Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Classic: Allan Arkush

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

GGACP celebrates the birthday of Emmy-winning director and producer Allan Arkush by revisiting this in-depth interview from 2018. In this episode, Allan entertains Gilbert and Frank with tales of working at the late, great Fillmore East, crossing paths with Ol’ Blue Eyes (and Groucho!) apprenticing for the legendary Roger Corman and helming the cult classic “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.” Also, Jackie Mason fails to connect, Malcolm McDowell talks to his crotch, Bruce Willis locks horns with Cybill Shepherd and “A Hard Day’s Night” changes Allan’s life forever. PLUS: P.J. Soles! “The Girl Can’t Help It”! In praise of Alexander & Karaszewski! Zacherle introduces the Grateful Dead! And Allan (reluctantly) remembers “Caddyshack 2”! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Colossal classic Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast. I'm here once again with my co-host Frank Santopadre, and we're once again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Ferdorosa. Our guest this week is a producer, occasional actor, film director, and Emmy-winning television director who's directed dozens of critically acclaimed TV shows, including Fame, Saint Elsewhere, L.A. Law, Parenthood, I'll Fly Away, Crossing Jordan, and Heroes, as well as numerous episodes of Moonlighting and the Memorable Dancing Baby episode of Ally McBeal. He's also directed popular music videos for Bette Midler and Elvis Costello, and he was awarded a Best

Director Emmy for his work on the NBC miniseries The Temptations. His feature films include Bloodsport, Hollywood Boulevard, which he co-directed with former guest Joe Dante, Heartbeaps, Elvis Meets Nixon, the vastly underappreciated comedy Get Crazy, and one of the most beloved and iconic films of the 1970s rock and roll high school. In a career spanning five decades. He's worked with Mick Jagger, Andy Kaufman, Smokey Robinson, Lou Reed, Malcolm McDowell, Bruce Willis, Jerry Chase, Howard Kalin, Andrea Martin and Dick Miller. Please welcome to the show former usher and stagehand at the legendary Fillmore East. A deadhead, a raconteur, an amateur musicologist, and a man who survived, working for both Roger Corman and Taddy Shaq too. And live to tell about it. The multi-talented Alan Arkish. Boy, that was so complete.

We're completists, Alan. You are. It goes well beyond the IMDB. You actually found my bio somewhere. Well, we piece it together. You've done a lot of cool stuff. All that's needed now is we get you an affordable coffin and bury it. Like the one Zacharly used to get on.

Two minutes in and he's got a Zacharly reference. Oh, I got a Zacharly story. Go ahead. Go right ahead. Okay. So are you guys from Northern Jersey? No, he's from Brooklyn. I'm from Queens Okay, so we all we all were as they say tri-state area. Yeah. Yeah, we all went through million dollar movie and and Zach Lee's monster show. Yeah. Yes. Yeah chiller theater all that all that stuff. So obviously I was a huge fan, you know, and watched Zachary. And a weekend at the Fillmore East, and I'm talking now February 1970,

the open, one of the greatest weekends of music ever there. The opening act was a group from LA called Love with Arthur Lee, second on the bill were the Almond Brothers and the headliner was the Grateful Dead. Wow. And there was no curfew and they were there for three nights and the first night Fleetwood Mac came and jammed and that was the Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green. And the Grateful Dead brought a sound man with them by the name of Stanley Augustus Owsley. And Owsley was also the creator of Sunshine Acid. And not afraid to use it.

And Zachary came by on the Friday night show as a fan as John Zachary walking around, you know, and of course he was like a hit backstage and everything. And then everyone decided that he had to come back Saturday night late show to introduce the Grateful Dead. I mean, who better? Right. So early in the evening, I was putting the water bottles backstage

and I turned my back on Osley and two of the dead roadies, names like Ramrod and Parrish. And they put something in the water. And so everyone who drank from the backstage water was completely dosed. And it was a great evening of music. And as the late show, after the Allman's played for like two and a half hours,

now we're talking, we're at three in the morning. This coffin comes down the aisle with spotlights on it, with ushers carrying it dressed in black. And they bring it up on the stage and tilt it up and the coffin opens and out steps Zachary. Completely dosed. And he looks out at everyone and he says, it's the grateful goddamn dead.

And he climbs back in the coffin, they closed it, they took him out. Oh! Best intro of their careers. You can buy that show. Wow! We wanted to get him for this show when we started. Obviously, he's somebody who was right up our alley.

He wasn't well. And Million Dollar Movie, I forget the name of the movie, He's somebody who was right up our alley. He wasn't well sure. Yeah, he wasn't well and and Million dollar movie. Yes, I forget the name of the theme song dead at that that that Would have like a drawing of a of an apartment building a few apartment buildings and lights going on each one That's right. Yeah, of course Well as we established before we turn on the mics that Alan is a tristate area guy like us from from from Jersey So he grew up with million dollar movie and all of that stuff. Yeah, Murray the K Murray the K Yeah, yeah and ch. Murray the K. Yeah, yeah. And Schiller.

Murray was my guru. Murray was my window into the universe once I discovered him. Yeah. Yeah, I never heard Murray the K on the radio, did you? I used to listen to the good guys. I did, yeah. I, oh God, it's so strange.

He was on 10 10 wins, yeah. 10 10 wins. Yeah, eight o'clock to 11 o'clock every night. Yeah. I discovered him for myself about 1958 So I was my musical education was through Murray. It's so weird growing up They were like yeah like five guys and you on the radio. We just lost Dan Ingram. Oh Yeah, couple of couple of weeks ago. He was one. It was Harry Harrison, right? Cousin Brucie.

Oh, Cousin Brucie, yeah. Oh, Frankie Crocker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, if you listen to FM. Scott Muny. The professor. Oh, wow. Scott Muny's name came up last week.

We had Ron Delsignore. Alison something the night bird. Alison Steele. Alison Steele the night bird. She's on that wonderful Billy West does Larry Fine at Woodstock No, I'm gonna change your life we're gonna send you Larry Fine at Woodstock Introduced introduced by Alice and steel but million dollar movie. I mean is that and your local movie theater the Lee theater Yes, Lee theater is kind of to this am I right in saying that that's kind of

your introduction to cinema? And your dad was a film buff too. Yeah, my father was a film buff and he would recommend movies to me, certainly to watch on TV. And they took me, I used to go to the Lee Theater and I distinctly remember seeing Real Bravo there. House on Haunted Hill. Oh sure.

Did you see that in a Murjo? Yes, but they didn't have as many gimmicks. You know, I mean, unlike Joe Dante, I did not have a theater in my neighborhood that played like Tarantula in a lot of those movies. The Lee Theater was straighter, you know what I mean? It's, if you wanted to see Old yaller you would go so you had the Linwood theater too, didn't you? Yes. Yes, and then the Lee theater. I think it was July 6th

1964 Changed my life now Tarantula which was it you know a rip of them, and them's more respected, and yet I think Tarantula's a much more fun movie than them. It is more fun. It's a less believable than that. Oh, you have to give up. How often do you get Tarantulas attacked by planes?

And there's a line in Tarantula where the general says, how we gonna kill him and he says napalm and one of the pilots in the plane that kills the tarantula is Clint Eastwood Wow how about that he's got a mask over his face you could just see eyes. I love the way Joe sends up that stuff in the matinee. Oh, yeah. So wonderful. So spot on. Joe told me that Tarantula was the first movie that absolutely freaked him out.

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

Exactly. Yeah. But 64 in the Lee Theater, that was a turning point. That was a turning point. That was the first night of a hard day's night and I was a big music fan a Beatle fan. Uh-huh You know, I think before that when I went to see movies I saw movies that were exotic in the sense of look I loved Lawrence of Arabia and West Side Story

They're all movies, but they were not my life of Arabia and West Side Story, they're all movies, but they were not my life. They were something you went to see that was spectacle or Rio Bravo or Shane or any of those and even movies my parents took me to. But I went to that movie thinking I knew something about the Beatles beforehand, which was a rarity and knowing the subject matter. And Richard Lester transformed it, you know, and did a visual equivalent of what I was feeling inside when I heard the Beatles. And there's, yeah.

There's a scene in the train car where they're, where they sing, I Should Have Known Better with a Girl Like You. At about the three quarter point after the the guitar solo you know everyone's bouncing around in the train the cameras outside the cage that they're in and all of a sudden the camera starts dancing with them and it's like the cameraman can't resist the Beatles and I was thrown back in my seat I couldn't believe it it was like the Beatles had reached out.

And I realized that someone was actually making this movie. That someone had said, okay, now bounce, that it was directed. And that was the first movie that I really started thinking about directing. That early? Unlike when The Beatles were on TV, everybody wanted to form a band.

When I saw Hard Day's Night, I said, I'd like to make a movie. So you'd been seeing films like King Kong and Rio Bravo and all of these things, and just enjoying them as a film goer. And how old are you at this point? 16. 16. So that's pretty young to know what you want to do.

What's funny about Hard Day's Night is it seems like the intention was probably, just like with the Elvis movies, like make something quick and turn in a quick buck while it's hot. Absolutely, yeah. And it was transformed into something totally different. Yeah, David Picker, who produced it and who I worked with on The Temptations, told me all the inside stuff and that when he hired Richard Lester and David Picker started seeing The Dailies, he was very excited, but he couldn't get anyone back in UA to watch it back in Los Angeles.

As a matter of fact, he came to LA with the finished print of it, and he couldn't get them to show it, to look at it. They were, it'll be fine, it'll be fine. They were so shocked when the reviews came out. It's also interesting that the Beatles knew their onions. I mean, they knew who Lester was. Yes, they'd seen Jumping Standing Still or something like that. Yeah, and they knew the Sellers stuff.

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

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

And how did you... Well, how did you start getting into the business, actually? I didn't go to film school right away. I was... Forley High School was not a great school. And I was like a B, B plus student with good college boards and a bad attitude. Sounds familiar.

Yes, yes. And you know, I was against the war in Vietnam. I was a troublemaker and I didn't get great recommendations. So I ended up in a Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which was at that point all men and in Amish country. And so now the 60s are in full force and I'm in Amish country. And I went to the newsstand one day and there was that Herald Tribune and a front page story written by a writer that I admire tremendously, Tom Wolf. And it was that Herald Tribune and a front page story written by a writer that I admire tremendously Tom Wolfe and it was about Ken Kesey and people taking LSD it was the first chapter of what became a running serial which eventually became

Electric acid Kool-Aid test. Mm-hmm. And so I read this thing and I'm going okay That's it. The world is moving and I am in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So I sat down with my parents and I begged and they let me apply to schools to transfer and I ended up at NYU and lived in the East Village. My down the block neighbor was Alan Ginsburg. And at that time there were three political parties. There was the Democrats, there was the Republicans,

and there was the motherfuckers. And the motherfuckers lived in my building. And they had a very simple platform. Everything should be free. And it was a wild building. What part of the East Village is this, Alan? Because Gilbert lived in the East Village. Second Avenue and 10th Street, 159.

Second Avenue and 10th Street, where were you were you? I used to live on Avenue A. Oh my god when were you there? Oh yeah well what I it's so weird to think now like when we first moved in there people saying are you out of your mind living on Avenue A because A was was horrible, B and C were it's like the death penalty, you know. Oh yeah. And now it's like you can't afford places like B and C. Yeah, you go down there for a nice dinner. Yeah.

So you knew Ginsburg and did you know Abbie Hoffman too? Well, I saw him in the bodega and I didn't really know And Abbie Hoffman was I believe fucking one of the motherfuckers and So he was in and out of our building Uh-huh And so I was at NYU and in my junior year of NYU A teacher got fired and they needed a substitute and I hit the jackpot they hired someone who had graduated two or three years earlier who was now

looking for work and that was Marty Scorsese. About that. Wow. And Marty became my film history teacher and then my film production teacher and I took a summer workshop and he was my faculty advisor and all that kind of stuff and it changed my life. And you wound up scoring him tickets for the band. You've seen my trails from hell. Marty always wanted tickets. He knew I worked at the film. So he was basically a Schnoorhaven back then. But he had to see the band from the fourth row and I think he went to see the dead and he liked this band, which I could never understand why I liked them. And they were called Spooky Tooth.

Spooky Tooth, yeah. Yeah, he was really into Spooky Tooth. And jumping out of the interview for just a second and being self-aware, for anyone having drinking games, listening, I said, wow. Oh, okay, I said wow. Oh, okay, good. And yeah. We've done so many of these now, Alan.

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

You're at NYU. You're studying with Scorsese at right what point? What was this somebody decided to make a porno? Was that the previous teacher that no doubt? Yeah the previous teacher I knew you guys would get to this Very deep research. Yes I knew you guys would get to this. You did very deep research. Yes. Alright. Gilbert, listen closely. Yes. Once you say porn, you don't have to tell me.

I'm just trying to get the whole chronology. There was a class called Fundamentals of Filmmaking. And what it was is everyone got 10 minutes of film. And you made a film with your 10 minutes of film for the semester. And that's something to tell the audience that actual film. Yes, it was 16. Oh yeah, movieolas and right? Yeah, movieolas and we had these Kodak, I can't remember the number, oh, Filmos and Imos.

Wow. And they were cast iron, they were made for the military. And you could drop them down a flight of stairs and they wouldn't break. I remember Olexes. From experience, yes. So it was actual film that you could touch. It wasn't her. Yes.

Celluloid. And you had 10 minutes of it for the semester. And you were supposed to write something and what happened is the the teacher said, you know what? How about if we all pull our film together? I'll give you all A's and we'll make a porno and make a little money And they made it and then they showed it to the school now to be fair the name of the porno was these raging loins It was not that porny, you know. Softcore. It was pretty softcore and Harry the teacher got fired.

Yeah. And that's how Marty came in and Marty, we went on strike actually when Marty joined us and Marty helped lead the strike. Wow. We only had three classrooms. The famous NYU film school could be housed on less than one floor of a building. And we didn't have any equipment and we went on strike and we wanted a class for ourselves about American film without the rest of the school.

Cause we'd all seen Citizen Kane. It was now time to see the good stuff. And we got our class and we got the Cervo Croatian library thrown off our floor and we took over their classrooms. And then Marty had this incredible course called American Movies. How about that? Good timing for you.

Oh, it was, you know, I was, I had obviously seen some of these movies, not the ones he showed necessarily, but this was the days of Godard and Truffaut. Sure, he was always into Powell and Pressburger too, and that stuff. Yeah, the first movie he showed in class was Shock Harder by Samuel Fuller. That was the opening salvo.

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

I graduated in 1970 and I bought tickets to the, I was going to concerts and I bought tickets to the first show at the Fillmore and that was Big Brother and the Holding Company. And I then went and saw the Who there and I would buy like the two, it was three, four and five dollars a ticket. Wow.

So I'd buy the three dollar ticket and hang out in the lobby, you know, and there's an empty seat I'd go down to. So I saw Hendrix and I saw just a lot of people. And one of my roommates and a couple of people I knew were ushers at the Fillmore. And one of them said, you know, two nights a weekend, I want to go out and have some fun.

I don't know what he was thinking. So he said, will you take over one of my nights? I said, absolutely. So I started working as an usher. And I was, if you walked into theater and you were in the lobby, I was on the left. And you had to go past me and I'd tell you what seats to be in.

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

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

And the New Yorker. And the New Yorker. And the Garrick and the Bleeker. Correct. Yes. And the Elgin. Eighth Street Playhouse. And the St. Mark's used to be a dollar.

Yes. And it was these second run theaters where you get to see two, you know, relatively current movies. And the old film form. And they would start to do a double feature where there was a connection between the first and second movie. If it wasn't the same director,

it was a similar subject matter. Yeah, and I spent an entire summer in the Thalia. Every day, that day you know that was the one that was narrow and long and you looked uphill and every day they'd have another pair of foreign films so my summer my junior year that's what I did every day. They had that weird paved floor where the seat where it went uphill and you had to look it was very strange. Yeah. It's now the Leonard Nimoy Theater. Oh wow. Yeah but it's not it's not a movie house anymore, but at least they preserve it as a theater,

which is better than turning it into a dental office. So that was my life. The Fillmore on weekends and at night, and film school. And then when I graduated from film school, I was offered a job working for the Psychedelic Light Show at the Fillmore. I had used them to make the titles for one of my student films, you know, like a James Bond title, so to speak. And so I joined the light show.

And there were no film jobs. I mean, basically, all of us at film school had only heard of one person who had gone to film school and directed anything and that was Francis Coppola. Right. That was Hofstra? Yeah. Who was that Hofstra originally, I think? And then maybe transferred to UCLA.

So I joined the Psychedelic Light Show and then now we were mixing those liquids and those swirling lights and I ran the dimmer boards and it's basically like directing the which projectors to go on and off and which films are going to run behind the bands and I did that from 70 to 73. We actually I went to England and we did light show in England with The Who and The Grateful Dead and festivals and over to Amsterdam for the Pink Floyd and all that stuff. That was, I wasn't, I was completely broke but wow, what a, you know, I look back on it. And how, what was the first thing, no matter how like non-peng it was, we said, oh, I'm doing a movie.

Well, I did my student film at NYU about my life in the Fillmore. And then I was very close friends with a guy by the name of John Davison. And John is Joe's best friend. And John went on to produce Airplane and just a whole bunch of great movies, you know, John Robocop and lots of other things and Jonathan Kaplan who I'm still we still over the edge over the edge. Exactly my favorites and Jonathan got a phone was we're all broke, you know, and we're trying to find work and Jonathan gets a phone call and I'm gonna say 72 or 70 you know somewhere in that

time frame and the person at the other end on the phone says hello Jonathan this is a Roger Corman aha and Jonathan goes okay yeah we are doing a movie out here and the director has quit. And we're wondering if you'd be interested. Now, he hangs up. He thinks it's John Davison calling. And the phone rings and he goes, don't hang up, young man. This really is Roger Corman. And what had happened is that they had started a movie

called Night Call Nurses. Um... Night Call Nurses? And the cash sign was, Night Call Nurs nurses, they come when you call. I remember it. So Roger says to Jonathan, you know, I need to start this move. Well, Jonathan got the job because Marty was working for Roger doing Boxcar Birth Up. And Roger needed a director now. And so, Jonathan was one first prize

in the National Student Film Festival, he was the best one in our class. And Roger called him and Jonathan was flabbergasted. Roger said, I want you to get on a plane tomorrow and fly out here, because we're going to start shooting in two weeks. So you need to rewrite the script and prepare in two weeks Can you do that and but Jonathan was like flabbergasted? He said he's a New Yorker

grew up on the Upper West Side, you know and All he could think of and he said to Rogers I don't know how to drive I don't know how to drive. And he goes, It's Los Angeles. That's the problem. And Roger, as he does, cuts right to the chase. I don't care if you can drive.

Can you direct? Jonathan said yes. And find someone to drive you. And Jonathan's aunt had to drive him around. Hilarious. Wow. So Jonathan got the first job and he made night call nurses and then he came back and by then I was back from England and driving a cab broke and Jonathan and John Davison was sort of hanging around in LA trying to get a

permanent job with Roger and and Jonathan gets a phone call from Roger six weeks after night call nurses is opened and it's Roger and he says, Night Call Nurses is doing very well in that. Because he did territories, you know? He says, and if we get the kind of numbers I think we'll get, we should do another one. So just rewrite the story and make it teachers. We'll call it the student teachers. And that was Jonathan's next job and John got a permanent job working for Roger.

And they were saying, come on out here. So I saved up all my cab driving money. And by now John's working there and Jonathan and Joe Dante. And John and Joe were the entire post-production advertising and sales department. I mean, they didn't sell to the theater owners, but they were doing all the ads and all the trailers and now there's a lot of work.

And Roger was booming. Now all of a sudden he had foreign pictures. So you know, John, I had been living in John's apartment, I think just to get me out of there. He offered me a job at $50 a week. And I took it. And so I was then Joe's assistant and working for Roger. These are great days. Oh, I'll tell you the- And the talent that was there.

Okay, first job, first day. We needed music for a trailer and to a movie. You guys are buff so you'll know the punchline here it's caged heat right so I go to the caged heat editing room and I don't even know how to run a movie all in 35 millimeter this is my first day they I run it in 16 I figured it was the same and in those days Rogers never made color work prints he only made black and white work prints. And you'd edit the movie in black and white, and then you saw it in color when it was in the theater.

And so I'm watching this on this movie, although one single track in black and white, this women in prison movie, and it's pretty good. And I certainly got a share of naked girls in the shower fighting and all that but there was a Barber steal was great. It was a plot about Controlling the women with lobotomies that was pretty hard-hitting and

I'm really enjoying it and as I'm changing the reels I really like the music and there's a guy there who's watching me watch the movie and I say this is really good. He goes, thank you, I'm the director. And I said, oh, Alan Arkush, what's your name? And he says, Jonathan Demme. And I say, I really like the music, Jonathan. He says, well, have you ever heard of the Velvet Underground?

I said, sure have. He says, that's John Cale. And he did the score for me. And that's how I met Jonathan. And I did the trailer for Crazy and that's how I met Jonathan and I did the trailer for crazy mama Her whole family's crazy Bogdanovich and Coppola had moved on by this point they oh, yeah Yeah, they had passed through yes and because of their experience with Roger

That he got on the film student kick got it used their career as leverage to get Hollywood Boulevard made. Right. And that trailer is unforgettable. I still remember it. But I want to talk about some of the people who were there. I mean, Tina Hirsch, who became a big editor. Damnit. Tina taught us everything. We didn't even know that the sound was supposed to be labeled in red and the film in black. You know, Tina was like, guys you gotta learn some of this. Demi, you mentioned obviously Jonathan Kaplan who made some terrific movies. Was Paul Bartel hanging around? Oh god, I love Paul and I miss Paul.

Paul was like the maître d' of the editing room. You know, it was like a crowdître d' of the editing room. It was like a crowd of us. And everyone was working on the same things. And Paul, obviously, Death Race 2000, and he was working on other stuff. And he'd come by for lunch, and we'd walk around the corner,

the place called the Studio Grill, which is now a Rao's restaurant. And we'd all have lunch together and talk movies. And whoever was working on a movie at that time, whether it be Louis Teague or Cronenberg or John Sayles or whatever, it was just crowded around the table talking movies. Wow. All that talent.

Yeah. It was wonderful. Did you have any idea at the time, I guess you've been asked this question in hindsight, like the stuff at the Fillmore. Did you know that these are, these are wondrous days. I'm on the, I'm in on the ground floor of something. Well let me give you one catch line. I did for a movie called TNT Jackson.

Okay. TNT Jackson shall put you in traction. So no cover girl models. They don't need clothes to strike a pose. You know, you're the thought that something would go beyond this. That was it. You were just trying to get through the weeks. But of course we did Amercorps trailer. Right. Yeah, I was gonna say Corman doesn't get enough credit. I mean we laugh, we laugh, we laugh at his, you know, at his approach to filmmaking. It's very colorful. But for introducing American audiences to those films,

the Fellini stuff, doesn't get enough credit. You introduced Fellini to American audiences basically like it was some cheap porn film, didn't you? Well, that's true. That's true. That was the mandate. You know, Joe and I and John go to the screening room and Roger says he's going to screen a movie and he had a funny smile on his face.

He says, I need a trailer on Monday kind of thing. And it's Amricort. And when it's over, you know, that's a genius movie. That's not, that's prime Fellini. And we were just flabbergasted. Roger, Amricort said, yes, I know boys. And wow, we got to cut this together. And Roger says, boys, boys, boys, calm down. I know it's Fellini, but we're still selling

the same thing, sex and violence. Now, the woman with the big breasts, I want that in the show. The boy's masturbating in the car. That goes in the trailer. The race car is going by. Gotta have that. And we cut the trailer together. Joe cut it, really. And it's a brilliant trailer. But it was like four and a half minutes long. And Roger came in on Monday or whatever it was and watches it and says, can we make it shorter?

And we said, you know, we tried over the weekend and John will test to it. But, and John said, we couldn't make it shorter and still keep it Fellini. And the smart, the intelligence and instinct of Roger says, well then let's give them Fellini, you know. And it had everything in there and the picture opened huge, you know. I think, I think of the Corman stories and there were so many great ones, you know, and it had everything in there and the picture opened huge, you

know. I think of the Corman stories, there were so many great ones, you know, the dropping acid. There was, didn't you have like some kind of catchphrase in the trailer? Well all the time. One of my... But for the Fellini one, it really made it sound filthy. I don't remember that one.

Sorry. Sorry, we'll find... I certainly remember Eat My Dust and all the other funny... Roger goes, can you get away with that boy? I was going to say, go ahead. And he... we kind of caught on. See, we had worked there through one summer and we caught on that at the end of the summer

when the equipment was not being used and when he had no movies to get in the theater right away, he said, well, I think you should take a vacation. You've worked so hard. And when you come back in two weeks, I will rehire you. And so it was on us. so hard and when you come back in two weeks I will rehire you you know and so it was on us so the second summer we said you know we're cutting living real close to the edge here you know you had two pairs of pants how'd you know yeah

I saw an interview with you three shirts and two pairs of pants? Two pairs of pants, yeah. Yeah. Was it 85 bucks a week? Well, no, I was, at that point I was really living it. I was up to like 150. Wow, okay. Yeah. But to direct my first movie I had to take a salary cut. Right. And so we wanted to keep working. We wanted to make a movie. we've been writing treatments and all this stuff and John talked Roger into letting us make a movie while the equipment was not being used and while we weren't cutting trailers and the idea was it would have we sold it to Roger, John did on a movie that would have more

action than any other Corman's movies and what the deal was we took all the action from all the trailers and all the action pictures, every Corman movie that we had worked on and some from earlier days and wound a story around about murders on the movie set. And that was, and we shot new closeups and well, plot is too big a word for how they're connected. But we got paid $85 each for making it. Well plot is too big a word for how they're connected Yes, they got paid eighty five dollars each for making the trailer stays with me all these years later Alan girls and bikinis girls without bikinis witty remarks

Kung-fu and my favorite green meatballs Reason we got to do is because Roger did something similar with Coppola and with Bogdanovich. They had bought, in that case, outer space movies and stuff and they had shot new monsters for them. And so that was in his head and he told us where there was footage that we could use. So all the stuff in the drive-in is stuff from Coppola movies and from the Terror and things like that. Yeah. And, you know, I am the luckiest person to have been friends with John Davison and Joe Dante,

you know, because they are, we all share this experience, but they are film buffs of the highest order. That's nice. And, you know, and they, if you guys had known us then, they had a vault full of 16 millimeter movies, all of them illegally purchased. Those days, yeah, you had to do it that way. Oh, they had hundreds of them and that's, there was no VCRs. There was a 16 millimeter projector at John's and a 16 at Joe's and 16 at my house and that's what we did.

Every night we'd grab a couple movies out of the vault and run them and I got an education. I'll bet. You know, in cinema from their point of view, you know, and we also, but he was lucky that we were there because we were film students who loved Bellini and loved all that. And John and Joe knew everything about Roger's movies, everything. So all of a sudden these people come together. And they are not shocked by what Roger's saying. That's not beneath them. It's what they want to do. And yet when Roger would say, I have the new Corazalo movie, we were excited beyond belief. And he didn't have to tell us how to cut the trailers anymore. And

once we did Hollywood Boulevard, he knew that we could direct. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. And it was great. I think it was John either how he became his assistant or got his own movie that he made a bet with Corman. That's it on Hollywood Boulevard. That we can make a movie cheaper and with more action than anything Roger had made this year. And so we made Hollywood Boulevard for 75,000. Joe and I each got $85 for directing it.

I love the in jokes too in Hollywood Boulevard. I love is this the end of Rico? I mean, it's so clearly made by guys who are watching movies 24-7 and just getting off on this stuff We sometimes we say how could we make a for our first picture basically the film equivalent of a Roman or Clef? Yeah, it's ballsy. It's all about as it's full of in-jokes about Roger and each other and Paul Bartel plays the director who hates all the actors. Miracle pictures. Oh yeah. Good picture. Did Roger appreciate the jokes at his expense? He really liked it.

He really liked it. And when we showed him the second cut, there was a scene where this producer is saying, see this shirt? $100. How about that, Mo, like he's talking to the camera. And the second cut, we had cut it out for whatever reason. Roger, what happened to the producer talking about his shirt? We said, we didn't see much change. It is very good, boys. He deserves that shirt.

He's a good producer. Put it back in. Two directors, no waiting. Oh, that was our motto. What was some of the craziest money-making, no, not money-making, money-saving things that Roger Corman ever did? Well, he was always trying to talk us into not using lights at night. Did he use car headlights? That's it. It had worked for him on Creature from the Haunted Sea.

Right, that's right. He told us that. Right, and when he says this kind of stuff, you just go, yes, he knows. I mean, I did this thing called Blast. He owned a blaxploitation picture called The Final Come Down that had Billy Dee Williams in it and once Lady Sings the Blues was out it was a big hit and so Raj says why don't you, Ellen, why don't you recut this movie and take out all that political talk you know and and then we'll shoot some new scenes for three days you know action scenes. So I recut the movie and I felt a little uncomfortable so I actually called up Oscar Williams Jr. who had written and directed and told him what I was taking out and so forth. And I said

I you know I'll keep stuff in Oscar I don't want to ruin what she says just make sure Roger sends me a check and that was it. And he shot for three days so I'm sitting you know Roger's looking at the cut and he says to me when the cut cut is over, I shot for three days, car chases and explosions and stuff. And he looks at it and he says, Alan, have you seen many of David Lean's movies? Where is this going? He says, you need to study David Lean.

You need more foreground, mid-ground, and background when you stage a scene. And John Cain Humphs is, Roger, we shot this in three days. David Lean waits three days for the clouds to be right. Easily. But every bit of notes he was correct about. When you made a mistake, he'd explain to you, as a director, what you had done wrong.

And as a producer, what the thrust of the movie was. So that's how Rock and Roll High School got made because he liked the idea of blowing up the high school. That was it, disco high? Disco high, and he realized that there was money in music movies, so that's why it was originally disco high. We'll get to Rock and Roll High School in a minute. I just want to ask you if you have any recollection,

we had Dick Miller here, if you have any recollection of meeting Dick for the first time. Yes. Walter Paisley, another Walter Paisley performance by the way. Yes, I met Dick on the set of Hollywood Boulevard and I kind of knew who he was. But not like Joe and John knew who he was and you know what I guess I'd seen Bucket of Blood. And I love Bucket of Blood. Bucket of Blood is one of my favorite Corman movies. Yeah it's fun. Oh it's terrific. It's a

scream you know and it's deep you know killing people for art you know is that is that permissible you know and uh so I guess that's when I started becoming friendly with Dick you know because Joe directed those scenes with Dick but then I used I used him in Rock and Roll High School. And I think on Fame, I got him a part on Fame, you know, we all have worked with Dick, he's like your friend. Well, for Joe, he's a good luck charm, isn't he? Oh yeah. I mean, Joe doesn't make anything without him.

Exactly, Dick was in Bossing Jordan. Right, right, right. And now while Gilbert heads into the Nutmeg kitchen to steal more Perrier, a word from our sponsor. Hi, I'm Mick Garris and I'm with Gilbert Gottfried on the Amazing Colossal Podcast. And now, sadly, we return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast. What was that Corman story we loved? Was it the terror, the wonder that he made because it rained and he couldn't play tennis? Yeah, he was so supplicant.

Sounds familiar. Maybe he's told it to you himself. Oh yeah. He had one day, the sets were still up. Yeah and it was like... That's how we inherited the terror footage. Because that's why the footage from the terror is in Hollywood Boulevard. There you go.

Still trying to amortize it. Nothing ever went to waste at his core studios. No, of course not. No, that's for sure. So how did you negotiate your way into making your high school musical? Roger wanted a high school movie and I had written, in high school I used to have fantasies about having a rock and roll band come to the school so I could get out of class. And I used to visualize it every day, along with motorcycle races in the hallways and things like that, and go-kart races on the track.

And the band who came to the school when I was in high school was the Rolling Stones. And I had this idea, and over the years, I worked on the treatment of it and then Roger said I need a high school movie and I want you to do one about make with naked gymnastics in it. We'll call it And Joe McBride bless him is who's now one of the great film historians. I read his camera book Yes, and I just saw him the other night.

He's got a book on Lubitsch. We're talking serious here. Terrific writer. Yes, so we start working together, and Joe came up with the idea of blowing up the school. He suggested that, and we all just, that was it. That was where it was going to go. And the problem was that it was still called Girls Gym, you know, and we wanted the students

to go out on strike and all this stuff, and then we never got a script the way we really, really wanted it, because there was a movie that Roger was doing called Death Sport, and Death Sport was a movie all of us avoided, so that's how bad that script was. We were all asked. You know, I had only done one movie for $85, so. So that's how bad that script was. We were all asked.

I had only done one movie for $85. So, you know. And Desport was dreadful. Too bad that film by Roger Corman's standards. And he found a guy who had never directed before, had been a film student, and that guy got to direct Desport with David Carradine. The problem was that David had just finished working with Ingmar Bergman and with Hal Ashby and now he's doing this terrible biker picture.

I don't know if you've seen my trailer from hell about it. I haven't seen that one, but I'll watch it tonight. It's all there in that one. And the director... Oh, he was coming off Bound for Glory. Yes. And so the director didn't work out. And Roger said, if you come back, you know, because I have release dates and if you direct this

I will definitely make your musical and so I did I got kind of boost in salary It's a tough negotiation. I got him up to four hundred and fifty dollars a week for writing Rewriting directing and cutting the trailers and he said you're Alan You're in fat city. So I finished that for a week. Terrible, just terrible. And we just blew everything up. And that's how, and Joe McBride had done another draft. And then I met, I love this story.

How I met the writers of rock, the final writers of rock and roll high school. You guys will truly like it. So because Joe and I were good guys, we looked at and we were hired, you hired film students. That's who you hired. So film students, word was out and film students would send us their student films. And they would go to the office with these student films from everywhere and they would say, Oh, Joe and Alan will watch them. So we watched a lot of student films and two guys from Carbondale, Illinois had sent them in and we're now out in California and we had their student film.

We were going to give back with them and give back to them and tell them it was nice. And we're going to meet them at the office and they wanted to be writers. And as they're sitting there in the office of Corman Everyone sitting there was trying to become a mutant on Deathsport that was they were looking for people to play mutants You know the AD or the PA who is everything's going signing people up and he comes up to

Rusty Vonch and Richard Whitley and he says to him, are you here to be mutants? And he goes, no, we're writers but being a mutant sounds really good. And they became mutants and that's how I got to know them on Deathsport. We gave back their student film and they said that they were writers. And so we gave them the script and they had a weekend to write. I think the deal was 10 pages. And so they wrote 10 pages that was funny. So it was basically Joe's McBride structure and a lot of their jokes, you know, and it

was so worked out great, you know, and a lot of stuff. And it was that's how they got that job. And as mutants, they were not so good Roger still thought it was gonna be about disco because this disco was hot you had to yes disco was hot and I had to really Explain to him that you just don't blow up a high school that it was disco was not rebellious music Exactly it's also interesting how you settled on the Ramones because a couple of other bands were actually under consideration. Yeah, and we had a bunch of meetings. Cheap trick with the ones that, you know, closest. We first went to Todd Rundgren. Interesting.

And he was really smart. And he had read the script and he says, the problem is guys, I think this is a serious movie. Like Lindsay Anderson's If. Wow. Which was a huge influence on rock and roll high school and so you know props to. What a compliment. Yes and he didn't want to do it for the comedy you know and so I had a meeting at Warner Brothers and names were coming up and somebody said you guys know Sire Records? Do you? I said I have a lot of Sire Records you know I have Talking He heads and all that and they said, well, how about the Ramones? And it was like a moment in that room where everyone

got silent. I thought that's a really funny idea. First verse, same as, you know, second verse, same as the first, third verse, different from the first. I mean, these guys are funny. And we went and met with their management and I told them the whole story of the movie and put in Ramone's songs in those places. And it was Danny Fields and was Seymour Stein's wife, Linda. And they were both smoking joints while I was telling the story and laughing and stuff and then I said and at the end Ramones are outside this high school and as they play the theme song to the movie the high school blows up behind them and they both said we're in we're in and didn't you or there are other people you worked with there once

make a movie where you said it was basically like the plot in real life, how you made the movie like the plot of the producers. Oh, no, no, that's what happened to him on Get Crazy. He got, you know, he got Bialy stuck. Yeah, when I went to do Get Crazy, which was supposed to be for me about my life at the Fillmore East.

And the Daniel Stern character is you essentially. Yeah. And I couldn't get it sold. We went to this company and they said that if I made it more like Airplane, which was a big hit, Airplane in a rock and roll theater, they would make it. And so we changed the script and I did that and that's the movie that's out there. And then they decided that it didn't have a great preview and people were confused why all these different bands were playing. And it was too much like a rock critics movie and it was also very, very broad and fast paced.

Broader than you wanted to make it. Yeah. you know and fast-paced broader than you wanted to make it yeah yeah yeah but it was funny it's like there's 1500 um uh 1500 punch lines and maybe only 700 jokes so it's a lot of and uh they decided that they could make more money by losing money so they were they'd be ollystocked so basically what they did was they sold off all their shares to some kind of tax shelter group and then they put the movie out there and made sure that whatever the ads and the paper said, they didn't open it on that day. They'd have the ads be a week off.

They would never show it to critics, but they'd invite critics. And they basically did everything possible to defeat the movie. It was very, very disheartening. And that's how it came out, and they made no money, and they made a lot of money. And I met the guy who was in charge of the tax shelter group, and I told him what happened, and he figured it out. But that's the movie that led me to television. So that was my next step from that movie. I just want, before we get ahead,

and I do want to ask a couple other things about Get Crazy. Gilbert loved the Bialy stalking thing. I just want, just a couple more. I thought of that recently. I was Bialy stalked. Yeah, you coined the phrase. Yes, it's a verb. A couple more quick questions about Rock and Roll High

School, which I love. First of all, PJ Soles, who is the thinking man's sex symbol. Oh, yeah. And that scene, where the fantasy scene in her bedroom where the Ramones show up, is a scene that has stayed with me for 40 years. OK. The truth about that scene?

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

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

to her, Joey Ramone was as sexy as Julie London was, to Tom Ewell. I have to say too, I mean, it's a movie, it's a movie loved by a lot of people and it ends up being about a lot of things. I mean, it's not only a celebration of music, which is so much of what you're about, but it's about censorship and it's about non-conformity, you know, and it's definitely about censorship. That was, that goes back to my high school experiences and being told that I had to take back a book report on Franny

and Zoe because it wasn't in the school library. Interesting. I've written the book report. It was all the feelings about high school. It was interesting when I went back to my high school reunion after the movie was out and Mr. Romando, who's the school principal and who said things like, this is going to go on your permanent record, a record that will follow you the rest of your life,

comes up to me at the reunion, we're so proud of you and all this stuff. And you did that movie, Rock and Roll High School, we like to think that we contributed to that. And I'm thinking, you didn't see that movie. Wow. I blow up the school. It's a joyous film, Alan, it really is.

And I saw it. And PJ's a really good character and she's a good... I've had many, many young women come up to me over the years and talk about how seeing that movie and seeing this young young woman get what she wants and write songs and be independent and not be held back by the rules. A strong female protagonist who's not just treated as eye candy By the way, Gilbert was talking about double features that had some connection to each other I saw it with Frederick Wiseman's high school. Oh my god. That was another big influence. How's that for a double bill?

That's a great double bill. And they fit great together. They do It opened really badly everywhere, but then in Chicago Yeah, it opened really badly everywhere, but then in Chicago Late in that summer when it looked like it was dead dead dead they the strip in Chicago had openings on two Releases so it played in half the theaters with Grease and the other half of the theaters with Dawn of the Dead Wow Oh, and that's that's the synthesis Wow It's bye-bye Bertie with monsters. Grady Sutton, by the way, who has a little part in the movie. Did he talk to you at all?

Did you ask him you're a film geek? Yes. Did you ask him about working with Fields and Harold Lloyd? Oh, yes. And I kept calling him Cousin Claude. Cousin Claude, how are you doing? He's not in the movie very long. Also, the soundtrack.

I don't know how you got that McCartney song, but well done. Danny Fields. OK. Oh, you know who didn't get the part of... I don't know how you got that McCartney song, but well done. Danny Fields. Okay. Oh, you know who didn't get the part of, and we want him to do it, but he was afraid of losing his pension. He was the last of the Stooges. Oh, Joe Dorita?

Joe Dorita was offered the part. Oh, was going to be the, yeah, the principal. But he didn't want to lose his, or the administrator. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, I can say that to you guys and you act like of course we've had all shows about By the way Clint as Eagle burger, let us not forget Clint. He's been here on this show and It's it's a wonderful performance, but it's a pretty original

Audacious character. Oh, I know Little bit like Yossarian in catch a little bit. Yeah, I know. It's a little bit like Yossarian in Catch-22. A little bit, yeah. Hey, could we jump ahead to Caddyshack 2? What are you trying to ruin the guy's evening? Sure, yes, absolutely, man. We're on a roll. I'm older and more mature now.

I can wear that. Gilbert shows no mercy at all. That's okay, because we're going to talk about, you know, you know. So yeah, there's Caddyshack one major hit. Still people love it. Although Doug Kenny was never happy with it. Yeah. And so Caddyshack two, just go right ahead.

Okay. So I had developed a movie called National Lampoon Goes to College. And it was about all the things you go through, the interviews and the SATs. I thought it was an area good for mining from the lampoon at Warner's. And Warner's decided that they didn't want to make it.

And then they said, but how about you direct the next Caddyshack, you know? We're doing Caddyshack 2. And if you want to do it, you'll be on an airplane in five days with John Peters and you'll fly to New York. And we're going to try to find you a star, because I think at that point, Rodney had already turned it down.

And that's how, what's his name? Oh, Jackie Mason. Jackie Mason got in the movie. And so we went and we saw Jackie Mason on Broadway and he was so great. Yeah, he's funny. Oh, he was, he killed it. I had all the Warner's people, I flew on the jet, you know.

The movie was getting made. And I was going to stay and watch Jackie again the next night because I really wanted to get to know him and go out to dinner with him, and I invited my mother and all this stuff. And the second night as I'm watching it, I noticed that he wasn't connecting with the audience. He was connected with the audience for the jokes,

but he was not reaching out to them. He didn't move anybody with the material. It was jokes, jokes, jokes, but there wasn't that eye contact and all of that. And it started to bother me. And when I got back to LA, I went into John Peters office. I said, you know, John,

I know we all are sold on Jackie Mason, but I'm Jackie's a great comedian, but I wonder if he's has what it takes to be an actor, you know. And John said to me, don't turn a go picture into a development deal. Wow. And so that's what we went with Jackie and you know, Chevy was in it. Dan was great. Dan Ackroyroy was wonderful. Was Kinnison involved for a couple of minutes or was that only when Rodney was? That I don't know. I think that's what I'd heard. Kinnison was involved When Rodney dropped out he dropped out too. Yeah, and there was a writer's strike coming up. That doesn't help

No, and if you listen to what you Randy Quaid's oh he's funny I read yes funny yeah but it's definitely written for Kinnison interesting yeah if you really listen to his tie Rage their Kinnison tie Rage well did you at least ask Robert Stack about working with Douglas Serk in your favorite movie? And, you know, Lou Bitch, that guy's in To Be or Not To Be.

That's right, he's in To Be or Not To Be, shame on me. But Written on the Wind, I know you love it. You know you love it. I love Written on the Wind, yeah. And, you know, it was great to be around Jackie. The thing was that Jackie, he learned the lines, but he didn't have the thing where he'd pick up cues.

You know, he'd wait till everyone stopped talking and go, oh, it's my line, you know. So, Masters, which is the key to comedy, never happened. You know, so it was kind of, they shot in closeups and tried to be made in the editing room, didn't work out. And at that point I vowed, you know what? Stay with television.

You just came off of Moonlighting, you know, and St. Elsewhere, mine should stick with that. Yeah, you were making some great headway in television. Well, you said the television kind of taught you to tell stories. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. Television is just driving the narrative. And those two series, Moonlighting was the closest I've ever come to the kind

of romantic comedies that I loved growing up. I mean, I'll tell you guys will appreciate this. We were doing a scene at Moonlighting where the Sybil and Bruce have stolen a milk truck and the truck is bouncing back and forth on the road and they're throwing milk bottles out at the people chasing them. And there was something about the scene that reminded me of a scene in Preston searches in Sullivan's Travels when the big land cruiser is chasing Sullivan and people are falling down. So I brought the tape in the next day and Gwen Karen comes down to set and we watched the scene from Sullivan's travels and discussed why it was funny in the framing and we recreated as much as we could that feeling

on the set, I could not have been happier. That's great. Well, there was this, obviously he was a fan of screwball comedies to have very, to have come up with that premise in the first place and cast it that way. Absolutely, yeah. And it was just a funny in the first place and cast it that way. Absolutely. Yeah, and it was just a funny show.

You did great work on that show. And of course I have to bring Lord Dern into it that two co-stars hated each other. That's true. They did not get along. And the thing was, and also Glenn couldn't write the scripts until the last minute. So you got your pages for the next day around four o'clock in the afternoon. And that made her pissed off.

She needed to prep time. And Bruce would learn his lines at the last minute. So while I was prepping the show, my first episode, I had no scripts, so all I did was hang out on the set. And I noticed that you got beat up as a director really badly if you said we'll do it both ways you know because they both had different opinions so um I never did that I said we're gonna do it you know this way and Luckily Sybil was a big movie buff so I could talk to her about movie stuff and she

so I could talk to her about movie stuff. And she gave me this whole lecture once about Cary Grant and how he was the best reactor in movie history. No kidding. And that she was playing Cary Grant, the way he listens and the way he reacts and thinks on camera and was a great lesson in cinema. She turned out to be a good comedian. Oh yeah.

She got a lot of shit obviously, early in her career. But they, you know, Bruce Rise was meteoric. And she was, it was her show to begin with. And so that really played on it. And they stopped talking to each other. But they had this, we would drive around, I don't know if you remember, there's a lot of scenes in the BMW with them driving around,

and when we would shoot those scenes, as we went back to Fox, they would have the microphones turned off. We couldn't hear what they were saying, and that's when they would talk, when they were locked in the car together. And there was this deep understanding that they'd have with each other.

And there are times on that set when it was magic Would you say that the tension between them sometimes helped the oh, yeah the relationship of the characters exactly I noticed it once when the show went into reruns and I watched one of my season openers and the first scene was Sybil coming back from hiatus it was everything was very self-conscious, you know, and The first scene was Sybil coming back from hiatus. Everything was very self-conscious. And she was being funny. And then Bruce came back, and he was doing La Bamba

and a funny hat. It was funny, but it wasn't. I could feel them pushing. And I had directed. And then Bruce goes into her office, and they just stand there and look at each other. And I said, there's the show. There's the franchise.

Interesting. Even after all those years I could smell it it shows like that or lightning in a bottle oh my god yeah oh my god so casting dependent I got it just a couple of more things about get crazy because I don't want to I don't want to give it short shrift first of all that cast I mean we've been trying to get Bobby Sherman on the show but Bobby Sherman and Fabian who casts who thinks to cast Bobby Sherman and Fabian as two henchmen? That was me.

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

And Howard, Kaelin. And Howard, we had Howard here. He's a- He's the greatest guy. A treat. He's so funny. It was so, and and of course a million turtles stories and John Densmore from the doors That's a great cast. It's an eclectic cast and it's great Alan Garfield Gorwitz with that part originally I wanted the guy who was originally in law and order Jerry or about Jerry or Beck

He was looked to be like Bill Graham and he had the humor. Right so this is you this is a this is a film that was very personal to you based on your experiences at the film more. You've got the Bill Graham character you're the Daniel Stern character. By the way I urge the tragedy what happened the film but I urge our listeners to find it on YouTube and watch it. Yeah. Because it just it's just got so much wonderful stuff in it and McDowell. Thank you so much.

Oh, Malcolm. My God. We are. Nobody, nobody plays an eccentric lunatic like Malcolm McDowell. You know, and he's like, With menace. He didn't want it.

He says, I can't do a movie where I talk to my dick. And Yeah. And I said, why not? You work with Kubrick. But he'd also done Caligula. Yes. And so he was intrigued by singing, you know, and playing that character because he knew

Mick Jagger and he knew Rod Stewart. So the first night in the studio, he's going gonna sing Hot Shot, you know, and he gets about, you know, one verse in and he says, let me start over. He does it again. He says, we all look at each other and he goes, I can't fucking sing at all. He said, we didn't want to say anything, but I think we're in a little trouble here, you know, we're gonna do a line by line. He says, no, here's what I'll do. I'll do it as a recitation, you know, to heavy metal. So you guys, you know, we're gonna do a line by line. He says, no, here's what I'll do. I'll do it as a recitation, you know, to heavy metal. So you guys, you know, work out the arrangement a little bit and I'll recite it and half sing it. And that's what he did and it worked. When you worked with Jagger, this is the

obvious question, you worked with Jagger and Bette Midler, did he have anything to say about this homage? No he didn't. And what's interesting is that Mick Jagger is beyond comparison and Bette who got who hired us for the do this video was just as intimidated as not the word he she just would get just as choked you know by talking to Mick as we did. So she'd go, oh, I gotta call him up. I'm so scared, I'm so nervous. And here he was like, bet, come on, we're gonna have a good time.

And so we were all a little nervous around him. And I actually, aside from the directions that I gave him, I don't think I said more than 10 words to him. Really? It was just like- He didn't know about get crazy? He didn't know that there was a gentle send up? It was just like... He didn't know about Get Crazy? No, he didn't. He was really nice and he invited us to his house. Yeah. That was great. Yep. I tell you, and I want to again say to our listeners, not only Rock and Roll High School, which

is a sweet movie, which many people have seen. By the way, did Phil Spector work on that soundtrack? Yes, he just did the one song after the movie was done. He didn't really do anything that was in the movie. Okay, but I want to urge our listeners who follow us and care about the movies we pick and care about the movies we like and get crazy. There's a Ramona Clay. But it's so much fun. Thank you. And it's unfortunate what happened to it, but it's so much fun thank you and it's so you know and it's unfortunate what happened to it but I don't think that diminishes the

quality of the things that are in it oh thank you including those performances yeah we will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this and and you did the Temptations movie. Also terrific. That was a labor of love. It's funny, my agent at the time calls me up and says, Allen, you like the Temptations? And I said, Jill, is this like a trick question?

She says, do you? And I said, I love The Temptations. She says, well, you know, they're making a mini series about The Temptations. I said, can you get me a meeting? And she says, tomorrow at 10 a.m. listen to your albums. And I walked out with the job, you know,

and working with Otis of The Temptations was- And Smokey. All right, Smokey story? Sure.? Okay, here's the Smokey story. So at the start of the movie I had lunch with Smokey and he didn't know me and he gave us a lot of great info and he told us how My Girl was written and how it was presented to the temps. And it was around the piano and the Apollo and they basically he made a wild guess that that David would be good for the vocal and up to that point Eddie had been doing all the vocals and then When they got to the chorus he said to them guys just take they're saying what should we do?

and I said just take it to church and I just loved that story. And so when it came to shoot the scene, I Didn't really have dialogue for everyone. I just told that story. And so when it came to shoot the scene, I didn't really have dialogue for everyone. I just told them about it. And we did a bunch of takes and did it in one shot, like a half-circle dolly shot around them. And it comes out really nice. Now, to make the movie was extremely difficult

because of all the hair work that needed to be done. And you try to do two or three different periods in the same day. And we were fighting daylight one time and trying to get the stuff outside the Motown on the lawn and keep it so we could finish while it was daylight and have an early call the next day. And my trusted AD is like working her butt off

and my cell phone rings and she looks at me like, you're not going to answer that, are you? And I did, and I said, hi, who is this? And this voice says, Alan? I said, yes. He says, it's Smokey. Smokey Robinson? Oh, okay. And she goes, who are you talking to?

And I said, it's Smokey Robinson. She goes, yeah, one minute. I said, what's up, Smokey? He says, I've been watching the Daily, Suzanne the Past, let me watch the Dailys. And that scene with my girl, you really got it right. And I want to be involved in the movie. And I said, Carol, he wants to be involved in the movie.

She goes, one more minute. And so, unless he says, I've actually written a song for the movie, would you like to hear it? It might be really good for the funeral scene. And I said, of course. And Carol is going to sing for me. And Carol goes, all right, we're going to light for five more minutes.

And Carol and I sat down on this curb in Pittsburgh in the twilight and listened to Smokey sing to us over the phone. What a great memory. Oh my god. Wow. You know. You've got to write a book, Alan.

I'm actually working on an autobiography, but I'm doing it to the camera. I'm doing it as monologues. Okay, because this is just great stuff that has to be told. What did you learn about the temptations that really like shocked you or affected you while doing the movie? That there is what inside a rock band, there are certain roles that everyone has and someone has to be in charge. Someone has to be the Johnny Ramone and Otis was the Johnny Ramone and that causes all kinds of problems and

they were, you know the song, Pop was a Rolling Stone, that's them. Each one of them are five guys on the road and just all the fun and all the camaraderie and all the women and all that and it took its toll one by one for them. But Otis kept it going and they just kept finding inspiration. And in a way, it was a huge success because the family part of it really worked. Their

relationship with their family was what carried it through. And I was able to project my love of music on it and how I felt when I heard The Temptation. It shows, and you won an Emmy. Yeah, and it's, the scenes where there, some of the scenes on the stage when they're doing My Girl, I got my favorite Steadicam operator and the DP, Jamie Anderson, someone I went to NYU with, Jamie Anderson shot student teachers, so there you go, you know.

And. And. And. Foreman survivor. And he shot Hollywood Boulevard. So, I wanted the steady cam, I wanted the camera times to make you feel like you were the sixth temptation.

Like you were in that row, when everyone did the steps, and you'd move around with them. And there was just a lot of love that went into it. You get the sense that under David Ruffin couldn't have been an easy guy because he had a lot of plagued by a lot of personal problems. He couldn't have been an easy guy to work with all of that time. Okay. That Otis had to keep all that together.

Listen, when Otis came to the set while we were shooting only once, and that was the day we were shooting the scene in David Ruffin's apartment, where David is all coked up. And in the scene, David and his lackey are doing a lot of blow and in comes Otis and the guy with the low voice, it's been a long time. And they are there to say, you've missed three or four rehearsals and this has got to stop and if you don't stop we're gonna throw you out of the band and

David turns to him and says throw me out of the band throwing you out of the band No one comes to see you sing Otis. It should be called David Ruffin in the temptations, which is an exact quote now Otis is watching the rehearsal and It's over and he starts to get like this look on his face of deep unhappiness. I said, is there a problem, Otis? I mean, what do you want me to change? Because this is the first time he's on the set.

He goes, no, Alan, there's no problem at all. This is just too much like it was. I can't watch. And he left. And we had just, you know, the cast ended up with those same relationships with each other as a band. That is fascinating.

Yeah. Leon was awesome. You also got to work with the chairman of the board. So we can't leave without talking about that. Okay. So. It's in the intro. All right, so I really want, I heard about a project called Hoboken

which was being produced by Tina Sinatra and It just seemed like when I read it it was just seemed like something I would I really want to because I grew up in northern Jersey and so I knew a lot about Hoboken. And I thought it was a lovely story, and it had access to Frank Sinatra's music. Now coincidental to this, across the street from me when I was in about eighth grade, was a house that Frank Sinatra's parents moved into.

And Frank had bought them this house, and so they lived across the street from me, and I used to rake their leaves and shovel the snow for them, and his mom would make me hot chocolate. I really want this, and I was shameless, guys. When I had my interview with Tina, that's the first thing I thought.

Tina, how's your parents? You used to make me hot chocolate. So I got the job, you know? And it was all about Frank, and he's only in it for like 40 seconds, you know? And I loved making the movie. It was a great experience. And editing the movie was so much fun because we had all the music.

And I planned all my shots around the music because I had all the music ahead of time I could have any Sinatra song, you know. And so the day he's going to show up, he takes off from Jersey in a private jet, you know. And Tina's very excited. He keeps calling him all day long. And we're really excited. I've been studying Sinatra now.

I'm reading every single book on Sinatra I could find and watching all the old movies. And he's here, he's here, he's coming, you know, and the door opens and in comes Frank Sinatra. We're playing Young at Heart on the stereo, right? And in comes Frank Sinatra. But it's the old Frank Sinatra. It's the very old Frank Sinatra. And he can sort of, he really can't walk very well.

And he just looks like an old man. And so I go up and I introduce myself very old Frank Sinatra and he can sort of, he really can't walk very well and he just looks like an old man. And so I go up and I introduce myself and I look over at the producer, you know, and we both say, okay, it's gonna be fine, it's gonna be fine and we show him where his mark is and he says, what's my line, young man? I said, Joe sent me.

The deal was that her husband who's, has contacted Sinatra because she wanted to date Sinatra in high school, but she chose her husband instead. So Sinatra is going to come and bless the place and give her a flower. And so, and it's her opening night. So he goes off and I'm looking at the producer and oh boy, that's a good thing we got a double. We got an exact double because we knew Frank doesn't want to have any coverage. He's not going to sit there, he does one take.

If he does one take in Ocean's Eleven, he's not going to do it like me. You know? And Frank Capper in his biography says, Frank, he'd only do one take. So we get all set, we get the shot lined up, and the idea is that the shot is the whole group family there and they hear a sound like, and the like wind blows and they part and

there's Frank Sinatra in backlight, you know, and the doorway and Olivia Dukakis, Olivia Dukakis walks up to him and he's supposed to nod and say, Joe sent me and hand her in a flower. So we're lining it up with this lookalike and we're going, this guy's in better shape than Frank and it's terrible, you know? We don't know what we're going to do. And so then he's coming in, he's coming in.

So coming in and people have to walk him because he's the cable. And I go up to him and he says, young man, what's my line again? I said, Joe sent me and your hand is a flower. Right, right, right. I got it. Okay. Are we ready? I said, we're ready. So I go up to Olympia and I said, uh,

I said, oh, you're supposed to kiss her. And I go up to Olympia and I say, so I start to give her direction, right? And she goes, Alan, you're a wonderful director, but I have waited 35 years to kiss Frank Sinatra. There's nothing you can tell me. He's just funny. So we line up and camera parts and as the light hits him, he's now Frank Sinatra, right? He is the star. He has summoned all his energy and it's all coming towards him in the room and as the camera goes towards him, it's like we have no choice but to approach Frank Sinatra.

It's unbelievable. And as he leans over and he gives her the flower, he takes her hand and he kisses her and then he leans over and kisses her on the lips and cut. The whole place explodes in applause, you know. And I said, thank you, sir. Thank you. And he says, it was good. I said, yes you, sir, thank you. And he says, it was good? I said, yes, it was. He says, do you want another?

I said, if you do, and he says, let's do another. And I yelled, he wants another. You know, and so. Wow, you got two takes out of Frank. Yeah, so we back up and we do it, and now I say, he says, you want some more coverage? I said, yeah, I'd like to go over your shoulder. He says, let's go over my shoulder.

So his assistant comes up and hands him a giant Jack Daniels and a pack of camels, you know, cause now he's alive, you know, and he's sitting there and Audrey Landers was in it with his low cut top and he puts his arm around and says, honey, you look like they're a little chilly. And he starts drinking Jack Daniels and smoking camels. And he looks at me and goes, you're doing a good job.

You want a bite of this? And he hands me the drink. And so I go, well, sorry, I think I, let me get the coverage. So he does both the angles and everything. And like, you know, like a saint on Easter weekend, he flies out, he's gone, you know, off back to Tittleboro, wherever he came from and

everyone it was just magic and so everyone in the crew is just like oh you know and just sitting there and Olympia is like stunned and her makeup person says so Olympia what was the light kissing I mean what were you thinking? She says, you know, by the third or fourth take, it just seemed like, all I could think of was, these are the lips that kissed, these are the lips that kissed Ava Gardner's pussy. And it killed in the room, it killed. What a tricot cutter.

I know. Wow. kill what a treacle cutter I knew Gilbert I knew you'd like that you guys walked right into it and I had to give it to you he knows his audience Gilbert oh my god Alan well done but I don't know what that has to do with Richard Pryor and Marlon Brando so this is a man that listens to the podcast. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I knew you'd like that. You know, you've been very flattering by the way

you wrote to me and told me. He said, I don't know how you and Gilbert know the shit you know. I thought I knew stuff. But he sees in all of our savant, our savantism. Johnny Quest, I don't know. Johnny Quest. And then we got Tim Madison.

We got Johnny Quest himself. What about Groucho? You told me an email. There was a great there was one Groucho anecdote. I was uh, I was obviously a huge Marx Brothers fan I think there was a first comedy team that I loved, you know I like the anarchy of it, you know, it's just seeing it on TV maybe it was million dollar movie or something just the the anarchy of it and the way that their world was just like anything could happen

and that appealed to me a lot. And I guess, and also when I got to college, I'd go to the Bleecker Street Cinema and watch them all in a theater with an audience. And I just loved them. Yes, how I used to see them. Oh, and Groucho was my absolute favorite, you know. And I read Harpo Speaks and all of that, you know.

I knew a lot about them. And so I think I was in LA about two three weeks and John Davison my friend said you know there's a Leo McCarrie movie at the Academy tonight The Milky Way with Harold Lloyd and so he said let's go see it. I got, you know, sort of, sure. So you have to, okay. I had huge, wild, long hair then, right? Like the biggest Jufro. And I- Oh, you were seeing the pictures, yeah. And I had, I was wearing overalls

with psychedelic patches all over it, you know, so. And Converse All-Star sneakers, green ones. And so I'm in the bathroom taking a leak and before the movie and I look over and right next to me, this person steps right in the next urinal and it's Groucho Marx. Oh my God. And so he unzips and I try not to look.

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

And you know I waited and I washed my hands a really long time until he came over and I tried to Engage him in conversation, but he was having nothing about Leo McCary. That's right. Leo McCary, right? Yeah, the duck suit my favorite of course five favorite movies of all time so you just let him walk out of the men's room and that was that was it he was not gonna engage someone who had hair like mine it was looked like on a psychedelic farmer farmer now and you you love night at the opera and to me a night at the Opera. And to me, Night at the Opera just strikes me as the beginning of the end. Well, it's to your credit, Alan, that you sold Night at the Opera so well in your trailers from Hell.

Yeah. And I recently watched A Day at the Races again. And there's truly offensive numbers, music numbers with Negroes. But the stuff in the operating room is funny. Yeah, that's the stuff they took on the road. And all that was good. And the night at the opera, you're right. It's, you know, the schtick is great

and take me out to the ball game and the party of the first part and there is no sanity clause and all that stuff. And the state room scene. Yeah, the state room scene is fantastic, it's genius. But it's the McCarrie stuff, it's duck soup, and then it's also monkey business, that's where the anarchy shines through. Oh, absolutely. So when you did the the the the Night of the Opera trailers

from Hell, the Paramount ones had already been spoken for? I don't remember why, you know, they chose Night of the Opera. Probably, sometimes it's hard to find the trailer. Yes, you know, they never know what's going to come up. I mean, I just have one on Carrie that came out and I was so shocked that no one had done Carrie, you know, and I asked Joe about Goodfellas and no one had done Goodfellas. Oh, you did a great job with that one.

Yeah, that was surprising and shampoo. So, you know, the obscure ones you can grab, but and I tend to do a lot of the music ones, but those three I was really surprised. So I get five more that are coming up. And what I love about the Paramount ones, as opposed to MGM, is the Paramount ones, you laugh and miss five lines afterwards.

Oh, and Zappos in them, which makes them better. Yeah, it does. There's more of a balance. I think I read somewhere that McCarrie didn't want to do Duck Soup because Chico was such a terrible gambler that he was always missing shooting days. So he said he wouldn't do it unless they kept Chico in a cage. So they had a cage on stage where a phone to Chico's bookie. And that's how they kept his eye on him.

By the way, we plugged Trailers from Hell when Joe was here. I think also with our pal Larry Karasuski, who we want to thank for connecting us. Larry is just the best guy. Such a wonderful writer. And wrote Problem Child for Gilbert. Alright. Problem Child 1 and 2. I just went to the Milos Forman tribute so I saw two of the movies that they wrote for him.

Yeah, shout out to Larry and Scott who are not only our friends, but terrific, terrific writers who we admire greatly. But your music episodes of Trailers from Hell, which I was O.D.ing on last night, High Fidelity, Almost Famous, a movie I share your love for. Yes. And also- Especially the Director's Cup. That's the one to get. Which I haven't seen yet. Yeah, I think you can get it from Amazon. I'll get my hands on it. But also you, and this must have pained you, you were very honest and forthcoming in your

review of Help. I know, because Hard Day's Night is so perfect and Help, it could, you know, like a lot of things, the Beatles understood stuff the first time they did it. And so when everyone wants them to do it again, and they went along with it, it still has funny wonderful scenes in it, and the songs are great. And the songs. Yeah, but the ring and all that stuff is not as much about them. Yeah, I don't think they was engaged.

No, no. As they were the first time. And it's funny though that... Hard to be a virgin again the second time. It's a help that's more like the monkeys. Yes, that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's true.

And speaking of the Beatles, were you, I know you saw just about every show at the Fillmore, were you there the night that John and Yoko recorded the live album? Oh yeah, yeah, the night that John sang with the mothers, I was there for that, and Yoko sang with the mothers. Wow. Yeah, when Zappa was there for that. And Yoko sang with the mothers. Wow. Yeah. When Zappa was there, anything could happen. I mean, you know, the Fillmore was

such a presence in New York and the late show people who were from Broadway or people, music people who had worked earlier in the night would all come to the Saturday night late show and they got the soprano from the Metropolitan Opera came by and that was a big deal for everyone and you know and she was came by she had never been to a rock and roll show and older woman and they took her backstage to meet Zappa and Zappa you know invited her to sing with them and oh I don't know the song she goes you come out in the stage we'll work something out so uh she comes out on the stage and she and so she he says sing and they're all vamping along with her and then she goes okay now you got to sing one of our songs and she sang louie louie

how about that with the mothers she said you'll figure out the words pretty easy and you saw miles davis you saw derek and the dominos she, I saw Miles open for Steve Miller and Neil Young. And an early version of Tommy as well? Yes, the first time they played Tommy live in America. How about that? And the theater caught fire during the performance. Wow! Oh!

Yeah, that was a night. And the new Yardbirds Yes. Yes. You know, we were so excited about the zeppelin, you know Yeah, because we were all such yardbirds fans and you know if you were You know you each had a position as an usher and if you wanted to go down front and take that Position right in front of the stage, you know, you could find an Set if you like the band do it, but everyone wanted to be there for the Zapp one after the first night and I wanted that for Saturday Night Late Show, you know, and so we all drew

straws and I got that for Saturday Night Late Show. So I was like five feet from them, you know. And how bad was the fire? Well, what had happened was, I don't know if you remember where the And how bad was the fire? Well, what had happened was, I don't know if you remember where the building was. Or now it's a film. It's a bank now, I think. Yeah, the front of the film is a theater,

but in the corner, there was a bodega. And it was part of the building, but it was a little bit separate in a certain way. And so while we're inside, and I had gone down front to watch the hoot they were doing, Tommy is unbelievable, they were levitating the building. And as I was walking back up the aisle to spell the person to head of the aisle,

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

following you, I get, they're just climbing and building. And the firemen, since everyone's eyes are on the hoop, no one is noticing that the firemen are filling the aisles now. But no one had gone up there to stop the hoop because it was so intense. It was like going into a furnace. And some cop pushes by me, playing close, and he runs up the center aisle and he jumps up on the stage and tries to get the microphone from Roger Daltry.

Now, if you remember the Who, Daltry always swung the microphone like a lariat, yes. And Townsend is in complete intensity, you know, swirling and kicking and Moon is like banging, and Townsend looks over and sees some guy in a suit fighting with a singer. like banging and Townsend looks over and sees some guy in a suit fighting with a singer. And as they get to, you know, the big chords, Townsend runs across the stage and kicks the cop in the balls. Cop goes down like a stone, you know, and so the roadies come out, drag this guy off and now we notice that there's firemen, but the who finish and they are in such a frenzy. The audience is now standing on the seats because it's like it's a Roman Coliseum now we got blood in the air and

Who count down and go into summertime blues gonna raise a fuss. I'm gonna raise a holler I mean, it's oh now it's a rock and roll show out of control, you know, and Bill Graham gets out on the stage and he grabs Townsend and he grabs Townsend and he grabs, you know, Daltrey and they slow down and they stop and Bill, so calm, so cool, says, we got a little problem. There is a fire drill, there's a fire on across the street.

He was lying, you know, and there's a lot of smoke in the theater and everything's fine. So the ushers will show you out, and within 10 minutes when we get the smoke out, we'll let you back in. It doesn't say that the building is on fire, in the corner of the building. And the Fillmore itself wasn't on fire yet.

So all the ushers, the audience is like, and so some usher, some genius usher from the tri-state area who had been to a hundred fire drills in his life says, all right, it's a fire drill. Everyone grab a buddy, no talking. The theater was empty in four minutes. All been trained too well. Nice job.

I know you say you're going to do a video book, but all of these stories are wonderful and, God, what you, what you witnessed. I know, I feel little zealogy. Oh, little zealogy. Zoologic. Is it, was it zoologic? Yeah, well, point of phrase. Alan, this is, this has really been a treat.

We, we didn't- Oh, I was looking forward to it, and this is as much fun as I'd hoped Oh, man, there's stuff we didn't get to we didn't get to attack of the 50-foot go-gos But we'll save something we'll save something for next time and next time we get together We'll just talk about you know rock and roll movies that you've got about the last waltz and then I'm a pop and we'll just And we'll talk well Gilbert will talk about some Universal Horror classics and yes We'll just and we'll talk about Gilbert will talk about some Universal Horror classics and movies. Love to.

And we'll just. In fact, the next time maybe you get Joe to come in and we'll do it together. That would be fantastic. You guys see each other all the time, don't you? Yeah, we're having dinner with them on Monday. Well, we'll do an Arkush Dante episode. And that would be fun. And I worked with the Ramones on Uplight.

Oh my God. I did a thing where I was the fifth Ramone. Oh, perfect. They fit me with a long wig. And what name did they give you? Oh, I forget, but they, yeah, I worked with the Ramones. So you were Gilbert Ramone. Gilly Ramone?

I think so. Gilly Ramone. They still doing those late nights, the screenings in the cemetery? Yeah. Rock and roll high school. About every year or two, they ask me and I go down there and the movie keeps playing everywhere

and it's so nice. And sometimes I just work with an actress and she said, I have to talk to you. And it was like, she was very nice. And she said, she was about, I would say in her early forties.s she says I looked at your IMDB and then I noticed that you did rock and roll high school and I have to thank you I was a shy girl and Catholic school who felt like an outsider just me and my best friend

and we saw that movie at midnight and I said I could be like Riff Randall. And she said so every day than a gym and a free period we would walk around the outside of the Catholic school in our uniform and sing Rock and Roll High School Ramone songs so thank you for that. How sweet. It's a great outcome. Roger was just trying to cash in on a trend and you made a classic. But he was smart enough to realize my enthusiasm, you know, and my obsession with it. And he just also did not cut one frame out of it. That's great. So that's...

It holds up so well. It basically turned into what Hard Day's Night was. I hope so for some people. Yeah, I think it will. It started out... I think it does and it will. I mean, I guess the original intention was, you know, let's cash in, make a quick buck, and actually you made a great movie out of it. And it's so nice because even though it was like my second movie, I've continued to work for 42 years since then, you know.

And so it's nice that I'm still working, you know. And that... Got any, got any plugs before we start? Yeah. Netflix, a series of unfortunate events. Okay. The Lemony Snicket. With Neil Patrick Harris?

Yes. Yeah. I did the second season pair of episodes called Hostile Hospital. Okay. And to tease you guys, it is, I got the, I took the job because I said, finally I get to do Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein. Oh! Okay, you're, you're, boy, that's catnip for him. That's, you know, that's what it was, you know, it's that broad.

Fantastic. And it's a little duck soup and all that stuff. So that's Hostile Hospital. And I think in two weeks the pen ultimate episode of Nashville. Okay. Wonderful. I've been doing Nashville for about a year now.

Wonderful. And I loved your work on I'll Fly Away. Oh, thank you. Thank you. That's so nice. Yeah. This is a special show. We'll get you back with Joe and we'll do a crazy freewheeling movie episode.

You bet. Okay, man. Thank you again. Thank you, guys. This was a movie episode. You bet. OK, man. Thank you again. Thank you, guys. This was a treat. We thank Larry. All right. Thank you.

We're going to sign off. And I'm Gilbert Gottfried. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santo Padre. And what happened, we discussed with Alan Arkish. And I think the Sinatra anecdote is now my favorite. It's great. And what happened we discussed with Alan Arkish. And I think the Sinatra anecdote is now my favorite. It's great.

The podcast anecdote because of that great punchline. I know. Olympia. Alan, thank you so much. We'll talk again. You're welcome. Bye. Bye.

Rock, rock, rock hero high school is a new red and white GTO. Rock, rock, rock hero high school. I hate the teachers and the principal. The one that we talked to. The one that we talked to. The one that we talked to. The one that we talked to. The one that we talked to. The one that we talked to. The one that we talked to. Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, Dara Godfried and Frank Santapadre with audio production by Frank Verderosa. Web and social media is handled by Mike McPadden, Greg Pair and John Bradley Seals. Special audio contributions by John Beach.

Special thanks to Paul Rayburn, John Murray, John Fodiatis and Nutmeg Creative. Especially Sam Giovancho and Daniel Farrell for their assistance. Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock and roll high school Rock and roll, rock and roll high school Rock and roll, rock and roll high school Rock and roll, rock and roll high school Rock and roll, oh baby Rock and roll, oh baby Rock and roll, rock and roll, rock and roll high school Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock and roll high school Rock, rock, rock,ack, rack, rack, you won't have to