Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe's 1982 adaptation of Crowe's book 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' is a classic that rises above the low-brow teen-sex comedy that Universal executives probably expected when they green lit the Valley-set film with a bunch of no-name actors (outside of Mr. Hand, of course), a soundtrack of artists who just so happened to mostly be represented by the film's executive producer, and a first-time director who couldn't sound or be more "New York" in Heckerling.

Frequent FCAC guest Ted Jessup joins me to run through all the things that make this film exceptional and iconic.  We pay respects to Mr. Hand, Spicoli, Stacy, Linda, Brad, The Rat, Damone, Mr. Vargas, Jefferson and many more.

So, please, say "Aloha" to the pod and join us, won't you? There's nothing wrong with a little information feast on OUR time, is there??

Following his 1995 crime epic 'Heat', Michael Mann was in a position to do most any film he desired to do. So when Disney Studios ponied up north of 90 million dollars to help him bring a thorny, wordy, action-free journalism picture to life, they probably reasonably expected a 'All The President's Men' for a new generation.  And while their efforts garnered 7 Oscar nominations, the film disappointed at the box office in part due to the difficulty in communicating to prospective viewers exactly what the film was about.

And pointedly, Mann cast Pacino and Crowe exactly BECAUSE he planned to use them as they'd never been seen before. Audiences expecting Crowe to break apart a desk as he'd done in 'LA Confidential' or for Pacino to embody Satan a la 'The Devil's Advocate' were instead confronted with something quite different. Pacino as facile, intelligent man of the media. Australian-born Crowe playing a man 23 years older than him, a man with a complex speaking voice equal parts The Bronx, Japan, and Kentucky..but no part Australian.

A fictionalized account of a true story, 'The Insider' is based on the battle surrounding a 60 Minutes segment about Jeffrey Wigand, a whistleblower in the tobacco industry, in particular covering his and CBS producer Lowell Bergman's struggles as they defend his testimony against efforts to discredit and suppress it by both inside business interests within CBS and by Wigand's former employer, the powerful Brown & Williamson tobacco company.

In this episode, I talk about the making of this film, its extraordinary technical accomplishments, and the fantastic leading performances from Crowe, Pacino, and Christopher Plummer as 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace. We hear from Mann and Crowe about the film, and play some surprising sound drops highlighting some of the twists and turns that the film presents.  

Also covered: 'Miami Vice', WKRP In Cincinnati's Andy Travis and his unlikely cameo in 'The Insider', Animal House's D-Day in maybe the best scene in the whole of 'The Insider', supporting work from Colm Feore, Gina Gershon, Phillip Baker Hall, and MORE!

After a two-week hiatus...and a hilariously unexpected detour in our attempt to do "The Manchurian Candidate" on this episode, my guest Keir Graff and I pivoted to 'The Color of Money' and I'm so glad we did.

This episode features a lot of great stories about the making of the film, and also includes plenty of necessary discussion about 'The Hustler', specifically Piper Laurie, Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, and George C. Scott's performances in that original film, the shared origin of the novels by the prolific, alcoholic, (and ultimately recovered) novelist Walter Tevis, who ALSO wrote the books turned into the film 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' and the Netflix series 'The Queen's Gambit'. 

We talk about the gentle arc of Newman's life and career, viewed a bit through the lens of recent materials (materials it seems he never intended to make public) that shed light on what he was thinking and feeling during various important moments throughout his life. 

And we talk about the curious reception that 'The Color of Money' continues to have among cineastes...and we play the famous Siskel & Ebert two thumbs down review of the film upon its release in 1986.  Hey, nobody's perfect! But it's funny in retrospect how so many of us at the time missed the undercurrents of connection to the Fast Eddie character in 'The Hustler'...connections Newman made sure that Scorsese and screenwriter Richard Price (who also has a great and brief cameo in the film) laced throughout the script and that he also included in his performance. Newman won his first Academy Award for 'The Color of Money'.

LINKS

Keir Graff's author website.

Fast Eddie Felson is back.

A funny Marty Scorcese interview from 1986.

A great clip of a very Method Newman baiting Jackie Gleason's Minnesota Fats in 'The Hustler'

Some clips from 'The Color of Money':

In the late 90s three 28-year-olds with zero documentary filmmaking experience re-ignited a college dorm room pipe dream about making a documentary about the life and career of singer/songwriter/actor/activist Bobby Darin. 

What followed was equal parts kismet and catastrophe and might serve as a useful blueprint and cautionary tale for anyone contemplating stepping into the unknown of a dream and ambition.

With a combination of naive conviction and a blessed unawareness of the stop signs in their path, these two (one dropped out along the way, his story is in the pod) kids ended up making their documentary for PBS, interviewing heavy hitters like Dick Clark and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun while having some gonzo adventures along the way with colorful characters like Monkees co-creator and New Hollywood film studio BBS principle Steve Blauner. 

In this Very Special Episode of the Full Cast and Crew Podcast, we'll unfold this funny and heart-felt tale with plenty of anecdotes and lessons learned by our two filmmakers.

LINKS:

Buy the 'Bobby Darin: Beyond The Song' DVD from Amazon.

Or, watch it on YouTube

Buy Al DiOrio's great book about Bobby Darin, referenced in the podcast, here.

Get Dodd Darin's excellent book about his parents 'Dream Lovers' here.

Support podcast guest and 'Beyond The Song' co-director Henry Astor's UK farm shop Bruern Farms.

Thanks for listening! Please hit FCAC with a 5-star review on Apple, it helps more people discover your favorite little film podcast.

James Cameron has made 3 of the top 4 highest-grossing films of all time, with a collective box office of more than EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS.

Recently I had the occasion to watch both 'Avatar: The Way of Water' (currently the #3 highest-grossing film) and the 4K 3D re-release of 1997's 'Titanic' (#4). Collectively, that's about 7 or 8 hours in the Cameronverse.   In this ruminative episode, I share the existential crisis thus unleashed upon my cinema-going Avatar, a crisis of conscience and consciousness in equal measures.

Also in this episode, I recommend the Bob Lefsetz Podcast and Lefsetz Letter...so...join me, won't you??

LINKS:

'Titanic' alternative ending.

The Bob Lefsetz Podcast.

Joined again by Full Cast and Crew spirit-animal Richard Brown for a deep discussion about James L. Brooks' 1987 picture 'Broadcast News', a stealthily subversive rejection of Hollywood Rom-Com tropes and one of the greatest films about television ever made.  

Topics include:

The great, troubled life and career of Polly Platt.

Jim Brooks and 'Terms of Endearment'

The research/interview based origination and approach to writing 'Broadcast News'

Wrestling with the legacy of William Hurt, his transgressions and sobriety in the era of cancel culture.

Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks

LINKS:

Great and useful articles about 'Broadcast News':

Hey, where you been? I guess it's me, not you...where have I been? Sitting through Avatar! THREE HOURS AND TWELVE MINUTES! Feel my pain.  In this catch-up episode we'll talk Oscar noms and snubs, Best Picture thoughts on 'Tar', 'The Fablemans', 'Top Gun: Maverick', 'Everything Everywhere All At Once', 'All Quiet on the Western Front', and 'Triangle of Sadness'.

Plus a speculation on why 'She Said', a film made by women and containing several Oscar-worthy turns, was snubbed by an Academy voter contingent that went out of its way to nominate the safer, less potentially awkward winning moment represented by 'To Leslie'.

Also: post-rehab celebrity apologies, some great film books I've read recently, some series recommendations and MORE!

A favorite on the podcast is 'movies about making movies' and Tim Burton's funny, moving, spot-on 1950's Hollywood cautionary tale/celebration of the business 'Ed Wood' is one of the best.  Guesting on this episode is Brad Kane, Co-Show-Runner of HBO Max's forthcoming Stephen King 'It' prequel series 'Welcome To Derry'.  Brad's been an actor, director, producer, and writer, and brings such interesting depth, perspective, experience and insight to our wide-ranging conversation about the making of this extraordinary film.

-RABBIT HOLE LINKS-

IF your curiosity is piqued (peaked?)...some great links to explore:

'Ed Wood' Wiki

Brad Kane Wiki

'Plan 9 From Outer Space' can be watched for free on YouTube

A great documentary about the life and work of Ed Wood, referenced in the podcast, is 'The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr'.

Ed Wood's groundbreaking and bonkers cross-dressing film 'Glen or Glenda' is a must-see.

Wikipedia page for the great Bela Lugosi

A must-have handbook for all Hollywood wannabe's is Ed Wood's still-vital 'Hollywood Rat Race', a distillation of all his hard-earned wisdom.

Watch Tim Burton's 'Ed Wood' on Amazon.

Or Watch on YouTube.

Full Cast and Crew episodes mentioned in this episode:

-'Carrie' with Lee Wilkof

-Brian De Palma's 'Blow Out'

-David Fincher's 'Zodiac'

-Peter Bogdanovich's first film, the Roger Corman-produced 'Targets' co-starring Lugosi nemesis Boris Karloff (and a very young Jack Nicholson, in a brief cameo).

'Chinatown' has it all: premium 1960's and 70's counter-cultural bona fides in Jack Nicholson and Robert Towne.  The ultimate Robert Evans production, as Producer AND head of the studio; a situation that allowed the barren earth from which 'Chinatown' sprung to be watered and tended to carefully despite strong headwinds against it ever coming to fruition.

In this episode, I get into the backstory of 'Chinatown' and its origins in Towne's interest in the rapidly-expanding development swallowing up the Southern California of his 1940's childhood. And Polanski, having fled LA following the horrific 1969 murder of his wife, Sharon Tate and their unborn child, was in no hurry to return.  

But the combined efforts of Evans and Nicholson changed Polanski's mind, and he and Towne embarked upon a reworking of the script.  And the result is a timeless classic, a jaundiced look at American (and male) power and politics. An upending of the tropes of the femme fatale noir character perfectly embodied by a never-better Faye Dunaway was the icing on this particular cake.

And Polanski's simple but incredibly thought-out direction is a wonder to contemplate, which this episode does with soundbites from David Fincher, Robert Towne, Steven Soderbergh, and Kimberly Pierce.

Finally, Jerry Goldsmith's incredible, indelible score is all the more remarkable given that it was a replacement score, written and recorded in just 9 days with the film's release date looming.

As we wrap up the Full Cast and Crew year, I'm sharing some off-beat Christmas cheer with you all in this, our first-ever Weird Christmas Spectacular.  Frequent listeners to the pod have heard me say "weird is good" many times, and the picks in today's episode reflect not films or tv shows or songs that are weird for weird's sake; they reflect things with a decidedly bent holiday spirit in all the right places. 

Rick Brown joins me as we share our picks for a weird-is-good Christmas film, TV episode, and song that represents something essential to us respectively.

Films discussed: Henry Winkler's 'An American Christmas Carol' from the peak of his Fonzie/Happy Days tv superstardom is a refreshingly dark and candid look at the Dickens classic. 

Also in the film category: 'Black Christmas', a film that predates "Halloween" and "Blow Out" owe a hell of a lot to. Starring Margot Kidder, Keir Dullea, Andrea Martin, and John Saxon, this is a really funny and impressively malevolent film.

On the TV side, Rick tries his best to convince me that the "Alice" episode 'Mel The Magi' is, of all the worthy 1970's sitcom Christmas episodes, something to celebrate.  

MY pick, the Bob Newhart Show episode 'His Busiest Season' proves easier to defend.

Finally, we explore some off-the-beaten-path Christmas songs, with Rick selecting the 1940's classic big-band composition 'Snowfall' as sung by Doris Day and me choosing something right out of the FCAC wheelhouse; 1981's 'Christmas Wrapping' by The Waitresses, with lead vocals by the irrepressable, irreplaceable Patty Donahue.

Happy Holidays to all the listeners and thank you for making 2022 our best year ever on the Full Cast and Crew podcast!