Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Disaster Movies of the 1970s Encore

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

GGACP celebrates the 50th anniversary of the "classic" disaster flick "Earthquake" (released November 15, 1974) with this ENCORE of an “Amazing Colossal Obsessions” mini-show from 2017. In this episode: Leslie Nielsen plays it straight, Shelley Winters trains with an Olympic swimming coach and the boys discuss “Airport,” “Airport ’77,” “When Time Ran Out” and “The Towering Inferno.” PLUS: The films of Martin Landau! Remembering George Romero! The musical genius of John Williams! Charo boards the Concorde! And Gilbert warbles “The Morning After”!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Everybody Milk. Visit milk.org to learn more. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried and I'm here with my co-host, Frankford... Uh, Frankford... Oh! Hahaha! And that engineer, Santo Padre, does a great job. Yes, our engineer, Frank Santo Padre. And... It all runs together, after all.

And, yeah, and I think it's, uh, the peanut butter cove that we're recording at. And this is Governor Frank's amazing colossal obsession. It is. What the hell is peanut butter cove? It's also- That's what Nutmeg changed their name to. Oh, I see. You did a kind of like a, you did a bizarro version.

I think it's where the plane crashed in the airport. Paul Rayburn is here too. Yes, that's why if the show starts dragging, we have an excuse. Good research takes time. Now do we have time to mention two people we lost? Yes, please do. In one night. They may have died days apart, you don't know. Yeah, but we we never had either one of them on our show. They were on the list.

Yeah, they definitely were. One of them, I mean, I remember years ago, like maybe in the early 70s, there was word going around that the Waverly Theater in New York's Greenwich Village was having a midnight showing every night of a movie called Night of the Living Dead and me and my sister Arlene went there and it was standing room only and lucky lucky enough, in the middle of a picture, two people left. And that was like, so anybody who watches the nine million TV series about undead and people who eat flesh and then they turn in, the victims turn into undead

and are lumbering around. It's big business now, zombies. And it's like you owe a debt of thanks to George Romero. Yeah, well, you know, the great thing about that movie, every time I see it or think about it, is that the zombies moved way too slowly, you would think, to ever catch anyone. It's a little like The Mummy,

what we made about The Mummy. slowly you would think to ever catch anyone. It's a little like the mummy. Right. So like they're like, it's, you just walk away and, but there's something relentless about it and you know, the truck blows up. I mean, no matter what people try to do to get away, even though it looks like it should be easy, they can't get away. And there was something about the low budget, uh, feel to that movie. Yeah. That made it real. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like sort of Carnival of Souls. Yes. Is that movie. Yeah, that made it real. Yeah.

Like sort of Carnival of Souls is another movie that feels that way. Yeah, it has that also. Black and white, low budget, kind of eerie. Yeah, gives you the creeps. And it's not like cheap jump scares and stuff. It's real terrible. It just keeps you at the edge of your seat for the whole

movie. And then he made Dawn of the Dead that had the chills of the first one, but it was also funny. Like a sick kind of humor. Like zombies getting their heads sliced off by helicopter rotors. Oh yes. Yes. And that it took place in a shopping mall. And when you see the zombies on the escalators and they look just like Well that one's a satire. Yeah. Yeah.

Well then there was A smart filmmaker. Sean of the Dead was the takeoff on the takeoff. Yeah. I think he cut his teeth. I think he worked for Mr. Rogers in Pittsburgh George Romero. Oh that makes sense It's yeah, I think he did. How does that make sense? Mr. Rogers, they're Pittsburgh. Yeah, both Pittsburgh guys. Yeah, but they're not both zombie guys

That's what Pittsburgh on the map with those living dead Michael Keaton to was another guy from Pittsburgh who worked on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Oh. Yeah, George Romero. He was great. I tell you, these guys are irreplaceable. Him, Martin Landau. Yeah, Martin Landau. They don't make a like this anymore.

I was so looking, he's the other one. We were so looking forward to talking to him. We were trying hard and we thought we were getting closer. He had just done Marin's podcast. He'd, I think he'd done, he'd done another one, I'm trying to remember who's it was. Robert Wools, Robert Wools, his friend from Mistress. He did Robert's podcast and we were,

Dick Gutman was helping us and it was a timing thing. And then he passed. We just weren't able to close the deal, which was a heartbreaker. And I think he wanted a wait till he was promoting something or one of those things. I don't know what it was, but he, I would have loved to have talked to him. We were trying so hard. And so, you know, those, those, to kick in the teeth when you lose somebody like that that you think you're getting on the show.

And I forget the guy's name, but one guy tweeted me and said, rest in peace, Oscar-winning Jew, Martin Landau. Martin Landau, one of those careers where, you know, he was a showbiz survivor. I mean, cause he went from the bottom, where he were, the part of his career where things were real dark when he was playing the mad scientist on the Harlem Globetrotters visit Gilligan's Island. Oh yes, yes.

And within a couple years, he's in a Coppola picture. He's in Tucker, the man in his dream, and then he crimes and misdemeanors, and he worked his way back up, yes, that's the nature of the vicissitudes of the business, but he worked his way back up to, and then he wins an Oscar for Lugosi. But he was a guy that was on Hard Times for a good while.

You know, winning an Oscar and having you take Bale Lugosi seriously is a tough thing, because you don't want to come across as a nightclub comic doing Lugosi. And for him to make that believable is- And credit to Scott and Larry, who wrote him the part of a lifetime there in Ed Wood. Oh yeah.

Yeah, yeah. He was great. He had, and you know, another Brooklyn guy, another Brooklyn boy. Oh, that's right. Yeah. And I heard, you know, he, well, he once worked with Alfred Hitchcock. Sure, sure. And he said Hitchcock had seen him in something else that was like a musical or something and

Or a comedy and he says he asked Hitchcock he goes well what made you think of casting me as the villain and Hitchcock said something like You look like you have a circus going on in your head Interesting he was a commercial artist. He had a great going on in your head. Interesting. He was a commercial artist for a while. He had a great face. And great range. Here's what we're going to do.

We have this thing called Producer of the Month on Patreon where basically fans and listeners can suggest a show. And if we pick the idea, we just name that person producer of the month and we do the show. So we're going to try this. We haven't done it. It's actually something new on Patreon. This is one of the great honors in show business. One of the great honors in show business? Oh, the people are talking. Really? Where did you read this?

Oh, where didn't I read? In Street News? Where didn't I see it? The paper they used to, the homeless people used to sell on the D train? Yeah, exactly. A gentleman named Eric Rine, who was a big fan of this show, R-H-E-I-N,

suggested, he's the producer of the month for June, we're a month late, cause this is running in July, but then we didn't put it up till recently. He's suggesting that we do a show about 70s disaster movies. And I thought that's right up Gilbert's alley. And we had talked about Irwin Allen on a previous show, but some of these are not Irwin Allen movies.

He was the master of disaster. And we did a mini episode about Irwin Allen. But I thought, well, that's kind of a fun idea that we could play with. And I thought I'd throw some of these out at you. And Paul, feel free to listen in. I'll do some research when I consider it appropriate. Yes, yes. And you'll come back to us in a year

when you have the answer. The producer of the month, a year from now, will find out. Get started on the 80s disaster movies. So here we go, Gil. I think this kind of this genre, if you will, started or subgenre, started with Airport in 1970. Oh, that's right. Was that Dean Martin? Dean Martin and Burt Lancaster and Van Hefflin in his last part. Was Jacqueline Bissett the stewardess?

She sure as hell is. And she comes back because she's in horror movies later. Yeah, and she's in The Day the World Ended. That's right, When Time Ran Out. Yeah, When Time Ran Out. The Day the World Ended was the name of the script. It was the name of the movie in development before they changed it. And Helen Hayes won an Oscar for Airport in 1970. Did you know that?

No. The Airport was nominated. So we think about this now as kind of like pop junk that's kind of fun. Yeah, sure. The airport was nominated for 10 Academy Awards. So the Towering Inferno was nominated for Best Picture. It's incredible. Can you imagine that today? Yeah. Like a cheeseball disaster movie. It's so ridiculous. And there's still this building in LA that's not that big a building, but I think it was used as the towering inferno. Yes, we'll get to that.

But this I found out in doing my research that the writer of Airport, the original Airport in 70, was a gentleman named George Seaton, S-E-A-T-O-N, who made one of my favorite movies, Miracle on 34th Street. So how do you get from Miracle on 34th Street to airport? Again, the strange twists and turns of a career. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal podcast after this. It's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything.

So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now.

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a $1 small coffee and a $2 small latte. Available now until November 24th in Ontario only. Woohoo! This episode is brought to you by Melissa and Doug. Wooden puzzles and building toys for problem solving and arts and crafts for creative thinking, Melissa and Doug makes toys that help kids take on the world. Because the way they play today shapes who they become tomorrow. Melissa and Doug, the play is pretend, the skills are real.

Look for Melissa and Doug wherever you shop for toys. This podcast is brought to you by Humber River Health Foundation. From the discovery of insulin in 1921 to the promise of universal health care in 1966, Canadians have always made health care our mission. Now we face our biggest challenge yet, a cure for health care. Reduced wait times, safer patients, advancements in technology, the end of hallway medicine. We're finding it all here at Humber River Health. Help us innovate to keep health care alive. Donate at healthcarelives.ca. And now back to the show. It is somebody described it as grand hotel on a plane and that's pretty

much what it is. Those were the formulas for these things. Put a bunch of stars in them and put them in peril. And that's where... Oh, was she the one that gets smacked a bunch of times on the plane? Who? Helen Hayes? You mean what they spoofed in airplanes? Helen Hayes. She's a stowaway. Yeah. Helen Hayes, I think in airplanes,

gets smacked a couple of times in the original one. And the Zuckers parodied that in the airplane? Because I think they smack her as a diversion, because some guy's trying to hijack the plane or blow it up. And she starts yelling, and it's so much fun to watch Helen Hayes get smacked. You know, it's funny, because people think the Zuckers were parodying the airport movies,

but it's really a parody of a movie called Zero Hour. Yeah, with what's his name? Dana Andrews, I think. Dana Andrews. Right. And then that spawned Airport 75, which was confusingly released in 1974. Yeah.

Which is odd. Yeah, cause Zero Hour had everything in it. Like I picked the wrong time to give up smoking. Oh yeah, it's fun to watch it now. And George Zip and all that shit. That's right, it's fun to watch. But Airport 75 was Charlton Heston, Karen Black. One of the things these disaster movies have always done is getting old stars. Faded stars to

fill out the... It was kind of like Fantasy Island and Love Boat. Yes. Well, Gloria Swanson's in this one. Helen Hayes was in the first one. I mean, Fred Astaire turns up in the Towering Inferno. That was a bit of a part of the formula. Now in Towering Inferno, there's a famous football player. OJ's in the Towering Inferno. Yeah, but there's another guy.

He's a big, big guy, like wide. If we had a researcher here, we could look that up. Yeah, yes. I'll put out a call. Put out a call. And in Towering Inferno, the elevator snaps, and it's not working. So this football player grabs the cable of the elevator.

It's not Bernie Casey. Was it a guy with an acting career? Not a big acting career. I think he was white. I think so. He was a football player and he grabs the cable of the elevator and he tugs up an entire elevator of people. I love it. Well your man Don Gordon is in the towering inferno. Oh my god Don Gordon. But going back to airport 75, Helen Reddy is a guitar strumming nun, which was parodied

in Airport. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And that one is really George Kennedy also, who became a veteran of these pictures. Oh, he would pop up in all those. Yeah, yeah. In fact, he's in the first one too. He's in Airport 70.

But these were hits and they kept spawning sequels. And the next one co-starred a former podcast guest, Airport 77, which is the one where the jetliner ends up on the bottom of the ocean. Oh, that's right. With? Now, it was Christopher Lee was in that. You're right, but who played Christopher Lee's wife? Oh, Lee Grant?

Nice work. Ah, excellent. And wasn't Jack Lemmon the pilot? Jack Lemmon was the star and Jimmy Stewart's in it. And keeping with the formula of old time stars, old Hollywood stars from the golden age, Olivia de Havilland and Joseph Cotton. Oh, wow.

So, you know, you got Olivia de Havilland in one. You got Helen Hayes in another. You got Gloria Swantz. They were probably on the phone with their agents saying, get me one of these airport movies. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure all of those old dying actors were going, hey, you got to get me in it.

So-and-so was in it. I actually remember liking this movie, but purely as a guilty pleasure. Yes. Airport 77. I actually remember liking this movie but as it but purely as a guilty pleasure. Airport 77. I remember liking Jack Lemmon and it was a kind of a different part for him. Yeah it was kind of fun to see those guys in those different roles. Yeah and cash in a check. Yeah that's right. But the franchise, the nail in the franchise's coffin was Airport 79 The Concord. only did the move was in the Concord again Robert Wagner okay Charo you think that would have sold it right there a

French actor named Alain Delon who I believe was in the movie Mr. Klein that you liked. Yes, yes! Wow! He was the pilot. And with Charo there, the pilot should have been Merv Griffin. Paul, what do you got on Airport 79? The Concorde. Not much, but I do know that you may have noticed that the kind of the actual airplane the Concord no longer flies

I believe because of the reception to the movie. They finally actually shut down the air Program when a way David Warner's here. Oh And George Kennedy, of course, you know, I think George Kennedy's in all of them I think George Kennedy is the recurring motif. Okay, now we gotta get to the big guns. In 1972, The Poseidon Adventure. Now here's a movie that we have talked about at length on this show with Mario Cantone,

with our friend Ira Glass. And it's Red Buttons, Ernest Borg-Nine. Yeah, and your friend Stella Stevens, who you wanted. Oh, Stella Stevens is spending the entire movie in white underwear. And she's climbing up ladders. People are following her up. The camera is following her up the ladder.

And boy, oh boy. So much more exciting. Stella Stevens won't do our show, will she? We tried her. We can go back to the well and see what happens. So I have a question for Gilbert. Go ahead. What was the Academy Award winning song?

A Morning After. Oh, he's good. Yeah. Why do we even bother? Why do we try? Who sang it? Oh, that was, was that Helen Reddy? No. No, no, that was, was that Helen Reddy?

No. No, no, that was, oh God. You can do it. You can do this. She has an alliterative name. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Maureen McGovern. Maureen McCormick is Marsha from the Brady Bucks. Oh, that's right. She would have sung a bitchin' version of The Morning After. Can you do a verse or? There's got to be a morning after if we can hold on through the storm.

This is beautiful. And who scored that picture? Somebody who comes up a lot on this show. Uh oh. Mr. John Williams. Oh, wow. Are you kidding? Did he write that picture? Somebody who comes up a lot on this show. Uh oh. It's John Williams. Oh wow. Are you kidding? Did he write that song?

John, I don't know that he wrote the song. You can check that. But John Williams had history with Irwin Allen from Lost in Space. That's right. And Land of the Giants and those other great theme songs that he wrote. This is the first Irwin Allen movie

that we'll talk about too. Gilbert's got the cast right, Stella Stevens, Red Buttons. I believe, if this isn't bullshit, and I found this in my research, that Gene Wilder was gonna play the Red Buttons part. Oh, that wouldn't make sense. James Martin was the character's name. And because Carol Lindley reportedly did not get along with Red Buttons. There was bad blood.

So maybe she'd have done better with Gene Wilder. I don't know. So Carol Lindley didn't get along with red buttons? Oh, I want to see a whole TV movie about this. Behind the Poseidon Adventure. Yeah, just like how they did Joan and Betty. I'd like to see Carol and Red. A mini series. Yeah, just like how they did Joan and Betty Mini-series the next episode of feud will be red buttons and Carol good. That's what I found Oh, that's too good. Okay another quiz for you. I was on a plane once

Yeah years ago. I was sitting in, and I thought I was on a disaster movie waiting to happen. I was sitting in between Carol Lindley and Sylvia Sidney. Oh my God. Did you talk to them? No. Why not? No, I don't know.

But boy, if that plane blew up, I wouldn't be the least, I wouldn't have been the least surprised. You might have been top-billed in the blurb, in the news day. Or I could have been in brackets and Gilbert Gottfried as Dr. Jones. You didn't talk to Sylvia Sidney, she's in dead end with Bogart for Christ's sake. You could have learned about Bogie, about your hero. Okay, here's some more Poseidon Adventure trivia before Paul finds it. What was the tagline on the movie poster?

What was the tagline on the movie poster? We've talked about those old posters where the stars, all the faces. Oh, that's the tagline. Oh, oh! No, that was the Joey Ross story. Oh but the Poseidon adventure? Our listeners are screaming it into their devices. Oh I know they're getting pissed off. It was hell upside down. Oh that's it. Very good. Yeah. I got the composers for the morning after but I don't know these guys. L. Kasha and Joel Hirshhorn.

Joel Hirshhorn, I know, he's a famous name. And while we're talking about taglines, getting back to George Romero, the tagline for Dawn of the Dead was, when there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth. Correct. Brilliantly spoofed by Drew Friedman and his brother Josh in their first book. Let's see, what else do we want to say about the Poseidon adventure? You forgot to mention Roddy McDowell.

Oh, that's right! Leslie Nielsen in a dramatic role. Oh yeah. As the captain who looks through the binoculars, sees the tidal wave and says, Oh my God, which scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. And Gene Hackman. Gene Hackman doing good work in cheese. Yes. You know, as always, and the fetching Pamela Sue Martin.

We could talk about the Poseidon. We could just like do whole shows about the Poseidon adventure. It's so funny that with Airplane that they used Leslie Nielsen. And it was like in those beginning satires where they used him, he was still the old Leslie Nielsen playing it straight. Absolutely. And that's what made it so funny. Absolutely. Also speaking of Oscar, Shelley Winters nominated for her role. And she's so famous for jumping into the water and swimming. She gained 35 pounds for the

part and she trained with a swimming coach. I believe an Olympic swimming coach. And I would direct our listeners to Mario Cantone's impression of Shelly Winters in the Poseidon Adventure which you can find online in clips from Mario show Laugh Whore. It must be seen to be believed. He's not in here. So there's an interesting bit on Vulture. They they asked for the origin of Don't Call Me Shirley and where Joe came from. And so what they did was went back to a lot of classic movies of an earlier era and looked for some of this dialogue and then tweaked it. So they had found, I think, a line like, the line was, and I'm not sure, he doesn't remember which movie, Shirley, You Can't Be Serious was a line from one of the movies they screened and they added

and don't call me. Oh, they must have felt like they'd hit a jackpot. Yeah, exactly. So I mean, there's a lot of like in zero hour, there's a line that says, stewardess, can you face some unpleasant facts? And she says, yes, but in this is hard to imagine out of context, they change it to no and apparently got a laugh out of that in the movie. And then the one was remember the line from every place says we need somebody who can not only Fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner

That was an actual line from a movie Didn't you want you want to cruise with with David Zucker? Oh, yes Yes, we got a guy of course didn't ask him to do this work Yes, yes. A while back. Whoa, we gotta get him to do the show. I of course didn't ask him to do it. Nice work. Because-

Darin didn't ask him either, apparently. Not like he's had any connection with movies over the years. Don't ask him. And you know, it was funny with like Airplane, even, you know, it was based on Zero Hour. Yeah. But you know, most people had never heard of Zero Hour. It's an obscure film.

And you didn't have to see Zero Hour to laugh. That's right. Whereas these other parodies they make, it's the whole thing is like, oh, dress someone up from that movie. And the fact that we both recognize that it's from that movie, that's good enough. Well, they're too self-conscious.

They're imitations of a parody. Yes. So, and they too self-conscious. They're imitations of a parody. Yes. So, and they don't, and you know, the filmmakers don't really have the talent that the Zuckers and Jim Abrams. Oh, yeah. Well, they, you know, at this point, there's also some interesting stuff online here that,

this was early in their careers, and Paramount was so nervous about the movie, they negotiated a contract which said they could fire them after one week. And it turned out the first day of shooting was the day they filmed the, and don't call me Shirley line, and they showed it to the Proud Monarchs X, and they said, okay, we get it.

Oh, it's great. Now we get it. Yeah, it's great. We gotta have one of those doctors in here. And in the beginning, they wanted to load it with comedians. I remember. Oh, really? Yeah, they had a fight against that.

It would have ruined the entire. Yeah, that's right. And... Now was that the first movie where Leslie Nielsen Yes. Did comedy? That was the one. Yes, yes.

I mean he may have been in other comedies, but he wasn't known, certainly not known for it. But back then, he didn't realize he was getting laughs. Once he realized he was getting laughs in those later movies he did, he was getting a little too goofy. Yeah. But when you watch the Poseidon adventure now and he walks in you start laughing. Oh of course. Let's talk quickly about the towering inferno. And Mr. Zucker I know I didn't ask you on the boat but if you're listening Which zucker was on the boat was it Jerry or David? I David I think okay. Yeah, okay

We'll take either one and and he was he was talking to me and then Like about a month later. I thought he would have been a good person That's about how long it takes me to find answers to the questions Jolly Chaplin could come up to me and I go, oh, he did a couple of them. Yeah, you had a 20 minute conversation with David Allen Greer in the street and never thought to mention that you had a podcast.

Let's squeeze in and then we'll save the rest for another episode. So Irwin Allen, flush from the success of the Poseidon adventure, decides he has to make another big budget, throw every kind of star, everything but the kitchen sink into another disaster movie. So he went to option a book called The Tower, but it was already optioned.

So he optioned another book called The Glass Inferno, and then Fox and Warner Brothers decided to team up. So this was a big deal at the time because it was two studios actually joining forces, and that led to the Towering Inferno. You were talking about the building that's still there. This was about a fire breaking out on the 81st floor of the 138 story world's tallest building. That was the plot. And that was how many stars can we throw in there and put into peril and set fire to it. And Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. And I remember a Steve McQueen in a fireman's cap always struck me as funny. Well, according to what I found, and you know, sometimes you can't believe what you find on Wikipedia or IMDB, but Steve McQueen was supposedly self-conscious about the way he

looked in the fireman's helmet. So it's funny that you would pull that out. He looked ridiculous. William Holden? Oh, that's right. Did you mention Faye Dunaway? Fred Astaire, Faye Dunaway, Robert Bowaire, Faye Dunaway, Robert Downey. Faye Dunaway, that's what back when she was really hot looking.

Yeah, but how they think about it, I mean, we're talking about how movies have changed and how you couldn't get these films nominated for an Oscar today. Oh my God, it's, yeah. Today, if you made a disaster movie, it would be automatically, it would be relegated to be movie status. You wouldn't get people that were the level of Faye Dunaway and Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. This would be if like they took one of the really low budget slasher films and it was up for five Academy Awards. And it, George Clooney and Jennifer Lawrence.

Yeah, Paul Newman was the architect. Oh, that's right. Right, and Richard Chamberlain turns out to be the bad guy in that movie. And in every one of those movies, the bad guy is the one, well, much like the mayor in Jaws. They care about money and not safety. It's a formula. So they have to die a miserable death in the movie. And he does. Yes. Not to give anything away. Yeah. And they were both written by the same writer, Sterling Silophant, who was an Oscar winner, who wrote what? What did he win an Oscar for writing? Also Lee Grant movie. Well, she's in it. It's

one of your favorite actors, Rod Steiger. Oh, shit. Heat of the Night? Correct. Yes. So here you go. So you're winning an Oscar for writing in the Heat of the Night, and then you're writing The Towering Inferno.

Now it was a big payday. Well, that was a hot night too, in the Inferno, if you were on the 83rd floor. Yeah, OJ is in it. We have to find out the other football player. So there's a guy that looks like a football player. His name is Felton Perry. Felton Perry maybe.

Do you think OJ will get out? No, I don't think Felton Perry was a football player. What about OJ? See, when this show airs, we'll already know. That's right. Whether he's walking the street. That's right, tomorrow morning. And we'll already know right. That's right. Whether he's walking. That's right tomorrow morning We should look behind us. Did you ever work with OJ? I met him once. Uh-huh. Did you lose a part to him? Well, he was originally gonna be Iago

OJ Simpson I met at a party and he recognized me and did an imitation of me. Wow. And at now that would be like Charles Manson imitating me. Yeah. That is where John Williams did the music also for the Towering Inferno.

And yes, this is interesting. You brought up Newman and McQueen according to then again I hope it isn't bullshit according to to what I found McQueen insisted that they have the exact same number of lines oh yes and they were paid the same amount of money they were both paid a million bucks and seven percent of the gross and for the box office. And it was very, very tricky trying to figure out which name would go where on the poster. Well they did what they called staggering the credits. Yes. Like one was first but it was lower. Correct. And the second one was higher.

That's correct. That was in their contracts. Now here's my last question for you. And then we'll do the rest of these movies that I wrote down on another show, because we're going to run out of time. But what was the name of the Mad Magazine parody of the Poseidon Adventure? Oh, I forget.

Anybody? No can do. The Poop Side Down Adventure. Oh, god. What's as witty as ever you know what sad is a lot of our listeners knew the answer to that yelling it at their devices I would say of these movies the towering inferno and the Poseidon adventure are actually not bad, for what they are. And the actors are good. And then they did Beyond the Poseidon.

They did Beyond the Poseidon. The Sally Field in that? She sure is. We'll save that for a future show. Ha ha ha ha. Paul, what do you got? That's it. Okay.

Did I cover this? I covered everything, yeah. That's it. We're up to 74. We'll do the rest of them. And you guys know the titles. You probably know where I'm going with the with the rest of them, but I'm going to sneak in some weird ones and we'll do it on a future episode.

This this show actually has often been described as a disaster. Yes. Yes. And I would say that's fair, especially when we're looking for information. I don't know who you're referring to. It's a disaster and a tragedy at the same time. So thank you to Eric Rine, our producer of the month for June. Sorry we're doing this in July, but we're behind and we had a lot of mini episodes to do and we had to do tribute episodes episodes bonus episodes we're calling them now so thank you Eric and if you guys go to patreon you can suggest an episode premise and we'll do it if we pick it and David Zucker if you're listening I just realized you're in the movie business nice work would you like Nice work.

Would you like to take us out with some Maureen McGovern? There's got to be a morning after if we can hold on through the storm. Something like that. You can see why that won an Academy Award. You can see why that won an Academy Award. You can say yeah. Yeah This has been Gilbert and Frank's Colossal Obsessions! Give it that right, Colossal Obsessions!