus so much on the cast members because they're the people we know the most.

[00:09:46] And they're the people that we've spent the most time with on the show.

[00:09:50] But I love as a leader, I love as a behind-the-scenes person and a person that's helped get great things made.

[00:09:58] I love the idea that there's these conversations and complex conversations and people behind the scenes that aren't complete villains.

[00:10:05] They're not complete heroes, right?

[00:10:07] Right.

[00:10:07] But they're trying through different avenues to get something incredible made.

[00:10:12] Yeah.

[00:10:12] I really love that.

[00:10:13] Yeah.

[00:10:13] No, I agree with you 100%.

[00:10:16] And the person that they do kind of make out to be the villain also wasn't really a villain in the behind-the-scenes of it, too.

[00:10:23] You have Willem Dafoe as Dave Tebbit, and he's definitely like – it seems like he's against SNL working.

[00:10:31] He's not really confident in it and at one point basically tries to stop it.

[00:10:36] But that was never really the case.

[00:10:38] Dave Tebbit was a supporter of SNL early on.

[00:10:41] So I think – so let me just phrase it like this.

[00:10:44] I think that in the dramatization of the film, they of course needed to basically put it in a box to say the only reason this show exists from NBC's perspective is a bargaining chip for Johnny Carson.

[00:10:59] Right.

[00:10:59] And they're framing it so hard that way that Ebersole – sorry, Tebbit and to a certain extent Ebersole are painted as the villain-ish people in this film.

[00:11:09] But you need that for that narrative to make a movie, right?

[00:11:13] So I get that.

[00:11:14] In the real world, they might have – Tebbit and Ebersole were probably way more on board because they're looking at like we're not going to spend $250,000 as a bargaining chip in a negotiation.

[00:11:26] Right.

[00:11:27] We would just not do that, right?

[00:11:29] So they're saying we really would love for this to be a hit.

[00:11:31] Yeah, exactly.

[00:11:31] Because then we wouldn't have to kowtow to Johnny Carson.

[00:11:34] Yeah.

[00:11:35] So that's probably really where – that's getting a little lost in translation maybe.

[00:11:39] Well, and for me too, I think what it's more so – the movie is more so about as far as like depicting this moment in TV history is it's not about accuracy as much as it is about creating a vibe of what it was like to make a show like SNL at that time.

[00:11:53] Yeah, it's the chaos.

[00:11:54] And it is like – some of it is a little bit of that print the legend idea of like there were a lot of people that were probably like hoping that it would crash and burn or didn't believe it or anything like that.

[00:12:03] You need to have that to light a fire under everybody else's ass for it to push forward.

[00:12:09] So to that end, the print the legend stuff like, you know, did Billy Crystal really get in a cab and go back to Long Island?

[00:12:17] I don't know if that part is true.

[00:12:19] You know, like there were so many – like Billy Crystal is one of the most famous comedians of all time.

[00:12:24] Yeah.

[00:12:24] He's portrayed in this movie as a very young up-and-coming comedian and with another woman who was also doing stand-up on the show on that night.

[00:12:32] Yeah.

[00:12:32] And they were basically saying we have five minutes which means they're going to give us three minutes.

[00:12:36] We got to push for four.

[00:12:39] Lauren ends up saying I need one of you to do two minutes and Billy Crystal says no.

[00:12:42] The woman says yes.

[00:12:43] There's some disheartening and then he leaves.

[00:12:45] Yeah.

[00:12:45] Did that happen that night of?

[00:12:47] Did that ever happen?

[00:12:48] Was that even a thing?

[00:12:48] Who knows?

[00:12:49] Well, I mean the part about Billy Crystal not getting on the show obviously is true.

[00:12:53] Well, sure, not getting on the show.

[00:12:54] But was he waiting in the wings?

[00:12:55] Exactly.

[00:12:56] Yeah.

[00:12:56] On the night.

[00:12:57] I think so actually.

[00:12:58] I do think that that was part of it.

[00:13:00] Because if you haven't seen the film, obviously we encourage you to.

[00:13:04] But a lot of the sticking point of the show, of the movie is there's a three hour dress rehearsal.

[00:13:11] And all of the very famous three by five postcards.

[00:13:15] Which are still a thing.

[00:13:16] Yeah.

[00:13:17] Of how they organize the show are all up on this big bulletin board.

[00:13:20] And Lauren is not cutting anything.

[00:13:22] And we're 45 minutes until game time.

[00:13:24] Yeah.

[00:13:24] So everybody doesn't even know what the show is going to be yet.

[00:13:26] Yeah, exactly.

[00:13:34] To this day.

[00:13:35] Funnily enough, when they were talking to Jason Reitman and Gil Keenan, when they were talking to people.

[00:13:40] Because what they did for this movie, they didn't use Live from New York.

[00:13:43] They didn't read SNL books.

[00:13:44] They literally just talked to as many people.

[00:13:47] They just called the actual people.

[00:13:49] Yeah, who were there that night and just did all new interviews with them to find out what it was like.

[00:13:54] And they talked to Billy Crystal.

[00:13:55] And funnily enough, Billy Crystal was, I think, the only person who still had the original script of the show from that night.

[00:14:05] And so he was able to give that to them of what happened.

[00:14:09] I mean, obviously, Billy Crystal has been on the show now and he's got a legacy.

[00:14:13] But was he somewhat bitter about it or just sad?

[00:14:17] Both, I think.

[00:14:17] I think at first he was bitter, but then whenever he's talked about it and since, you can tell that it's something that he still resides in.

[00:14:26] Yeah, that he still has always been sad about.

[00:14:28] And even though he, you know, think about, I know we're talking about SNL here, but think about Billy Crystal as an institution.

[00:14:34] That man is on, could be on the Mount Rushmore of comedy.

[00:14:39] You know, he really has that level of stardom and fame and fortune, movie star and television and Saturday Night Live.

[00:14:48] Yeah.

[00:14:48] Everything.

[00:14:49] Stand-up, comic relief, the Oscars.

[00:14:51] The man is an indelible imprint on our comedy landscape and he still is, you know, sad that he missed out on SNL.

[00:14:58] Yeah.

[00:14:59] That's how big SNL is.

[00:15:00] Also, I think it's because he's kind of an egotistical asshole, too.

[00:15:04] Well, sure.

[00:15:04] And he's also a contemporary of all those people that did make it, right?

[00:15:08] Yeah, exactly.

[00:15:09] Because in case you haven't heard, Billy Crystal apparently is kind of a dick.

[00:15:12] Actually, I hadn't heard that.

[00:15:14] I really hadn't.

[00:15:14] Really?

[00:15:16] Thomas Lennon and Ben Grant, specifically.

[00:15:19] Oh, I love them.

[00:15:20] Yeah, they-

[00:15:20] Those are the guys from Reno 911.

[00:15:22] They do not have kind words to say about Billy Crystal.

[00:15:25] Really?

[00:15:26] From what?

[00:15:27] They were supposed to work together on something.

[00:15:31] I forget what it is, but they had a time where I think they were developing something with him involved

[00:15:36] and apparently it was just a nightmare experience for them.

[00:15:39] Like Chevy Chase level?

[00:15:41] I don't know quite that, but he's just-

[00:15:43] It sounds like he's just kind of full of himself and a bit of a diva.

[00:15:47] Yeah.

[00:15:47] And so they are not the only ones that have said that he's difficult to work with.

[00:15:51] The listener to our podcast here would be very surprised to see how much Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Grant have been involved with in Hollywood, in comedy.

[00:15:58] They are very accomplished screenwriters.

[00:16:01] Yeah, they're a who's who as far as behind the scenes writers.

[00:16:03] And they bit parts on a lot of stuff, but a lot of times it's because they wrote it.

[00:16:07] They actually have an entire book about various projects that they worked on and things that didn't get made and have anecdotes about working in Hollywood.

[00:16:14] Oh, I didn't know that.

[00:16:14] I would totally love that.

[00:16:15] Was there any other characters here, though, that their storylines maybe surprised you or that you appreciated them telling?

[00:16:23] For me, I'll go.

[00:16:25] Garrett Morris.

[00:16:26] Do you like how Nate just set himself up for that one?

[00:16:28] Yeah, I did.

[00:16:28] No, I love it.

[00:16:29] I wanted you guys to think a little bit about this.

[00:16:30] Yeah, actually, that's a compliment.

[00:16:32] He's giving us time to think.

[00:16:33] Yeah, so for me-

[00:16:34] I was going to say Garrett Morris.

[00:16:36] No, I genuinely did like how, A, I liked how Lamorne Harris played, or Lamorne Morris played.

[00:16:44] Is his life name really Morris?

[00:16:45] It is.

[00:16:46] Oh, cool.

[00:16:46] When he was a kid, he would lie and tell people that his dad was Garrett Morris.

[00:16:50] Nice.

[00:16:51] But I also liked that I did not know that about him, that he struggled with, what am I here for?

[00:17:00] Right?

[00:17:01] Yeah.

[00:17:01] And that he was actually a playwright.

[00:17:03] And I read that.

[00:17:04] I read his Wikipedia.

[00:17:04] Yeah.

[00:17:05] He was.

[00:17:06] He was not a comedy guy, right?

[00:17:09] He was not-

[00:17:09] He was a trained actor.

[00:17:10] But he was trying to make it in Hollywood.

[00:17:12] Let me ask questions here.

[00:17:14] In the movie, you could have taken it one of two ways.

[00:17:16] Either he's like, what am I doing here?

[00:17:18] Like, I'm better than this a little bit?

[00:17:20] Because there's a little bit of that there?

[00:17:22] I didn't get that out of the film.

[00:17:22] I thought it was like, I don't know why I'm here.

[00:17:25] I think there's maybe a little bit of that because he was like a trained actor, but I think

[00:17:29] it was more so he just kind of felt, he did really feel like the token black guy.

[00:17:33] Sure.

[00:17:33] And they just had him doing stereotypical black guy stuff.

[00:17:36] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:17:37] Which was true.

[00:17:39] Yeah, it was.

[00:17:39] And he's talked about that openly over the years.

[00:17:42] Funny enough, he never smoked a cigarette in his life.

[00:17:46] Garrett Morris or Lamorne Morris?

[00:17:48] Garrett Morris.

[00:17:49] Oh.

[00:17:49] Didn't smoke.

[00:17:50] I don't think that's true.

[00:17:51] That's not true.

[00:17:51] Yeah.

[00:17:52] Because in the movie, he never wasn't smoking.

[00:17:55] Like, the entire character was the whole time I never saw him without a cigarette.

[00:17:57] In fact, he lights a cigarette with a fire that happens on one of the lights that falls.

[00:18:02] Yes.

[00:18:02] And that's awesome.

[00:18:03] I hope that that really happened.

[00:18:04] That's a fucking baller move, by the way.

[00:18:05] Yeah.

[00:18:06] But it is one of the struggles that SNL has had for its 50-year history is knowing how to,

[00:18:16] and one of the things I will praise them for now is, and we've talked about this on the 10 to 1,

[00:18:21] learning how to embrace minority characters in a healthier way.

[00:18:27] Yeah.

[00:18:27] Right?

[00:18:28] Whether it's Latino characters or black characters.

[00:18:32] But in the beginning, and for many years, that was a struggle.

[00:18:36] And many black characters or black cast members would say, Chris Rock, you know.

[00:18:42] Tim Meadows.

[00:18:43] Tim Meadows.

[00:18:43] They felt very token.

[00:18:45] Yeah.

[00:18:46] Right?

[00:18:46] And I do appreciate that they've tried to, it seems like anyway, tried to correct much of that.

[00:18:52] Yeah.

[00:18:53] Certainly imperfectly, but being aware of it.

[00:18:55] Also, I think that kind of selfishly for SNL, they are, like Lauren maybe, is finding that by hiring people of different ethnic backgrounds,

[00:19:07] there's comedy gold that exists in all these cultures.

[00:19:10] Oh, yeah.

[00:19:11] Think about the Bad Bunny sketch.

[00:19:13] That wouldn't have existed.

[00:19:14] Marcel Hernandez.

[00:19:15] It couldn't have existed even 10 years ago because you just didn't have, you didn't even have a Latino cast member to do that.

[00:19:20] Or if they did it, they would have white.

[00:19:21] Horatio Sanz was there.

[00:19:22] You'd have white.

[00:19:25] You're here first.

[00:19:26] Brad Oman, defender of Horatio Sanz.

[00:19:28] So the idea, though, is that they would have white actors doing it if they were going to do it.

[00:19:32] And now there is legitimate, it's a legitimacy to that comedy.

[00:19:37] Yeah, exactly.

[00:19:38] And I love it.

[00:19:38] And it's fucking hilarious.

[00:19:40] It is.

[00:19:40] Any other storylines for you guys or any of the other characters that you appreciated the way they told that story?

[00:19:45] So there's one moment that Dylan O'Brien has as Dan Aykroyd that I really appreciated.

[00:19:51] And it's during the moment when they're doing the hard hat sketch where all of the women cast members are construction workers.

[00:19:58] And they ogle and catcall Dan Aykroyd.

[00:20:00] He's wearing a red tank top.

[00:20:02] He feels very uncomfortable.

[00:20:03] Very short jean shorts.

[00:20:04] Yeah.

[00:20:04] But it's such a brief moment where he looks insecure and he doesn't want to take the robe off.

[00:20:09] And then they force him to and he does it.

[00:20:11] But then he's okay.

[00:20:12] And I actually asked Dylan O'Brien about that moment because I was curious where that came from.

[00:20:17] If it was something that came from Aykroyd or someone observed.

[00:20:21] And that was just something that Reitman came up with on the day.

[00:20:24] He didn't want him to be confident because that's what he is the rest of the movie.

[00:20:28] He's flirting with all the women.

[00:20:29] But is he that guy in real?

[00:20:32] Here's the thing.

[00:20:33] Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

[00:20:33] But I've got a very, very big question here.

[00:20:36] They set it up that he's using the same shtick on three women in the cast, right?

[00:20:40] And he's this playboy.

[00:20:42] And he's the Fred Garvin male prostitute.

[00:20:43] He's doing it.

[00:20:44] And the other women are overhearing him say the same thing to the other women.

[00:20:48] So they're like, oh, I'm not special.

[00:20:50] And then turn about fair play and he's uncomfortable.

[00:20:54] Was Dan Aykroyd in real life uncomfortable?

[00:20:56] Or if it's something that Reitman came up with, Aykroyd just never really got it and was just like, yeah, he was fine with that.

[00:21:02] Because, again, he's a white dude in the 70s.

[00:21:05] Yeah, I don't know.

[00:21:06] But for me –

[00:21:07] For the movie, though, it works.

[00:21:08] Yeah, it's a great character moment that adds just a little bit of depth to Dan Aykroyd as a character.

[00:21:14] And if anything, it just shows something that is prevalent among all comedians.

[00:21:18] It's like no matter how confident they present themselves, how sure they are when they're doing bits and talking to people, there's always some kind of underlying insecurity, whether it's like imposter syndrome or just worried about whether or not they're actually good at what they're doing.

[00:21:31] Not with me, though.

[00:21:33] And Dan Aykroyd also famously is autistic, right?

[00:21:36] And so I felt that it was also playing to some of his feelings.

[00:21:41] Did I really not know that Dan Aykroyd was autistic?

[00:21:43] Yeah, he has Asperger's.

[00:21:44] Does he really?

[00:21:45] Yeah.

[00:21:45] I didn't know that.

[00:21:45] He's autistic, yeah.

[00:21:46] And so he talks about his autism.

[00:21:48] And so I felt it was playing to some of that as well, the not always feeling comfortable in every situation, right?

[00:21:59] Okay, well, that makes – by the way, that makes – that paints it in a completely different light that he would be using the same three lines on every woman.

[00:22:07] Yes.

[00:22:08] Because he would know that this works and this has worked for me before, so I'm going to repeat it.

[00:22:11] Dan Aykroyd has Asperger's.

[00:22:12] Right, so now that lines up 100%.

[00:22:14] And then also it kind of explains the way he speaks, too, a very matter-of-fact, informative kind of –

[00:22:19] Oh, the dragnet type of character.

[00:22:21] I thought you guys would have known that.

[00:22:21] I had no idea.

[00:22:22] You were fans of this.

[00:22:23] But also, it would point to the fact that he wouldn't necessarily have all the astute social cues to understand you can't do that with three women in a row and expect them to all not be resentful of that, right?

[00:22:33] Yeah, that's true.

[00:22:34] Huh.

[00:22:35] You learn something every day.

[00:22:36] You learn something every day.

[00:22:38] Dan Aykroyd.

[00:22:38] How the fuck do you say this name?

[00:22:40] By the way, the guy who did Don Pardo was so good.

[00:22:43] Listen, Brad, I don't want to shit on you at all.

[00:22:46] You do a pretty good –

[00:22:47] You always do.

[00:22:48] I do.

[00:22:49] But you do a pretty good Don Pardo.

[00:22:50] That guy, he's got your number.

[00:22:51] No, seriously.

[00:22:52] Was that Don Pardo's younger brother?

[00:22:54] This Bill Pardo?

[00:22:58] No.

[00:23:01] Thanks, Nate.

[00:23:01] You know what else I appreciated in this?

[00:23:04] And he didn't have a major role, but –

[00:23:06] J.K. Simmons?

[00:23:07] No.

[00:23:08] Boy, no, no.

[00:23:09] We'll talk about that.

[00:23:10] Because I forgot he was around the first episode, first season, because I'm such a big fan.

[00:23:16] The first political – you guys know I'm a political junkie – first political book I ever bought was Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, written by Al Franken.

[00:23:25] Oh, yeah.

[00:23:25] And they were just like the geeky, like we're going to splatter blood on you people.

[00:23:29] So when I saw Al Franken in this film, I'm like, I forgot Al Franken was around the first season.

[00:23:35] And so –

[00:23:36] Al Franken is one of the funniest people ever to live.

[00:23:38] Like that man is hilarious.

[00:23:39] Yeah, I think underappreciated.

[00:23:42] I so much miss him in the Senate because even in the Senate he was funny.

[00:23:47] But it's so interesting to see him as a young writer in this.

[00:23:53] And by the way, the casting here.

[00:23:55] Oh, yeah.

[00:23:55] It's just like they were looking more for the vibe of the character so they didn't need to look exactly like him.

[00:24:01] But Chevy Chase, that's Chevy Chase.

[00:24:03] Dan Eckerd, you get that, Dan.

[00:24:04] Yeah.

[00:24:04] Everybody was – they nailed the castings of Billy Crystal.

[00:24:07] I mean everybody.

[00:24:08] Gabriel LaBelle.

[00:24:09] Can we talk about him for a second?

[00:24:10] Before we get to – because he's obviously the main character here.

[00:24:13] I wanted to give a shout out to Corey Michael Smith as Chevy Chase.

[00:24:16] He was so good.

[00:24:17] Wow.

[00:24:17] He's phenomenal as Chevy Chase.

[00:24:19] What has he been in, by the way?

[00:24:21] My dreams.

[00:24:22] He's so handsome.

[00:24:23] Oh, my gosh.

[00:24:26] He's fantastic.

[00:24:26] He really did a good job of capturing that cocksure attitude that Chevy Chase had.

[00:24:30] And that scene with him and Mr. Television.

[00:24:36] He's talking about Milton Berle, J.K. Simmons.

[00:24:38] The pain behind the eyes of realizing that you're – that guy's better than me here.

[00:24:42] No, so I was going to talk about that because you really do – you see him feel that idea of like – when he talks to him, he's like, yeah, I'm not that person.

[00:24:49] But on top of that, even though they turn this into more of like a joke part, I love the moment earlier in the movie when he's talking to Tracy Letts as Herb Sargent.

[00:25:00] He's one of the writers.

[00:25:02] And Herb Sargent goes in this thing where he talks – basically lines up Chevy Chase's entire career that's ahead of him.

[00:25:08] Yeah.

[00:25:08] And it's so accurate to what Chevy Chase would be.

[00:25:12] And it's great because it's pretty skewering of Chevy Chase.

[00:25:16] It is.

[00:25:16] And it also comes from a place of like – at first I thought that that's just a writer doing that or whatever, just a guy.

[00:25:22] Yeah.

[00:25:23] But then you – as soon as he gets about halfway through the monologue where he's just tearing down Chevy Chase, what he's going to be, you realize, oh, this is a guy who really has seen it all and is coming from a place of – this is real gravitas.

[00:25:34] Exactly.

[00:25:34] This isn't just some guy trying to hurt you.

[00:25:36] This is like, motherfucker, I've seen this all before and you're going to be cocky.

[00:25:39] I'm going to show you your whole life.

[00:25:40] But I also love that Chevy Chase's response is like, I can't wait.

[00:25:43] Yeah, exactly.

[00:25:45] Like, that's perfect Chevy Chase, right?

[00:25:47] Because he probably did say that.

[00:25:48] Yeah, exactly.

[00:25:49] But yeah, he's – Corey Michael Smith, fantastic as Chevy Chase.

[00:25:51] I was so impressed by him.

[00:25:53] There was just a lot of young actors in this that you just feel in five years who are going to look back and be like, man.

[00:26:00] Yeah, I hope to see all of them.

[00:26:02] So who do you want to talk about next?

[00:26:04] Honestly, Belushi.

[00:26:05] Who played Belushi?

[00:26:06] His name is Matt Wood.

[00:26:08] Yeah, don't know who that guy was.

[00:26:10] Fire.

[00:26:10] Thank you for bringing him up because I almost forgot about the way they played Belushi.

[00:26:16] Is that really how Belushi was?

[00:26:19] So this is one where I think his performance is very good.

[00:26:22] He does a good job of capturing the look and the anger and everything.

[00:26:27] I think that he was a – like, you know more about this than I'm going to guess.

[00:26:30] Yeah.

[00:26:31] So I'm going to ask.

[00:26:32] My guess is John Belushi was probably not that temperamental.

[00:26:35] No.

[00:26:36] They definitely played that up.

[00:26:37] And that's part of – Belushi did have that as time went on where he was –

[00:26:42] The drugs.

[00:26:43] The drugs.

[00:26:43] The drugs.

[00:26:43] And he also was bitter when Chevy did become the star of the show.

[00:26:48] And even though he left after the first season, that was something that made Belushi upset.

[00:26:52] And he did fight with Chevy Chase.

[00:26:55] Sure.

[00:26:55] How could you not?

[00:26:56] Yeah, exactly.

[00:26:58] There's actually a famous story from – I think it's the second season when Chevy came back.

[00:27:02] And Bill Murray was there, right?

[00:27:03] And Bill Murray was there.

[00:27:03] Yeah.

[00:27:04] And Belushi got Bill Murray and Chevy Chase to get into a fight basically.

[00:27:10] And Chevy Chase was talking about, like, Bill Murray's skin.

[00:27:12] Yeah.

[00:27:13] And how he looks like he's like, oh, I didn't know they landed on the moon twice.

[00:27:16] Jesus, man.

[00:27:17] That's so harsh.

[00:27:18] Yeah.

[00:27:19] Comedians can be so harsh with each other.

[00:27:21] But, yeah, it's – Belushi, I think they played a little more broadly than they needed to.

[00:27:25] But it's also one of those things, too, where, like, you only have so much time and you need to create certain defining traits.

[00:27:31] And it's got to be immediate.

[00:27:31] Yeah.

[00:27:32] Because you can't let that build for two hours.

[00:27:34] That's how you get a two-hour-and-a-half-hour movie.

[00:27:35] Yeah, exactly.

[00:27:39] Rosie, Lorne Michaels' wife.

[00:27:41] Yeah.

[00:27:41] And she's like Swyfe, right?

[00:27:43] Well, now, but at the time they were married.

[00:27:45] They were still married.

[00:27:47] Yeah, that's actually a very complicated thing.

[00:27:49] She was dating Dan Aykroyd, but she was also still married to Lorne Michaels.

[00:27:53] I thought they were separated, though, right?

[00:27:54] No, at the time.

[00:27:55] They just had kind of an open dynamic.

[00:27:58] And that was all – every single time they said, what do you want your last name to be?

[00:28:03] Yeah.

[00:28:03] That's what they were digging at, right?

[00:28:05] Yeah, exactly.

[00:28:05] I thought they were divorcing.

[00:28:06] That's what I thought.

[00:28:07] No.

[00:28:07] The idea that she could calm the beast, right?

[00:28:10] Exactly.

[00:28:10] She's the only one that can get him to sign the contract, shave his beard, come back to

[00:28:14] set, all that stuff.

[00:28:16] One of my favorite things about Rachel Sennett's performance as Rosie Schuster is she really

[00:28:20] does just play up the fact that she was the only one who was calm with everything that

[00:28:24] was going on.

[00:28:25] She held everything together when it was chaos.

[00:28:29] In the eye of the storm, she's like, oh, well, let me just go over here.

[00:28:31] Let me just do this.

[00:28:32] Let me just do this.

[00:28:32] Let me just do this.

[00:28:33] And Lauren, obviously, in that moment is – Nate, I don't know if this has ever – like

[00:28:38] if you saw this at all when you watched the film, not that we have 250 people counting

[00:28:44] on us, but did you ever look at him and be like, the way he answered some of those questions,

[00:28:48] I've answered questions?

[00:28:50] Because there's like 16 people asking me for something, and I go, yeah, no, that's a great

[00:28:53] question.

[00:28:54] I'll get back to you.

[00:28:54] And then they roll their eyes like, he's not going to get back to me.

[00:28:56] And I'm like, I don't know what to do right now.

[00:28:58] No, and I'm looking just for the nearest closet to go hide in for a second.

[00:29:01] I need a minute to process because I've got 16 people asking me something.

[00:29:05] I felt his tension to go like –

[00:29:07] I felt so much tension.

[00:29:08] I don't know right now.

[00:29:10] Please don't ask me.

[00:29:10] I just don't know.

[00:29:11] Can I just get a minute?

[00:29:12] Yep.

[00:29:12] You know?

[00:29:13] And again, that's not even close to the stress that he felt for real because he had real

[00:29:19] pressure.

[00:29:20] And I feel like I've got like, you know, sure, there's people that count on me, but that's

[00:29:23] a lot riding on him.

[00:29:25] And like I said, that uncut gems level feel, I want to see this movie again immediately.

[00:29:31] Walked out of the theater and go, is there another showing?

[00:29:34] I want to see it now.

[00:29:34] Kudos also to Nicholas Braun for playing two characters.

[00:29:37] Yeah.

[00:29:38] So let's talk about that for a second.

[00:29:39] Yeah.

[00:29:39] So Nicholas Braun plays both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman.

[00:29:43] Originally, he was only supposed to play Jim Henson.

[00:29:46] And Benny Safdie from Oppenheimer, who is also one half of the Safdie brothers' director

[00:29:51] and duo who directed Uncut Gems.

[00:29:53] Yep.

[00:29:53] He was supposed to play Andy Kaufman, but he had to drop out at the last minute because

[00:29:56] of scheduling conflict.

[00:29:58] And so Jason Reitman's fix was to ask Nicholas Braun.

[00:30:01] And he's as great as Andy Kaufman.

[00:30:02] He does.

[00:30:03] He does.

[00:30:03] He is fantastic.

[00:30:04] And he's great as Jim Henson, too.

[00:30:06] And I actually, I found myself-

[00:30:08] I like it better as Henson.

[00:30:09] Honestly.

[00:30:09] Honestly.

[00:30:10] So there have been some complaints from Muppets fans.

[00:30:16] I just-

[00:30:17] The Muppetverse.

[00:30:18] Can that just be the-

[00:30:19] The Muppetverse.

[00:30:19] Can that just be the cap of the show?

[00:30:21] Like, there have been some complaints from Muppet fans?

[00:30:23] No, there have been-

[00:30:24] The Muppetverse is not on you right now.

[00:30:26] Because of the depiction of Jim Henson.

[00:30:28] And they carry a little bit of weight.

[00:30:30] Sure.

[00:30:31] Because Jim Henson is portrayed as a bit more of a dork than he really was.

[00:30:35] He was not this humorless guy who didn't-

[00:30:37] Right.

[00:30:38] You know, who didn't understand why they were making jokes about the Muppets and things like

[00:30:41] that.

[00:30:41] And he was frustrated because-

[00:30:43] He would get it.

[00:30:44] Yeah.

[00:30:44] And he was frustrated because the SNL writers weren't keen on working with the Muppets.

[00:30:50] As Michael Donahue famously said, I don't write for felt.

[00:30:53] They did not like having the Muppets on SNL.

[00:30:56] No one wanted to write for them.

[00:30:57] It was a struggle to even get those Muppet sketches done for every episode in that first

[00:31:01] season.

[00:31:02] But for me, why I don't mind that this is not the most accurate representation of Jim

[00:31:07] Henson is, again, you have to remember how this movie was made.

[00:31:10] They talked to people who were there.

[00:31:12] The people who were working on SNL weren't a big fan of what Jim Henson was doing.

[00:31:16] So this comes from their perspective.

[00:31:17] And so this presentation of Jim Henson is one where it probably is presented in a little

[00:31:21] bit of a negative light.

[00:31:22] You don't have to accept this as like, this is who Jim Henson was.

[00:31:25] I don't even look at it like-

[00:31:27] So it's only a negative portrayal if you are conflating a bit of innocence and naivete

[00:31:36] with being bad.

[00:31:38] Because, yeah, they made him a little bit like Ignorance is Bliss, a little dopey.

[00:31:42] Right?

[00:31:43] Where it's like-

[00:31:43] I was kind of sympathetic towards him though.

[00:31:44] Does he really not know what they're doing?

[00:31:46] Well, and that's the thing though-

[00:31:47] And that's the negative portrayal.

[00:31:48] But I'm saying, I'm okay.

[00:31:50] Maybe that's what you're saying.

[00:31:51] I'm okay with the innocence being portrayed like that.

[00:31:54] Because that's something that he loved and was his whole life.

[00:31:57] Yeah.

[00:31:57] And they didn't take it seriously.

[00:31:58] And he really did.

[00:32:00] There's a line where he says, he's like, I think that there is a place for adult-based

[00:32:04] puppet entertainment.

[00:32:05] And he really did believe that.

[00:32:07] No, and I think that there is also.

[00:32:09] But also, the thing I didn't-

[00:32:10] I guess the pushback that I could agree with was where I'm not sure that Jim Henson ever

[00:32:15] said like, you're actually talking to your co-star.

[00:32:17] Right.

[00:32:18] That's taking it a little bit.

[00:32:19] Like, fuck you.

[00:32:20] Did he really say that?

[00:32:21] While we're on the topic though, I want to give a shout out to Tommy Dewey, who's the

[00:32:26] guy who played Michael Donahue.

[00:32:27] Oh my God.

[00:32:28] So fucking good.

[00:32:30] So good.

[00:32:30] He has such sharp delivery in some of his lines.

[00:32:34] There's one that I laughed at so hard twice.

[00:32:36] What show, by the way, do you remember Tommy Dewey from?

[00:32:39] I don't know if I remember him from any show.

[00:32:42] Oh, really?

[00:32:42] You guys-

[00:32:43] No, I don't know.

[00:32:43] I saw him immediately and I thought of a specific show that I love called The Mindy

[00:32:49] Project.

[00:32:50] Oh, see, I wouldn't even know who he played on The Mindy Project.

[00:32:52] I don't even think-

[00:32:52] He played Mindy.

[00:32:53] He was one of Mindy's boyfriends played by Josh.

[00:32:56] He was in maybe 12 episodes, so he was a pretty major part, but he was so good in that

[00:33:02] as well.

[00:33:02] He's wonderful.

[00:33:03] He's a guy that just, he has something.

[00:33:06] He's got a presence.

[00:33:06] I don't know why he's not in more stuff.

[00:33:08] Yeah.

[00:33:08] He's so good.

[00:33:09] There's the one line that he had that cracked me up both times that I saw the movie where

[00:33:15] it's the censor, the woman is talking to him and she says, I know what, oh fuck, what is

[00:33:25] the line?

[00:33:25] What does she say?

[00:33:27] It's, I have experience with blue balls.

[00:33:32] And he goes, you don't say.

[00:33:34] And it's just so, it's just a smarmy little thing.

[00:33:37] But the confrontation he has with George Carlin is great.

[00:33:41] Every time he's on screen, I was immediately attracted to what he was doing and how he said

[00:33:46] everything.

[00:33:47] There's an attraction there because it's the thing that you wish you could be.

[00:33:51] Yeah.

[00:33:51] If I don't agree with you, and I wish I had the sophisticated intelligence and smarm to pull

[00:33:59] that off and to put you in your place and not care about the consequences.

[00:34:02] And that's clearly who that guy was.

[00:34:05] 100%.

[00:34:05] You understand why somebody like Lorne, who could be head in the clouds at times, right?

[00:34:10] Where he's trying to create this overall broad vision, seeing something at 30,000 feet instead

[00:34:15] of 3,000 feet, why he needs people like Michael O'Donohue that are coming in there.

[00:34:21] And they're not necessarily being a bully.

[00:34:24] But they're pushing the envelope.

[00:34:26] Well, this comes to me as like, Lorne, this movie showcases maybe the best quality of Lorne

[00:34:32] Michaels, which is, I might not agree with how you're behaving, but I know comedy genius

[00:34:37] when I see it.

[00:34:38] Yeah, exactly.

[00:34:38] And so a good example is that he's looking for John Belushi.

[00:34:41] He goes to the bar next door.

[00:34:42] And he meets, it's Alan Zeebel.

[00:34:44] Alan Zoibel, yeah.

[00:34:45] Zoibel.

[00:34:45] And he reads his jokes.

[00:34:47] And again, this is probably a narrative like that happened not the night of the show.

[00:34:50] It didn't happen the night of.

[00:34:50] No, but that did happen.

[00:34:51] That's the way that it happened, though.

[00:34:53] He saw a guy who had a notebook full of 1,000 jokes, single spaced.

[00:34:57] And he was writing for a Borscht Belt comedian at the time, too.

[00:34:59] Yeah.

[00:34:59] And so he just hires him on the spot, right?

[00:35:01] But that eye for talent has served him well for 50 fucking years.

[00:35:05] So everybody, myself included, say, wow, he's pretty hard on the talent and what a withholding

[00:35:11] type of person.

[00:35:12] But when you are literally responsible for picking people to anoint as funny, getting the

[00:35:19] best out of them means making them not believe that they're funny.

[00:35:23] Yeah.

[00:35:24] That's a hard thing to do.

[00:35:25] So you never saw him overly compliment anybody but Belushi in this movie as far as like you're

[00:35:31] the best, you're the one.

[00:35:33] He had clearly a very special relationship with John Belushi.

[00:35:36] Yeah.

[00:35:37] It is worth mentioning before we got to go pretty soon, but it's worth mentioning before

[00:35:43] we get to Gabriel LaBelle, J.K. Simmons was great in this.

[00:35:47] Holy shit was he.

[00:35:48] A scene-stealing performance for such a small part.

[00:35:50] Yeah.

[00:35:50] He was fantastic.

[00:35:52] He was, I don't know anything about Milton Berle other than the name and that, you know.

[00:35:58] He was Mr. Television.

[00:35:59] Yeah.

[00:36:00] In the 50s and 60s.

[00:36:01] I'm not like some kind of expert, but I love that he played, he needed one minute on the

[00:36:09] screen and you knew exactly who he was.

[00:36:10] Exactly who he was.

[00:36:11] Yeah.

[00:36:12] And that scene with him and Chevy Chase, holy shit.

[00:36:15] Yeah.

[00:36:16] That's all I needed to see in that entire performance and be like, that could be a supporting act or

[00:36:19] not.

[00:36:20] It was incredible.

[00:36:20] It was, he was this good.

[00:36:22] There's so many supporting act or not since film there.

[00:36:24] There wasn't a lot in there.

[00:36:25] Yeah.

[00:36:25] But he just did so well.

[00:36:27] I want to talk about one thing that I felt that was a shortcoming in the movie.

[00:36:30] Not to like a detriment where like it really brought it down, but I did notice it and I

[00:36:34] wondered if you guys thought about this at all.

[00:36:37] But I felt like the female members of the cast were shortchanged a little bit.

[00:36:43] Yes.

[00:36:43] For sure.

[00:36:44] They did try to give everyone a moment to shine and have a moment of drama and introspection

[00:36:51] and to really help define them as characters.

[00:36:54] But it felt like Jane Curtin and Lorraine Newman and Gilda Radner didn't really get to shine

[00:37:00] as much as the male members of the cast.

[00:37:02] Jane Curtin got the only female monologue with Garrett Morris where he was like, what are you

[00:37:08] doing here?

[00:37:08] And then she got to do the whole, this is who I used to be in my 20s.

[00:37:11] Yeah, exactly.

[00:37:12] That was awesome.

[00:37:12] I like that.

[00:37:13] And Gilda does get a very nice, bittersweet.

[00:37:16] I actually love Gilda's moment because even though it's brief-

[00:37:19] The one with John?

[00:37:19] Yeah, where they're out by the ice rink at 30 Rockefeller and it's very sweet and prescient

[00:37:25] because she's talking about living in the moment and looking at it from a future and it's unfortunately

[00:37:32] a future that she won't have much of.

[00:37:34] And neither of them will.

[00:37:35] Yeah.

[00:37:35] And that's the thing, there's where, again, I could add 10 minutes and I'm fine there.

[00:37:39] Yeah.

[00:37:40] You know, like again, this movie was too short.

[00:37:42] If I've got a qualm here, it is.

[00:37:44] Yeah.

[00:37:44] It's an hour 45.

[00:37:45] It should have been two hours.

[00:37:46] Yeah.

[00:37:47] Is there going to be an extended edition?

[00:37:48] God, I hope so.

[00:37:49] I mean, I don't know.

[00:37:50] You know, I think that-

[00:37:51] Can you talk-

[00:37:51] None of your friends-

[00:37:52] Yeah, you're friends with Jason Reitman.

[00:37:54] Yeah, I'll see what I get first.

[00:37:55] Text him right now.

[00:37:56] No, no, Brad, text him right now.

[00:37:58] Give me 10 to 15 more minutes.

[00:38:00] And expound on the female characters and show me a little bit more of the development between a

[00:38:04] few of those relationships and I would love to see that.

[00:38:06] I would just love it.

[00:38:07] Yeah.

[00:38:09] Having said that, when you have a movie with literally over 80 speaking parts-

[00:38:14] Yeah.

[00:38:15] Who do you give them to and what you-

[00:38:17] Yeah, you know, like what do you cut and like it's-

[00:38:19] You know, you have to think about the momentum of the movie too.

[00:38:21] How long can you stop to slow down and allow for those moments?

[00:38:24] Because I will say, that's a great point because that ice skating thing was one of the slower

[00:38:29] moments of the film and not that I was ever bored, but I was so used to the chaos that

[00:38:33] my brain was like, let's get back to that.

[00:38:36] And that's-

[00:38:36] That's so funny because I think that was probably purposeful for the direction.

[00:38:39] No, because that's the calm right before the last storm of the third act.

[00:38:43] What did you guys think about the real time of it?

[00:38:47] I loved it.

[00:38:48] You clicked it from 1040 sets.

[00:38:50] And maybe that's why it also felt a little bit like Sorkin to me because that is a very

[00:38:54] Sorkin-

[00:38:55] Well, I just thought of Kiefer Sutherland in 24, but that's just me.

[00:38:57] No, it feels like it's almost real time.

[00:39:01] I love the fact that they built a set that was literally the exact recreation of Studio

[00:39:06] 8H back in the time.

[00:39:07] They had the real blueprints from back then.

[00:39:09] They built it to what it's called where there's no edge of frame, which means they can shoot

[00:39:14] anywhere on that set and-

[00:39:16] And turn the camera 360 and it would be-

[00:39:18] Yeah, exactly.

[00:39:19] So that was great for it.

[00:39:21] And the way that they weave the camera through that set for some of those amazing single take

[00:39:26] shots, I was just in awe, especially because of all the moving pieces there are.

[00:39:30] Exactly.

[00:39:30] And not one extra was out of place.

[00:39:32] Nobody was bumping into the camera.

[00:39:34] It was like an action film where you have to have so much choreography.

[00:39:36] Yeah.

[00:39:37] There are, because of variety, we know this, there are two visual effect shots in this entire

[00:39:43] film.

[00:39:43] And the test audiences evidently were pointing out that the clocks that were on the walls

[00:39:48] in the film were not accurate.

[00:39:51] That's so funny because I never noticed at all.

[00:39:53] In Studio 8H-

[00:39:54] Well, no.

[00:39:54] In the movie now, they are.

[00:39:56] No, of course.

[00:39:57] But in the test audience-

[00:39:58] Oh, I see what you're saying.

[00:39:58] They were saying that says 422.

[00:40:00] It's 1030 at night.

[00:40:01] So that's one thing.

[00:40:02] And then also, J.K. Simmons' character, Milton Berle, famously has a very big penis.

[00:40:10] Historically, Milton Berle has like a 10-inch cock.

[00:40:12] Yeah.

[00:40:12] For real.

[00:40:13] And so he had a prosthetic penis, and he pulls it out in the film.

[00:40:16] And they cut it in such a way that you only kind of see the top of it.

[00:40:19] Yeah.

[00:40:20] So they don't actually go full bore, and I think it's not X-rated.

[00:40:22] But they had to use digital effects to match the skin tone of the prosthesis to J.K.

[00:40:27] Simmons' actual skin tone.

[00:40:28] So that's a visual effects shot.

[00:40:30] Makes sense.

[00:40:31] It's so funny.

[00:40:32] You want to have a good look at this.

[00:40:32] You got to have a good look at this.

[00:40:33] I care about this.

[00:40:33] Hey, two visual effects shots, clocks and cocks.

[00:40:37] That's pretty good.

[00:40:38] We did it.

[00:40:39] Did you guys realize that the movie was structured like an episode of SNL?

[00:40:44] Where they had the band twice?

[00:40:47] Yeah.

[00:40:48] Yeah.

[00:40:48] I mean, now that you're saying it, sure.

[00:40:50] And Weekend Update's in the middle.

[00:40:51] Oh, nice.

[00:40:52] Also, was that a-

[00:40:54] Maybe you don't know.

[00:40:55] Was that a last-minute decision to have Chevy Chase?

[00:40:57] Yes.

[00:40:57] That was.

[00:40:57] That was a real thing.

[00:40:58] So Lorne Michaels was supposed to do it.

[00:40:59] Lorne was going to do it.

[00:41:00] And he bombed it.

[00:41:00] Yeah.

[00:41:01] I heard he didn't bomb it as much.

[00:41:03] But he didn't feel comfortable doing it.

[00:41:05] And he knew that it was going to work better with Chevy.

[00:41:08] Yeah.

[00:41:10] That particular scene I've heard was a little exaggerated.

[00:41:13] But yes, he thought, I am not the best person.

[00:41:16] Were there affiliates in the building?

[00:41:18] That, I don't know.

[00:41:19] Because that would have added a whole other layer to this whole thing.

[00:41:21] That's true.

[00:41:22] If Chevy Chase had to go up there an hour before being on stage and kind of hold the room like

[00:41:26] that and get tapped by David Tebbet or whatever his name is.

[00:41:29] Yeah.

[00:41:30] All right.

[00:41:30] Can we finally talk about Gabriel LeBel?

[00:41:32] I guess.

[00:41:33] He was fine.

[00:41:34] Man, this-

[00:41:35] Of all the things they should have recast.

[00:41:37] I think I mentioned this when I talked about the movie, but this kid is phenomenal.

[00:41:43] He already played Steven Spielberg, or at least the proxy for Steven Spielberg in the movie The

[00:41:46] Fablemans.

[00:41:47] I also saw him in a movie called Snack Shack, which is-

[00:41:50] 22 freaking years old.

[00:41:51] Yeah.

[00:41:52] Snack Shack's on Amazon Prime if you want to check it out.

[00:41:54] He's got a bit of a future, Nate.

[00:41:55] Yeah.

[00:41:55] Now he's playing Lorne Michaels, and he does such a phenomenal job of capturing the essence

[00:42:00] of Lorne without doing your typical Lorne Michaels voice.

[00:42:05] He just has this great energy about him where he's easily able to make it appear as if he

[00:42:12] is remaining calm and in control of a situation when he is very clearly not in control.

[00:42:16] And you can just see the gears turning in his head, every conversation he's having, the

[00:42:22] way he's moving around, always with purpose, always making it look like at least he knows

[00:42:26] what he's doing, even if it's clear that maybe he doesn't.

[00:42:29] And it's just- it was incredible to watch him.

[00:42:32] It's a phenomenal performance.

[00:42:33] He's fantastic.

[00:42:34] No, it is, for me, a nominating-worthy performance.

[00:42:38] Oh, absolutely.

[00:42:39] I don't normally see a movie that you can just clearly see.

[00:42:43] That should be an Oscar.

[00:42:44] That should be up for an Oscar right there.

[00:42:46] Because if there's 80 speaking parts, he's interacting with 45 of them.

[00:42:52] Yeah.

[00:42:52] You know?

[00:42:52] He is the other person in that scene.

[00:42:55] And there's an incredible amount of talent in this, and every time he is on the camera,

[00:42:59] I immediately go to him.

[00:43:01] He captures me.

[00:43:03] Right?

[00:43:03] His performance just captures me.

[00:43:05] And he doesn't- and what I love about it is we are fans of SNL.

[00:43:09] We don't know Lorne, but we know Lorne, right?

[00:43:12] Right.

[00:43:12] And we get where he is.

[00:43:14] He captured that essence of Lorne incredibly well.

[00:43:18] Especially a younger Lorne that is less Lorne than he is now.

[00:43:22] Right?

[00:43:22] But you still got the-

[00:43:24] It's a hell of an origin story.

[00:43:26] Yeah.

[00:43:27] And the Lorne thoughtfulness, but also the anxiety.

[00:43:33] All the things we've come to know and learn about Lorne as SNL fans, you see in that performance.

[00:43:38] And then, okay, he finally loses his shit, right?

[00:43:41] And then you see maybe what is more like the real Lorne now.

[00:43:45] Yeah.

[00:43:45] Where a guy can pragmatically make a decision and crush your soul.

[00:43:48] Yeah.

[00:43:49] In that scene with Billy Crystal.

[00:43:51] So there's that moment, which is great too.

[00:43:53] One of the moments, and I talked to Jason Reitman about this when I interviewed him because this was a moment that I really loved about capturing Lorne Michaels in this particular moment.

[00:44:02] is when he goes to the Rumpus Hour set to find a new lighting person.

[00:44:07] He has a moment where he's waiting to talk to the person because they're doing a take.

[00:44:12] And he just looks and he stares at the director of Rumpus Hour.

[00:44:16] And it's this guy-

[00:44:17] Sees himself.

[00:44:18] Sitting in a director's chair, just staring off into the distance, not even paying attention to the show that's happening.

[00:44:22] A thousand birds there.

[00:44:22] Clearly not loving his life.

[00:44:24] And Lorne just sees, he's like, that's who I'm going to become if I don't get this show going right now.

[00:44:29] And it lights this new fire under his head.

[00:44:31] And he's like, okay, fuck this.

[00:44:32] Yeah, we're going.

[00:44:33] And he stops waiting and he goes and gets the thing.

[00:44:35] Yeah, exactly.

[00:44:35] And that moment, he came up with that on the day.

[00:44:40] Who did?

[00:44:41] Reitman did.

[00:44:41] Wow.

[00:44:42] That was not in the script.

[00:44:43] He felt like they needed an extra thing there.

[00:44:46] And so while they were on set, he was like, okay, I need one of the extras here who just looks like the most depressed human around him.

[00:44:53] And you just got this guy William in the back going like, that's me, boss.

[00:44:56] Right here.

[00:44:57] And so yeah, that was just a last minute thing that came together.

[00:45:00] And it's such a pivotal moment.

[00:45:02] And then I love the pitch to the lighting guy, right?

[00:45:04] He's honest.

[00:45:05] Yeah.

[00:45:06] And what's the pay?

[00:45:07] That's the worst part.

[00:45:08] And he's like, so how bad was that fucking job?

[00:45:10] Right.

[00:45:11] Okay.

[00:45:11] All right, let's do it right now.

[00:45:13] No, he is incredible at this.

[00:45:17] Incredibly directed.

[00:45:17] I am honestly.

[00:45:20] I was floored by this film.

[00:45:21] Floored by it.

[00:45:22] Taken back that it's only 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.

[00:45:25] 80%?

[00:45:25] That's it?

[00:45:26] Yeah.

[00:45:26] And I read some of the reviews that didn't like it too.

[00:45:28] And like, it's just.

[00:45:29] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film one out of five stars calling the film an unfunny,

[00:45:34] misfire, an adult, self-indulgent mess.

[00:45:36] Who the fuck is that guy?

[00:45:37] Drew Benjamin Lee.

[00:45:38] Yeah.

[00:45:39] Who the fuck is that guy?

[00:45:40] How could you watch that film and think anything?

[00:45:42] As we know well, you can be anyone and be a film critic.

[00:45:45] Yeah, that's true.

[00:45:46] Wow.

[00:45:46] Wow.

[00:45:48] Everybody's a critic, including everybody.

[00:45:51] Well, I'd just like to point out that.

[00:45:53] He writes for Slash Film.

[00:45:55] Ethan Anderton from Slash Film got some quotes on the marketing for this movie, and he called

[00:45:59] it one of the best movies of the year.

[00:46:01] And I know we have an affinity for SNL, obviously, and so this is going to hit us in a more emotional,

[00:46:08] resonant place.

[00:46:08] But also, I think that we're the people who would be more critical of it, too.

[00:46:12] Exactly.

[00:46:13] If I would look at this and be like, this sucks, man.

[00:46:16] That's not the SNL that I know.

[00:46:18] Or that they're pushing too many buttons of like, oh, they're being bombastic for bombastic

[00:46:23] sake.

[00:46:24] There was nothing here that was wrong.

[00:46:26] No.

[00:46:27] Everything here was good.

[00:46:29] Yeah.

[00:46:29] I don't have a problem with the stuff they change, the stuff where they conflate certain

[00:46:33] events, have certain moments that happen on the night that didn't.

[00:46:37] And it's a great way of telling the story and presenting the vibe of what SNL is and

[00:46:43] what it was like to be on that show and put it together in such a quick, entertaining,

[00:46:49] funny, fast-paced package that just works.

[00:46:52] I'll pull a brat.

[00:46:53] I'll nitpick one thing that I do.

[00:46:55] Oh, here we go.

[00:46:56] Oh, oh, oh, oh.

[00:46:57] You know what?

[00:46:58] It was just too saccharine when everybody chipped in and started doing the bricks.

[00:47:03] It was just too much for me.

[00:47:04] See, I actually really dug that.

[00:47:05] It was okay.

[00:47:06] I'm like, they don't need that, though.

[00:47:08] I get it, what they're doing.

[00:47:10] They're doing the crescendo of we're all coming together.

[00:47:13] Everyone did come together.

[00:47:13] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:47:14] It's a little too on the nose for me.

[00:47:16] That was, I agree.

[00:47:18] A little too on the nose.

[00:47:19] I liked it.

[00:47:20] I liked it.

[00:47:21] I liked it.

[00:47:21] I mean, that shows to me that you're not being.

[00:47:25] I'm sorry that I'm tapped into my heart.

[00:47:27] Sorry, you guys don't understand.

[00:47:29] One of the things I did ask Jason Reitman and Gil Keenan about, because this is not necessarily

[00:47:34] a movie where you think, oh, there should be a sequel.

[00:47:36] But you have a 50-year history for a show that has so many peaks and valleys that you

[00:47:43] could do a movie about Lorne Michaels leaving and Dick Ebersole taking over.

[00:47:47] Yeah.

[00:47:48] And you don't have to do the same real-time 90 minutes before the show.

[00:47:52] You could do one that does span several years and shows different parts and things like that.

[00:47:56] Now Joel McHale's playing Chevy Chase.

[00:47:59] You could do an episode, or a movie that follows things that unfolded in the 90s, because there

[00:48:05] was that tumultuous time where you had-

[00:48:07] Fernando O'Connor ripped up the Pope?

[00:48:09] Well, I'm thinking of the moment where you have, after Farley and Sandler were fired, and

[00:48:15] then later, like a year later, Farley dies.

[00:48:18] And then halfway through that season, Norm MacDonald is fired.

[00:48:23] There's so many moments in the 90s that you can adapt and have the same level of chaos, but

[00:48:29] spread across different time periods.

[00:48:32] And they're both very much into the idea of doing another one if they were able to crack

[00:48:37] a good story for it.

[00:48:38] Oh, absolutely.

[00:48:39] And there's a- I mean, talk about a show that is rife with just so much content that you

[00:48:44] can pull from, right?

[00:48:44] Yeah.

[00:48:44] I think it's- there's just too much.

[00:48:46] Yeah.

[00:48:47] It's- there'd be a lot of really cool opportunities, I think, to do another movie in a completely

[00:48:52] different SNL area.

[00:48:54] One for each decade, I say.

[00:48:55] I love it.

[00:48:56] Yeah.

[00:48:56] I'll take more and more of them.

[00:48:58] Just do it.

[00:48:59] Go see this film, though, preferably in the theater, because again, I watch many films

[00:49:06] at home as well.

[00:49:06] Obviously, we talk about this on the podcast.

[00:49:09] But the more this gets supported in the theater, the more chance that films like this get to

[00:49:15] be made.

[00:49:15] Yeah.

[00:49:16] That aren't large studio budgets.

[00:49:18] This was a $25 to $30 million budget.

[00:49:21] I know that seems like a lot of money, but in today's world, it's almost an indie film.

[00:49:27] And it's a story that they knew that not everyone would be interested in.

[00:49:32] And so the more support it gets, the more chances that these films get made.

[00:49:37] So if you can-

[00:49:37] 100%.

[00:49:38] Go see this film.

[00:49:39] Absolutely.

[00:49:40] Absolutely.

[00:49:41] For sure.

[00:49:42] For your consideration.

[00:49:44] Please vote for Saturday Night for Best Picture.

[00:49:47] How do you feel about this movie's Oscar chances?

[00:49:51] I mean, it's going to be hard to see because it's only October.

[00:49:55] So most of the award winners are going to start to come out in December.

[00:50:02] So I don't know what the competition necessarily is going to be yet.

[00:50:05] Yeah.

[00:50:06] I would say, most likely, you're going to see some performance Oscars more than anything

[00:50:10] else, right?

[00:50:11] Because that's what this-

[00:50:12] This is performance heavy.

[00:50:13] I can see Gabriel LeBel getting nominated for Best Actor.

[00:50:16] I think I could see Rachel Sennett getting nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

[00:50:22] Maybe.

[00:50:22] Maybe one of the bigger cast member performances.

[00:50:26] But I hope that maybe it just gets a nomination for Best Picture.

[00:50:32] For being-

[00:50:32] Sure.

[00:50:32] For capturing this moment in showbiz history.

[00:50:35] Because the Academy, they love jerking off and stuff like that.

[00:50:37] Screenplay.

[00:50:37] I think-

[00:50:38] Screenplay is possible.

[00:50:39] Directors.

[00:50:40] You don't think Jason Reitman could?

[00:50:41] I think Jason Reitman could.

[00:50:42] Because that is a large symphony to organize.

[00:50:43] It's a super complex movie.

[00:50:44] Editing then?

[00:50:45] The editors will definitely get nominated.

[00:50:46] I think that's a given for sure.

[00:50:48] And then, you know, Billy Crystal, he was in that one scene, so sound mixing is probably

[00:50:52] going to get it.

[00:50:54] I think the soundtrack also, actually, because I think I may have mentioned this on the previous

[00:50:58] episode.

[00:50:58] John Batiste.

[00:50:59] John Batiste did the score.

[00:51:00] And not only did he do the score, they improvised it live on the set of the movie.

[00:51:06] They literally looked at dailies and he improvised the music that they were making.

[00:51:09] I don't know if you guys know anything about John Batiste.

[00:51:11] He is genuinely a genius.

[00:51:13] He is a savant.

[00:51:14] Yeah.

[00:51:14] No, he is genuinely a genius.

[00:51:16] And as kind as anybody, I think, exists.

[00:51:18] He is almost a modern day Mr. Rogers.

[00:51:21] He is that kind.

[00:51:22] He used to be the band leader on Stephen Colbert's Late Show.

[00:51:26] Until that horrible falling out.

[00:51:28] And then he did the score for Pixar's Soul.

[00:51:32] And he's done some other music for movies as well.

[00:51:34] Did you see his documentary?

[00:51:35] I haven't seen it yet.

[00:51:36] Oh, so good.

[00:51:38] Does he do music in it?

[00:51:39] He does.

[00:51:40] He does.

[00:51:40] But it's about his wife who had cancer.

[00:51:44] Oh, I didn't know that.

[00:51:45] Oh, it's fantastic.

[00:51:46] It's so good.

[00:51:47] Sounds like a real uplifting movie.

[00:51:49] Well, so you got this guy who-

[00:51:50] Did she live?

[00:51:51] She does.

[00:51:52] Hey!

[00:51:52] Hey, it is!

[00:51:54] It's uplifting.

[00:51:54] We did it.

[00:51:54] We did it.

[00:51:54] But you got this guy who is all sunshine.

[00:51:56] Right?

[00:51:57] I mean, he is genuinely that guy.

[00:51:59] He is sunshine, but also feels deeply about things.

[00:52:03] And so when his wife has cancer, it is-

[00:52:07] Brad needs looking into his own soul right now.

[00:52:08] It is.

[00:52:09] And so worth watching.

[00:52:12] Okay.

[00:52:12] Definitely.

[00:52:12] Well, that was our bonus episode about Saturday night.

[00:52:16] I hope you guys go see this movie.

[00:52:18] If you can't see it in theaters because you have kids and life is hard, at least watch it when it comes out.

[00:52:24] Be good to yourself.

[00:52:25] Be good to others.

[00:52:26] Bye-bye.

[00:52:26] But if you had a chance-

[00:52:28] I thought I was doing my thing.

[00:52:30] Between Saturday night and Joker falling a door, which one would you go to?

[00:52:36] I'd probably see Joker falling a door twice.

[00:52:40] I'd see Saturday night twice, and I would probably put a staple through my nutsack before I'd watch Joker falling a door again.

[00:52:51] Folly deuce?

[00:52:52] Yeah.

[00:52:53] All right.

[00:52:54] You want to do it at the same time?

[00:52:56] All right, friends.

[00:52:57] Well, thank you so much for listening.

[00:52:58] Be good to yourself.

[00:53:00] Be good to others.

[00:53:01] Bye, everybody.

[00:53:02] Bye.

[00:53:02] Bye, everybody.

[00:53:03] Bye.

[00:53:04] Ah, cheating.

[00:53:21] Hey.