Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Rewind: Mini-Episode #14: "A Simple Plan" and "Radio Days"

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

In this series of topic-focused mini-episodes, Gilbert and Frank share their love of unheralded films, underrated TV shows, underappreciated pop songs and (often) unknown performers, discussing, dissecting and (occasionally) defending their handpicked guilty pleasures and buried treasures.. This week: The disappearance of Bridget Fonda! Jerry Lewis “meets” John Cusack! And the golden age of Woody Allen! https://www.gilbertpodcast.com/mini-ep-14-a-simple-plan-radio-days/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopatra, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal obsessions. I like it. Okay. Twelve weeks, and he got the title down. Wow. I think we should end now. There's hope.

Good night. Now, oh, so we'll go first on it. I think it's your turn. I don't keep track every week, but I feel it's your turn. So what do you think? Okay. Got one you're excited about? Yeah.

I mean, I always hesitate to say excited because it's like, you know, when you tell somebody you got to see this movie, and I'll go, it's good. Yeah. Well, you don't want to play it up too much. Yeah. But there was a movie. movie that not very old,

uh, that, um, starred Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton. Oh, I love this movie. Richard Fonda. Yes. Directed by Sam Rame. Sam Rame.

of evil dead fame. And it was called a simple plan. Yep. It's about people. They, they accidentally discover a helicopter that's crashed. And it's filled with money. no one knows where it comes from, but immediately they all start turning on each other.

It's a terrific movie. Yeah. It's actually, we talked about it the other day. I didn't know you were going to mention it now, but it was actually one that was on my list that was going to be on my list that I was going to bring up. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's one of those that it keeps getting deeper and deeper into trouble. And like their lives keep falling apart. and the lies are getting more and more insane.

Well, I like that genre of film, which I guess is ordinary people try to get rich quick. Oh, yes. Or they do the wrong thing. They make a bad choice, and they dig a very, very deep hole for themselves. Oh, yeah. And their other film,

and we were talking about another film that was like that one. I think I'm saving one for us. Oh, okay. I'll be, I'll be. Because I'm running out of films I want. to talk about. But I know what film, you are referring. Okay, then we'll save it for the second.

We'll save it for the second show. It's Ernest Goes to Kent. That's the one. Yeah. The importance of being earnest, Jim Barnes. It's a terrific movie. I mean, Sam Ramey got a lot of attention for the Evil Dead Pictures and

Spider-Man, the Spider-Man trilogy. But I think it's his best movie. I love that one. And where's Bridget Fonda now? She married Danny Elfman. She married the composer. from the Tim Burton movies and the Simpsons theme composer. And she's sort of, my wife and I were talking about it last week, she got out of the business.

Wow. She disappeared. I mean, you know, a lot of those actresses, we were talking about this, a lot of those actresses from that era, I guess 90s, late 80s, Phoebe Cates disappeared. Oh, yes. I mean, she married Kevin Klein and left the business too. And who else was I did?

Jennifer Beals, she was on the Showtime show, but she don't see much of her anymore. There were a lot of them. Ioni Sky from Say Anything. There's a bunch of names I'm thinking of, but I'm always scared to say them because I think they're going to go, well, I'm still working. I'll go, I'm shit. Take a shot. It's hard for actresses, you know. It's hard for actresses to get older.

And a lot of the actresses that you saw in a lot of Winona Ryder, don't see much of her. You know, who were you thinking of? Well, well, Winona Ryder. She had other problems. Yes. It's kind of hard to smuggle a movie camera into Rikers Island. That's the problem with those Winona Ryder movies. But anyway, that's Bridget, Bridget Fonda, who I also loved in...

Winona Ryder's a Jew. That's right, Horowitz. Yes. Yeah. Very good. And I think Phoebe Cates is half a Jew. She might be. I think she's a Chinese Jew.

She might be. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm going to move past it. I like Bridget Fonda, too, in a comedy called It Could Happen to You, which was... Oh, with what's his name? With Cage. That was, forgive that musical interlude. Nick Cage, Nicholas Cage, which was written and directed by Andrew Bergman, who wrote the in-laws. and the original story that became Blazing Saddles.

Oh, yes. And also, speaking of Billy Bob Thornton, have you seen Pushing Tin? Oh, yes, with Cusack. Right, right. Easy for you to say. Boothack. Another little known film. Cousat!

Johnny Coussack and you're dangerously near me. So I like pushing tin with Billy Bob Thornton. I'm just going to keep blowing ahead. Or this will be a cherry impression for 20 minutes. But a simple plan, great movie. It's one of those you can't say too much about. Yeah, because you're going to give. You'll reveal too much.

You'll give it away. But it's very good. Cusack's good. Definitely see that one. It was on my list, but you stole it. Yes. Let's talk about, we had Josh Mostel on the show. Yes.

Son of Zero. And I brought up a movie. that he made that I'm very, very fond of. I think I liked it more than he did. He didn't seem that particularly passionate about it. I forget, too, that sometimes these are jobs for these people. Oh, yeah. They don't get as excited

as fans do, but the movie is, and I talked about it briefly with Josh, Radio Days. Oh, yeah, the Woody Allen. Yeah, a Woody Allen movie, again, maybe not a lot of people talk about when you're listening Woody Allen's movies. There are a lot of them to choose from. This is a Valentine

to old radio, and And just a very, very sweet movie, very, very well made in what I think was his most productive and successful period, the 80s, when crimes and misdemeanors and Broadway Danny Rose and Zellig and Midsummer Night Sex Comedy and Han and her sisters, he was really on a role. Purple Rose of Cairo. If you look at those films now, it's really quite an output. And radio days in 87 with our friend Danny Aiello. Oh, yeah. As a hit man, it's the only Woody. movie that has both muses, Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow in it. It's, again, also one I don't want to say too much about it. It's a sweet film with dual stories. It's the main story as a family with Michael Tucker of L.A. Law as the father and Julie Kavanaugh as the father as Julie Covey's parents, because Seth Green plays the... Julie Kavanaugh best known as Mrs. Simpson. That's Marge Simpson.

And Seth Green plays a young Woody. And it's also, I grew up in Brooklyn, too. I think it's also about Brooklyn, which is another reason that I love it. Wallace Sean turns up, Tony Roberts turns up, Diane Weist. There's a great gag in the movie about a baseball player, overcoming handicaps, a baseball pitcher. That's a parody of... Remember the Monty Stratton story? The movie with Jimmy Stewart played the pitcher who loses a leg? Oh, okay, yes, yes.

Right, right. And there's a great gag in radio days that's a spoof of that movie and that... story that I won't say too much about. But it's, and Josh Mustell's hilarious in it. And I was much more excited about it than Josh was. And Rockaway Playland is in the movie, too, which is now gone. It's part of why I love it. You know, we talk about movies from the 70s and the stuff that's New York in the

70s that's gone. This is one of those movies. Yeah, they were all those great, great New York films. Yeah, this is one. where you can see some old New York locations that are gone, and it was only made in 87. So I can't recommend it enough radio days, in spite of Josh's lack of enthusiasm.

He's funny in it. And anyway. So the two films we're recommending are Woody Allen's Radio Days and Sam Ramey's A Simple Plan. Yeah, there's also a great... A bit inspired by War of the Worlds, by the Orson Welles, the famous scare. Yeah, where he started doing The War of the World's radio show. Right.

And some people thought it was real. Right. And it started making a run for it. Right. And there's a bit, too, in radio days, that is sort of based on the story of the famous child that fell in the well. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it's a nostalgic film.

It's a sweet film. It's one of my favorites. Definitely check it out. Woody's not in it, just his voice, just his narration. And Larry David turns up, too, as a voice. So, radio days. Anything else you want to say about missing actresses? How about Darrell Hanna?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Another one. Yeah. Very scary. No. You don't see much of her anymore. You want to name those actresses that you were afraid to name?

Now, I heard Darrell Hanna was one of those actresses that there were these actresses who had no trouble doing nudity. I guess so. Okay. So Darrell Hanna's won. Right. She dropped her clothes at-Julian Moore, of course. Julianne Moore, yep. She saw her bush in a movie.

I think, oh, here's an answer. actress. Jennifer Jason Lee was fine taking her clothes off. She's another one you don't see much of, and she did some great films. Oh, Valerie Perrine. Yeah, Valerie Perrine. Used to take her clothes. Yes, Valerie Perrin. We should get Valerie Perrine on the show if she's offended by this show or what we just said.

Did Bridget Fonda ever take off her clothes? That's a really good question. I'll direct you to a website called Mr. Skin. Yeah. Believe me, you don't have to direct me. there. Not that I know of, but I could be wrong. I'm practically a shareholder. And so mine is a simple plan.

Which is another one I love. Yeah. Just people greed, making people go nuts and destroying people. Yeah, and we should actually sit down and come up with a list because there are a lot of those. Oh, a lot. A lot of those kinds of movies. And none of them are popping into my head right now. See, this is why.

I want a new co-host because if I had a co-host who knew what the fuck he was doing, he'd say, this is popping into my head now. I'm saddled with someone who sits across for me and goes, I got nothing. So simple plan and radio days.