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

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

GGACP celebrates the 50th anniversary of one of Gilbert and Frank's favorite movies, Irwin Allen's all-star disaster epic "The Poseidon Adventure" (released December 13, 1972) with this ENCORE of a...n "Amazing Colossal Obsessions" episode from 2017. In this episode: Leslie Nielsen plays it straight, Red Buttons feuds with Carol Lynley, 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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Starting point is 00:00:30 Only $4 on now. Dine-in only until 11 a.m. at A&W's in Ontario. Here we go boys. One, two, three, four. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and I'm here with my co-host, Frankford. And that engineer, Santo Padre, does a great job. And yes, our engineer, Frank Santo Padre. It all runs together after all. And yeah, and I think
Starting point is 00:01:15 it's Peanut Butter Cove that we're recording at. And this is Gilbert and Frank's amazing, colossal obsession. It is. What the hell is Peanut Butter Cove? That's what Nutmeg changed their name to.
Starting point is 00:01:34 Oh, I see. You did a bizarro version. I think it's where the plane crashed in the airport. Paul Rayburn is here, too. Yes, yes. airport. Paul Rayburn is here too. Yes, yes. That's why if the show starts dragging
Starting point is 00:01:48 we have an excuse. Good research takes time. Yes. Now, do we have time to mention two people we lost? Yes, please do. In one night. Yes. In one night. They may have died days apart. You don't know.
Starting point is 00:02:03 Yeah, but we never had either one of them on our show they were on the list yeah they definitely were uh one of them i mean i remember years ago like maybe in the early 70s uh 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 enough, in the middle of the 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
Starting point is 00:03:06 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 right so like we've made about the mummy 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 feel to that movie.
Starting point is 00:03:40 Yeah, they made it real. Yeah. Sort of Carnival of Souls is another movie that feels that way. Yeah, that made it real. It's 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
Starting point is 00:03:56 jump scares and stuff. It's real terrible. Yeah, it just keeps you at the edge of your seat for the whole movie. And then he made Dawn of the Dead. Yeah. That had the chills of the first one, but it was also funny. Right.
Starting point is 00:04:12 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. Right. And when you see the zombies on the escalators, and they look just like just regular people. Well, that one's a satire.
Starting point is 00:04:32 Yeah. Yeah. Well, then there was 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. Oh.
Starting point is 00:04:44 George Romero. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. Pittsburgh. Yeah, I think he did. How does that he worked for Mr. Rogers in Pittsburgh. George Romero. Oh, that makes sense. Pittsburgh. Yeah, I think he did. How does that make sense? Mr. Rogers. Because they're Pittsburgh and they're both Pittsburgh boys. They're both Pittsburgh guys. They're not both zombie guys. That's what put Pittsburgh on the map for those living dead. Michael Keaton,
Starting point is 00:04:57 too, 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 him like this anymore. I was so looking.
Starting point is 00:05:12 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. I think he'd done another one. I'm trying to remember whose it was. Robert Wills. Robert Wills, his friend from Mistress. He did Robert's podcast. He had, I think he'd done, he'd done another one. I'm trying to remember who's, who's it was. Robert Wills, Robert Wills, 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
Starting point is 00:05:35 weren't able to, to, to close the deal, which was a heartbreaker. And I think he wanted a wait till he was promoting something or one else thing. I't know what it was but he i would have loved to have told we were trying so hard and uh so you know those those ah it's a kick in the teeth when you lose somebody like that that you think you're getting on the show and uh i forget the guy's name but one guy tweeted me and said rest in peace, Oscar-winning Jew, Martin Landau. Martin Landau, with one of those careers where, you know, he was a showbiz survivor. I mean, because he went from the bottom, 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.
Starting point is 00:06:26 And within a couple of years, he's in a Coppola picture. He's in Tucker, the Man and 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. Yeah. For Lugosi.
Starting point is 00:06:41 But he was a guy that was on hard times for a good while. Yeah. 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 Bela Lugosi seriously is a tough thing. Yeah. Because you don't want to come across as a nightclub comic doing Lugosi. And for him to make that believable.
Starting point is 00:07:03 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. Yeah, yeah. He was great. And, you know, another Brooklyn guy, another Brooklyn boy. Oh, that's right. Yeah. And I heard, you know, well, he once worked with Alfred Hitchcock.
Starting point is 00:07:15 Sure, sure. And he said Hitchcock had seen him in something else that was like a musical or something or a comedy 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 He had a great face. Yes. He did a great face. Yeah, and great range.
Starting point is 00:07:48 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. Yeah. 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.
Starting point is 00:08:11 One of the great honors in show business? Oh, the people are talking. Really? Yeah, yeah. Where did you read this? Oh, where didn't I read? In the street news? Where didn't I see it?
Starting point is 00:08:20 The paper the homeless people used to sell on the C train? Yikes. The paper that homeless people used to sell on the C train? Yes. A gentleman named Eric Rhein, who is 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 because this is running in July, but then we didn't put it up until recently. He's suggesting that we do a show about 70s disaster movies, and I thought that's right up Gilbert's alley. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:45 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. Yeah. And we did a, we did a mini episode about Irwin Allen, but I thought, well, that's a kind of a fun idea that we could play with. And, uh, 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.
Starting point is 00:09:16 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. Now, was that Dean Martin? Dean Martin and Burt Lancaster and Van Heflin in his last part. Oh, and 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.
Starting point is 00:09:44 That's right, when time ran out. Yeah, time ran out. The Day the World Ended. That's right, when time ran out. Yeah, 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 yes,
Starting point is 00:09:51 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.
Starting point is 00:10:04 Yeah, sure. 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 being nominated for Best Picture. It's so ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:10:15 Yeah. And there's still this building in L.A. 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. to airport. Again, the strange twists and turns of a career.
Starting point is 00:10:44 We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. What happens when 20 extremely athletic Canadians who thrive on competition and won't settle for less than number one
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Starting point is 00:11:46 Live original. Please enjoy our products responsibly. 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?
Starting point is 00:12:14 Helen Hayes. She's a stowaway. Yeah. Helen Hayes, I think in airplane, gets smacked a couple of times in the original one. And the Zuckers parodied that in 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,
Starting point is 00:12:37 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. Dana Andrews. Right. And then that spawned Airport 75, which was confusingly released in 1974.
Starting point is 00:13:00 Yeah. Which is odd. Yeah, because 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 those. That's right.
Starting point is 00:13:16 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. 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.
Starting point is 00:13:43 Now, in Towering Inferno, there's a famous football player. O.J.'s 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.
Starting point is 00:13:59 And in Towering Inferno, the elevator snaps and it's not working. So this football player, you know, grabs the cable of the elevator. It's not Bernie Casey or was it a guy with an acting career? Not a big acting career. I think he was white. I think so. 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.
Starting point is 00:14:34 Oh, my God, Don Gordon. But going back to Airport 75, Helen Reddy is a guitar-strumming nun, which was parodied in Airport 75. Oh, yes. Helen Reddy as a guitar-strumming nun, which was parodied in airplane. Oh, yes. And that one is really George Kennedy also, who became a veteran of these pictures. He would pop up in all those. Yeah. In fact, he's in the first one, too.
Starting point is 00:14:55 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 jet liner ends up on the bottom of the ocean. Oh, that's right. With? Not with. Christopher Lee was in that. You're right, but who played Christopher Lee's wife?
Starting point is 00:15:19 Former podcast guest. Lee Grant. Nice work. Lee Grant. 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.
Starting point is 00:15:37 Oh, wow. So, you know, you got Olivia de Havilland in one. You got Helen Hayes in another. You got Gloria Swanson. They were probably on the phone with their agent saying, get me one of these airport movies. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure all of those old
Starting point is 00:15:51 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 remember liking Jack Lemmon and it was kind of a different part for him. Yeah, it was kind of fun to see those guys in those different roles.
Starting point is 00:16:09 Yeah, and cash and a check. Yeah, that's right. But the franchise, the nail in the franchise's coffin was Airport 79, The Concord. Oh, that's right! Not only did the movie— Who was in The Concord again? Robert Wagner. Okay.
Starting point is 00:16:27 Charo. You think that would have sold it right there? A French actor named Alain Delon. Who I believe was in that movie, Mr. Klein, that you liked. Yes, yes. Wow. He was the pilot. And with Charo there, the pilot should have been Murph Griffin.
Starting point is 00:16:52 Paul, what do you got on Airport 79? The Concorde. Not much, but I do know that you may have noticed that the actual airplane, the Concorde, no longer flies. I believe because of the reception to the movie. They finally actually shut down the aircraft altogether. That's why the SST program went away. David Warner's in it. I'm pretty sure.
Starting point is 00:17:11 Oh! And George Kennedy. Of course. Yep. I think George Kennedy's in all of them. I think George Kennedy is the recurring motif. Okay, now we've got to get to the big guns. In 1972, The Poseidon Adventure.
Starting point is 00:17:27 Now, here's a movie that we have talked about at length on this show. With Mario Cantone, with our friend Ira Glass. And Red Buttons, Ernest Pognine. Yeah, and your friend Stella Stevens, who you wanted. Stella Stevens is spending the entire movie in white underwear and she's climbing up ladders.
Starting point is 00:17:51 People are following her up. The camera is following her up the ladder. Boy oh boy. 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.
Starting point is 00:18:07 What was the Academy Award winning song from the Poseidon? Morning After. Oh, he's good. Yeah. Why do we even bother?
Starting point is 00:18:15 Why do we try? Sung by, who sang it? Oh, that was, was that Helen Ruddy? No. No,
Starting point is 00:18:20 no, that was, that was, oh God. You can do it. You can get this. She has an alliterative name. Oh,
Starting point is 00:18:26 oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Both letters, same letter, same letter. Oh, no. That was, oh, God. You can do it. You can get this. She has an alliterative name. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Both letters, same letter. Oh, all right. Give me the letter then. M. Two M's. Maureen McCormick? No, Maureen McGovern. Maureen McCormick is Marcia from the Brady Bunch.
Starting point is 00:18:38 Oh, that's right. She would have sung a bitchin' version of The Morning After. Can you do a verse? She would have sung a bitchin' version of The Morning After. Can you do a verse? There's got to be a morning after if we can hold on through the storm. This is beautiful. And who scored that picture?
Starting point is 00:18:59 Somebody who comes up a lot on this show. Uh-oh. Mr. John Williams. Oh, wow. Are you kidding? Did he write that song? I don't know that he wrote the song. You can check that. But John Williams
Starting point is 00:19:07 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
Starting point is 00:19:17 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 going to play the Red Buttons. I believe, if this isn't bullshit, and I found this in my research, that Gene Wilder was going to play the Red Buttons part.
Starting point is 00:19:28 Oh, that would make sense. James Martin was the character's name. And because Carol Lindley reportedly did not get along with Red Buttons. That 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? Did not get along with Red Buttons.
Starting point is 00:19:49 Oh, I want to see a whole TV movie about this. Behind the Poseidon Adventure. Yeah, just like how they did Joan and Betty. Right. I'd like to see Carol and Red. A miniseries. The next episode of Feud will be Red Buttons and Caroliseries. The next episode of Feud will be Red Barton's and Carol and Lee. That's too good.
Starting point is 00:20:08 That's what I found. Oh, that's too good. Okay, another quiz for you. Oh, I was on a plane once. Yeah. Years ago, I was sitting in between, 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.
Starting point is 00:20:34 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. Johnson. You didn't talk to Sylvia Sidney?
Starting point is 00:20:58 No. She's in Dead End with Bogart, for Christ's sakes. That's right. You could have learned about Boggey, about your hero. Okay, here's some more Poseidon Adventure trivia before Paul finds it. What was the tagline on the movie poster? What? What was the tagline on the movie poster?
Starting point is 00:21:14 We've talked about those old posters with the stars, all the faces. Oh, that's the tagline. Oh, oh. No, that was the Joey Ross story. Oh, for 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 very good yeah the i got the composers for the morning after but i don't know these guys l kasha and joel hershorn joel hershorn joel hershorn i know he's a famous. And while we're talking about taglines,
Starting point is 00:21:47 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.
Starting point is 00:22:05 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.
Starting point is 00:22:24 Gene Hackman doing good work in cheese. Yes. You know, as always, and the fetching Pamela Sue Martin. Ooh. 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. Yes.
Starting point is 00:22:46 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 Oscars, Shelley Winters nominated for her role. Oh, 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.
Starting point is 00:23:13 She trained, I believe, an Olympic swimming coach. And I would direct our listeners to Mario Cantone's impression of Shelley Winters in the Poseidon Adventure, which you can find online in clips from Mario's show Laugh Whore. It must be seen to be believed. He's done it here. So there's an interesting bit on Vulture. They asked for the origin of Don't Call Me Shirley
Starting point is 00:23:35 and where the joke 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. Surely You Can't Be Serious was a line from one of the movies they screened and they added and Don't Call Me Surely. Oh, they must have felt like they'd hit a jackpot. Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:24:01 and don't call me surely. 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 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 other one was, remember the line from Airplane?
Starting point is 00:24:23 It 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. That was the exact line. Hilarious. Didn't you want to cruise with David Zucker? Yes. A while back.
Starting point is 00:24:36 We've got to get him to do the show. I, of course, didn't ask him to do it. Nice work. Darren didn't ask him either. Not like he's had any connection with movies over the years. Don't ask him. And, you know, had any connection with movies over the years. Don't ask him. And, you know, it was funny with, like, Airplane. You know, it was based on Zero Hour.
Starting point is 00:24:52 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.
Starting point is 00:25:16 Well, they're 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. Yeah, well, they they you know, at this point, there's also some interesting stuff online that this this was early in their careers. And Paramount was so nervous about the movie. They negotiate 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.
Starting point is 00:25:45 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 got to have one of those actors in here. And in the beginning, they wanted to load it with comedians. I remember. Oh, really?
Starting point is 00:25:59 Yeah. They had a fight against that. It would have ruined the entire. Yeah, that's right. Now, was that the first movie where Leslie Nielsen did comedy? Yes. That was the one. I mean, he may have been in other comedies, but he wasn't known, certainly not known for it.
Starting point is 00:26:13 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 Poseidon about the Towering Inferno and Mr. Zucker I know I didn't ask you on the boat but if you're listening well wait a minute which Zucker was on the boat was it Jerry or David uh David I think okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. We'll take either one. And he was talking to me, and then like about a month later, I thought,
Starting point is 00:26:53 oh, he would have been a good person. Nice work. You are on it. That's about how long it takes me to find answers to the questions. It would have been like Charlie Chaplin could come up to me, and I'd 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. flush from the success of the Poseidon Adventure, decides he has to make another big budget,
Starting point is 00:27:30 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.
Starting point is 00:27:54 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? And Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. And I remember a Steve McQueen and 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.
Starting point is 00:28:29 Yeah. So it's funny that you would pull that out. Oh, he looked ridiculous. William Holden. Oh, that's right. Did you mention Faye Dunaway? Fred Astaire, Faye Dunaway. Faye Dunaway, that's what, back when she was really hot looking.
Starting point is 00:28:43 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
Starting point is 00:29:08 Awards. And it lured George Clooney and Jennifer Lawrence. Paul Newman was the architect. Oh, that's right. And Richard Chamberlain turns out to be the bad guy in that movie. And in every one of those
Starting point is 00:29:23 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.
Starting point is 00:29:40 And they were both written by the same writer, Sterling Siliphant, who was an Oscar winner, who wrote what? Ooh. What did he win an Oscar for writing? Also Lee Grant movie. Well, she's in it. Ooh. It starred your, one of your favorite actors, Rod Steiger. Oh, shit.
Starting point is 00:30:00 Uh, uh, uh, uh, 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. 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. That was a big payday.
Starting point is 00:30:13 Well, that was a hot night, too, in the Inferno. If you were on the 83rd floor. OJ is in it. We have to find out the other football player. Robert, yeah, so there's a guy that looks like a football player. His name is Felton Perry. Hey, do you think OJ will looks like a football player. Is it named Felton Perry? Hey, do you think OJ will get out? Felton Perry, maybe.
Starting point is 00:30:27 Felton Perry. Do you think OJ will get... No? No, I don't think Felton Perry was a football player. What about OJ? I don't know about OJ. See, when this show airs,
Starting point is 00:30:37 we'll already know. That's right. That's right. Whether he's walking the street. That's right. Tomorrow morning. And we should look behind us.
Starting point is 00:30:43 Did you ever work with OJ? I met him once. Uh-huh uh did you lose a part to him well he was originally gonna be a yago i didn't know that 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 yeah that is yeah that is where john williams did the music also for the towering inferno um and uh yes this is interesting you brought up newman and mcqueen according to then again i hope it isn't bullshit according to uh to I found, McQueen insisted that they have the exact same number of lines. Oh, yes. And they were paid the same amount of money.
Starting point is 00:31:32 They were both paid a million bucks and 7% of the gross for the box office. And it was very, very tricky trying to figure out which name would go where on the 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 and that was in their contracts um now here's my last question for you and then we'll 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.
Starting point is 00:32:15 Anybody? No can do. The Poop-Sigh-Down Adventure. Oh, God. Once as witty as ever. As witty as ever. Yes. And you know what's sad is a lot of our listeners knew the answer to that question. Yes, God. Once as witty as ever. As witty as ever. Yes. And you know what's sad is a lot of our listeners knew the answer to that question.
Starting point is 00:32:29 Yes, yes. And were 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 Adventure They did Beyond the Poseidon. Was Sally Field in that? She sure is.
Starting point is 00:32:47 We'll save that for a future show. Paul, what do you got? That's it. Okay. Did I cover this? I covered everything. Yeah. That's it.
Starting point is 00:32:58 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 rest of them, but I'm going to sneak in some weird ones, and we'll do it on a future episode. This show actually has often been described as a disaster. Yes, and I would say that's fair. Especially when we're looking for information.
Starting point is 00:33:21 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 Ryan, 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, 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.
Starting point is 00:33:47 And David Zucker, if you're listening, I just realized you're in the movie business. Nice work. Would you like to take us out with some Maureen McGovern? Oh, 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. And this has been Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions. I'm sweating.
Starting point is 00:34:27 See you next time. Thank you, Frankie. Colossal Obsessions

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