Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini #202: In Memoriam 2018: Writers and Directors (with Michael H. Weber)

Episode Date: February 7, 2019

This week: The influence of Neil Simon! The versatility of William Goldman! Harlan Ellison clashes with Ol' Blue Eyes! Milos Forman takes on sumo wrestling! And the most controversial sex scenes of all time! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Here we go one two one two three hi i'm gilbert godfrey and this is gilbert and frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions with my co-host Frank Santopadre and our special guest Mishkite Wibley. What? Is Mishkite a name? Mishkite Wibley. Is that Yiddish?

Yes. Just go with Martha Washington. If it's all MWs. Michael Weber is back, ladies and gentlemen. Oscar-nominated screenwriter. And there's no shame in losing to 102-year-old James Ivory. No, no, no. I lost to the only writer I can take in a fight.

Exactly. With all due respect, the man has a body of work. That's true. He's a legend. It may have been a retroactive Oscar. You know what? And it was a great movie. Yeah, it was a great movie.. That's true. He's a legend. It may have been a retroactive Oscar. No, you know what? And it was a great movie. Yeah, it was a great movie.

Mike Weber is back. We ran out of time on the proper In Memoriam episode. We did character actors and actors and former podcast guests. And we ran out of time.

We didn't want to rush through these great people and these great talents. We have some behind-the-scenes people to discuss, writers and directors. These are my people.

These are your peeps. Jews? Yes. We're only going through the Jews. Let's start with the directors and work our way down to our people, to writers. Nicholas Rogue.

Director Nicholas Rogue died at the ripe old age of 90. He entered the business, like Gilbert, as a tea boy. Serving tea on set. Became a second unit I guess he was a second unit cameraman on Lawrence of Arabia.

David Lean employed him as a young man. Cinematographer on Dr. Zhivago. I mean this is a way to start a career. Then he was fired. Was he? He was fired from Zhivago because he clashed with Lean, which is amazing. Very good stuff. Yeah.

I liked his work on Roger Corman's Mask of the Red Death. Did you know he shot some of those pictures? Oh. Those Corman. No, I didn't know. He shot Petulia for Richard Lester. And he shot Petulia. Richard Lester's still around.

Now, he did that. He's a recluse. The Donald Sutherland. Don't look now. Yes. Yeah, yeah. He's a recluse. The Donald Sutherland. Don't look now. Yes. Which is a seriously creepy movie. I remember I saw that in a theater and I complained to the management because I think it was the TV version they showed because there was no nudity. Really?

Interesting. nudity really interesting and and that the the the famous uh legend to that is allegedly donald sutherland and julie christie were actually fucking that was right that's the rumor a long time but then i think in recent years sutherland said no i think they used it to promote the film i think it made good good copy so an interesting thing, the American censors said to him, the director, we cannot see humping. There cannot be humping. That's the word they used.

Humping. That's why that sex scene, there's the inner cutting. Of them getting dressed. That's sort of going back and forth because that was a way to pass the censors. And it got an R in America and it got an X

from the British censors. The same cut. It's a fascinating movie to look at and it's a terrifying movie. It's on Criterion now. And there's that creepy midget woman.

Played by Jerry Maron. Yes. No, I'm kidding. It's a callback, folks. Played by Jerry Van Dyke. By the way, Warren Beatty was dating Julie Christie at the time of making it. And the legend you're talking about, Beatty was so upset about what he was hearing about this scene, he flew to London and demanded that the scene be cut from the movie.

Interesting. Well, you found good stuff. You find research I don't even find. Writers and directors, these are my people. So Beatty's angry about anybody else getting pushed. Like he's the only one. This seems a little selfish. He had enough to go around.

Nice work, Mort Wasserman. Sutherland must have liked him because he named one of his sons after him. Oh, wow. Also, we should talk about Walkabout, which is a really wonderful movie. Oh, that's with... Jenny Agater. Jenny Agater, who is naked in so many movies.

Yes, American Werewolf in London. Yeah, and she was naked in that one, too. I also like The Man Who Fell to Earth. It's amazing. With our former podcast guest, Buck Henry. Yes. Yeah, yeah. And Significance. of fell to earth it's amazing with our former podcast guest Buck Henry yes yeah yeah

and significance and he influenced everybody from Soderbergh to Ridley Scott to Danny Boyle to Christopher Nolan quite a filmmaker yeah

let's talk about Bertolucci Bernard Bertolucci died you go from one controversial sex scene to another I'm going from one controversial sex scene to another. I'm going from one controversial sex scene to another. The Last Tango. Now, he was in Guinea.

Yeah, that's the rumor. How did you know? Yes. He aspired to be a poet growing up. Right, his dad was a poet. Yes, his dad was a poet. Yes, but I've never seen The Conformist, I must admit. I own The Conformist on DVD.

I have not seen it. Should I see it? It is an all-time great film. Really? Okay. It holds up. It is brilliant. It is... I beg of anyone listening, go see The Conformist.

Including me. Yes. I have seen 1900, again with your boss. Yeah. A young Mr. De Niro. The Conformist is better. Okay, I do love The Last Emperor. Oh, yeah. I love The Sheltering Sky I do love The Last Emperor. Oh, yeah.

I love The Sheltering Sky. I love The Last Emperor. So, interesting about Bertolucci, he has a story credit on Once Upon a Time in the West. Interesting. Yeah. He helped cook up the story. He doesn't have a screenplay credit, but a story by.

I didn't know that. And he also gifted Hollywood with the, he gave Hollywood the gift of Vittorio Storaro, who shot Reds and Apocalypse Now. Right, and The Conformist was their first uh collaboration and it's brilliant okay it's at the top of my list and i have to say like um there was a documentary a couple years ago listen to me marlin i don't know if you guys saw it yeah about marlon brando but the documentary was entirely constructed uh using private unreleased audio tapes that Brando had kept for decades.

And when you see the documentary, you realize a lot of Brando's sort of weird meandering monologues in Last Tango were actually Brando talking about himself, his own life, his mom, his family. Albus R. So it's sort of, you watch this Brando doc and it kind of unlocks aspects of last tango that you weren't really aware of yeah interesting not not exactly a feminist no i mean they had a me too there was a me too moment and then some yeah i mean controversial you know uh maria schneider was

19 yeah uh you know and and in years later said you know basic she said essentially she was raped i mean because she didn't know know that the whole butter thing was, they didn't discuss that with her. It just happened. Yeah. That's, you know, obviously extremely unfortunate. Very unfortunate. And I think it's led to a lot of conversations, obviously, in Hollywood to sort of make sure that type of thing never happened again. That movie was hard to watch at best.

Yeah. Last Tango. But now it's even more tainted. If you see Listen to Me Marlin, it kind of makes you want to then go back and re-watch it in a new lens of Brando's pain. But on the subject of movie theaters going away, which we talked about on the full episode, he said, maybe I'm an idealist,

but I still think of a movie theater as a cathedral where we all go to dream the dream together, which I thought was lovely. Yeah, I will recommend I will see the conformist on your say so but I will

recommend the sheltering sky and the last emperor won best picture beat out broadcast news and fatal attraction I love myself

some broadcast news but the last emperor is a pretty god damn good movie I want to mention a director that only made a few films

because he was a television writer who crossed over. And I don't know how many people know the name Hugh Wilson. You know who that is, Gilbert? No. He died. He was the creator of WKRP in Cincinnati. And Police Academy.

And Police Academy. And Frank's Place with Tim Reed, which was a very good show. And the famous Teddy Z. Oh. Now, there's a show good show. And the famous Teddy Z. Oh. Now, there's a show that canceled too soon. Yeah. Yeah, with Alex Rocco. And a movie, Rustler's Rhapsody.

Rustler's Rhapsody. Yeah, which is like, sort of has a cult following now. With Andy Griffith and Tom Berringer. And John Wayne's son. Correct. He was an MTM guy, and he became a film director. He made Guarding Tess which is a pretty good movie

with Austin Pendleton yes he's another guy in the First Wives Club we were talking about this in the other episode he didn't he had a career in advertising

yes correct did not work in entertainment at all and then at age 30 walked away from he was I think running an ad agency that's right

walked away from that and became Grant Tinker's gopher he became right that's right which is crazy he worked his way up to being an MTM guy on shows like producing and writing shows thing, walked away from that and became a grant Tinker's gopher. He became right. That's right. And then he, which is crazy. He worked his way up to being an MTM guy on shows like producing and writing shows like new heart.

And I feel like you guys have had some guests at certain points who started off in the advertising world or sort of feel like a lot of people. Right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Hugh Wilson, uh, yeah.

First wives club, which is, which is a fun movie too, uh, that he made. Um, another, I think he only did the first Police Academy, right? That's right. That's right. But Bailey Quarters, to our WKRP fans, was based on his wife, the Jan Smithers character. And we should get Howard Hesselman. Oh, yes. We should get him to come and talk to us.

Whenever I think about WKRP in Cincinnati, I think how the owner of the studio in it, what was his name? Les Nesman. Les Nesman. Yeah. Was the child molester on different strokes. With the fridge.

Yes, yes. I thought the child molester,. Oh no, you're thinking of the other guy. You're thinking of Oh God. What was that? From Alf. No, no. It wasn't him. You might be right. No, it was WKRP in Cincinnati.

Same guy? With Dudley. He was a child molester. He ran the bicycle shop which was the ideal place for a job yeah i'm thinking of a different actor and i'm thinking of something else uh let's talk about milo shorman yeah who passed away a great director great american director uh rough childhood to say the least well he was not jewish yes but his father was killed by uh the gestapo correct and his mother died in auschwitz yes oh yeah it turns out the man killed by the gestapo was somebody he thought was his father was not his biological father oh interesting yeah his

his biological father actually survived so that that was actually as but they were killed i guess because they were part of the anti-nazi underground. They were part of the underground, yeah. Did you know that about him? No. Yeah, very difficult childhood. And his mother died in the camp. Wow. And when the tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia,

he came to America. And he made a couple of films in Czechoslovakia, Loves of a Blonde and The Fireman's Ball, which are part of the French New... The French? The Czech New Wave. Loves of a Blonde and The Fireman's Ball, which are part of the French New Wave. Loves of a Blonde is on Criterion. It's beautiful.

Black and white. Yes. I haven't seen it in years. I haven't seen it since film school. His first American film was Taking Off, a movie that we are

going to recommend with Buck Henry. Yes. Who keeps turning up. I've never seen it. I have to see it. See that one. That one's a lot of fun.

Buck Henry, by the way. Interesting. I mean, turning up with I've never seen it. I have to see it. See that one. That one's a lot of fun. Buck Henry, by the way. Interesting. I mean, turning up with Nicholas Rogue movie and Foreman and Heaven Can Wait. And most importantly with me and Hot to Try. Most important. Most important. And I remember running into Buck Henry somewhere and I said, we were in the same movie. And he looks at me disgusted and he goes h t t

not on the top of his resume couldn't even say the title I guess taking off led to him getting cuckoo's nest Michael Douglas was producing cuckoo's nest and they saw something I'm not sure if it was taking off or his Czech films, but they saw something in his work. And it's only, Cuckoo's Nest was only the second film to win all five major Academy Awards. Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay.

Was it Happen One Night? Happen One Night, yeah. And then it happened again, all five one more time in the years since. Oh, God. Since Cuckoo's Nest. This happened one other time. Now I don't even know, and I should.

Ernest goes to camp. That's it. Yes. That's it. Silence of the Lambs. Oh, I was going to say BAPS. Oh. Yeah.

I was going to say Booty Call. Silence of the Lambs. Good. That's good trivia. And I read one really weird thing. He had a lot of random projects in the works that would sort of come and go over this. Do you know where I'm going with this, Frank? Go ahead.

So in the early 90s, he co-wrote a screenplay called Hell Camp. Do you know about Hell Camp? No, I don't. Okay. It's about an American-Japanese love affair in the world of sumo wrestling. And TriStar pulled the plug four days before they started shooting because of pressure from japan's sumo wrestling association that blows my mind because foreman refused to do their notes the sumo wrestling association was like we have notes and he said no and tri-star was like this

is too dicey i gotta pull the well he had a lot of interests. I want to recommend Hair, which I think is underrated. Written by Michael Weller. Yes. And I get his residual checks accidentally from the guild sometimes. Oh, he's a good playwright, Michael Weller. But I have to send them back and say that's not me. Rag Time, which is another picture I like. Oh, yeah.

That's Michael Weller. Yeah. Michael Weller. Yeah. I like both those pictures. Of course, amadeus in 84 one one of my favorite movies and one of those movies i can watch over and over and over again which was on broadway um and when it was on broadway uh it was um tim curry played mozart

and tim curry was replaced by mark hamill oh And Mark Hamill wanted to be in the movie and Foreman said no because audiences only associate you with Luke Skywalker. That's a shame. Oh. That's a shame. And he cast Tom Hulse.

Yeah, who's amazing. Yeah, I read an interview in doing research on Foreman with F. Murray Abraham and he's right. He said Foreman had a lot of balls. He had the clout to cast anybody in those roles.

And he cast Tom Hulse and F. Murray Abraham. And it works. And it works. And it works brilliantly. balls he had the clout to cast anybody in those roles and he cast tom holson f murray abraham and it it's it works and it works and it works brilliantly and and we'll also mention uh two movies written by our friends larry and scott oh man on the moon right and uh the people versus larry flint and i have to i have to recommend there was a documentary that came out about a year and a half ago called jim and andy uh and the great beyond yeah i haven't seen it yet strange one did you see it yeah yeah i haven't seen about the making of man on the moon and how jim carrey never left character yeah and you see milo shforman very

quickly i think it's the first day on set and he's kind of throwing up his hands like what the fuck is going on here because jim carrey refused to be addressed as Jim Carrey. He was Andy Kaufman on set and stayed that way to the point where Andy Kaufman's relatives visit set. And there's footage of this in the documentary. Wild. And he stays as Andy Kaufman in character talking to Andy's relatives, even though he's Jim Carrey. Yeah, I got to see that. It really, like, the audience for this podcast

will love this documentary. He fought for artist rights. He was a passionate guy. He testified before Congress a couple of times. Larry wrote something very nice about him. Milos was our friend, speaking of Scott as well. Milos was our friend and teacher. We made two movies together and every day

spent with him was a unique adventure and those are good movies you met Larry and Scott right finally I met them during all these sort of Oscar hullabaloo they were so nice there's a dinner for all the nominees in the week leading up to the awards and Scott and Larry were both there and they're amazing

we're very fond of them and most importantly they wrote Problem Child 1 and 2. Yes, with Scott cried during the premiere. I don't think he'd mind me admitting that. But he did say, because I asked him. Revealing that. Because I noticed, and I said, do you find a link between Problem Child and everything you've done afterwards?

And there was a direct link. If only they had written the sumo wrestling movie, it would have gotten made. Yeah. Three writers to mention quickly. Frank Buxton. I don't know that you'll know that name, but he wrote for The Odd Couple and Happy Days. He's got an interesting resume. Check it out.

He was somebody we looked into. He was also the voice of Batfink. Does anybody remember Batfink and Karate? Oh! He was an interesting dude of Batfink. Does anybody remember Batfink and Karate? Oh! He was an interesting dude I do remember, actually. who did a lot of different kinds of things.

And I love to mention people who were associated with the odd couple. The great Stephen Bochco, which was a big loss. The creator of NYPD Blue and L.A. Law and Doogie Howser

and Hooperman and Cop Rock. A New Yorker. Really prolific writer. I met him once at a Writers Guild thing, and he was so nice. And I think I just had my first writing job and barely had anything going on, and he could not have been more friendly and warm. That's nice to hear.

What a great body of work. And I want to mention a guy named Paul DeMeo who passed away, who wrote one of my favorite movies, The Rocketeer. very underrated yeah that movie's great yeah and died and he was not very old at all they've been trying for years to kind of remake the rocketeer and sort of bring it back and give it another chance but i i that movie's great leave it alone i should also say jennifer connelly has great tits that's a that's a trenchant insight. Thank you for that. And I heard she's a Jew. Yes, yes, she is. She's married to Paul Bettany.

Yes, she is. Most importantly, when she dies on her tombstone, they're going to say, a Jew with gray tits. If you have anything to say about it. I also want to say, and I should have said this during the first show, we're not going to cover everybody.

We'll get messages on social media, how could you leave this person out, how could you leave that person out. We go as fast as we can. We get to as many people as we can. We won't get to all the writers, all the directors. We'll put them up on social media if we skip them for whatever reason. We will return to gilbert godfrey's amazing colossal podcast after this the score bet app here with trusted stats and

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19 plus. Ontario only. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connexontario.ca. That's the sound of fried chicken with a spicy history. Thornton Prince was a ladies' man. To get revenge, his girlfriend hid spices in his fried chicken. He loved it so much, he opened Prince's Hot Chicken.

Hot chicken in the window. This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell. To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com. This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell. To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com. Tennessee sounds perfect. Here's three legends. These are your people, Ryder Boy. Legends.

Let's start with somebody I knew personally, Harlan Ellison. I didn't know him well, but I had the good fortune of spending a couple of days in his company which I will never forget. He was a Jew. Yes, indeed he was. Yes, indeed he was. And he would have loved to discuss that with you. Not only was he a Jew, he was beaten up for being a Jew

because he was the only Jewish boy in his neighborhood in Ohio. What was he like when you met him? Because his personality could be tricky. His reputation preceded him. He liked me for whatever reason. I dodged the bullet. I was wary of him, as one should be. But we just started talking about old character actors

and old lounge singers and Sinatra. He had a run-in with Sinatra, and I knew that story, and we discussed that. He just took a liking to me, which I was very grateful about. But the legend is he has 1,700 published works between short stories, novellas, comic books, teleplays, screenplays, essays. I cannot think of a more prolific writer.

I mean, that's 1,700. Yeah. It boggles the mind. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's hard to sum up Harlan. But a fascinating life. Like, I know he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. He did indeed.

He did indeed. He also was, Gilbert, you'll love this. He was hired by Disney to be a writer. Correct. And was fired on his first day. He was proud of that story. When Roy Disney overheard him in the commissary talking about wanting to make an animated porno featuring the Disney characters.

Day one, fired. Yes, yes. NPR called him one of the most interesting humans on the earth. I think you could still get fired for that today. I'm sure you could. He used to bring baseball bats to meetings to make a point. He did not like executives very well. He did not suffer them gladly.

Wrote the greatest Star Trek episode of the original series. And never got over the fact that they messed with him. Yeah. Which was the Star Trek? Forever. The Joan Collins episode.

The one where they go back to old Chicago. Yes, yes, yes. He wrote a lot of TV. He wrote Route 66, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He wrote The Flying Nun, and when somebody asked him why, he said, why do you think, idiot, I was trying to fuck Sally Field? He wrote a column

about writer's rights. He was very, very, a real advocate for artist's rights. I was very, very, a real advocate for artists' rights. I mean, to an extreme degree. Sue James Cameron claiming that the Terminator story was cobbled together

from parts of his stories from the Outer Limits. One of them being Demon with a Glass Hand, which is one of the stories that he's well known for. Yeah, he marched with Dr. King. He had a famous run-in with Frank Sinatra.

He was an enormous fan and friend of Brother Theodore, somebody who comes up on this show. You know, they always say to writers this whole thing of, go get life experience before you write. He had it. And I was reading somewhere somewhere i found a list of the the odd jobs he did before he became a writer he was a tuna fisherman yep a crop picker he was a nitroglycerin truck driver a short order cook a cab driver a book salesman a floor walker

in a department store a door-to-door brush salesman, and an actor. Yeah. I think he told me he was a lounge singer, too. Oh, wow. Yeah. Which may not be on that list. I had the pleasure of having Thanksgiving at Len Wein's house, the creator of Wolverine, who we eulogized last year.

I was, you know, rootless in L.A. and didn't have family and had very few friends, and they took pity on me. That's an L.A. Thanksgiving, though. That's an L.A. Thanksgiving. You know it well. And they invited, it was that or the diner, and they invited me over me. That's an LA Thanksgiving though. That's an LA Thanksgiving. You know it well. And they invited, was that or the diner?

And they invited me over for Thanksgiving and Harlan held court and I told a story that he said, and he told me, I'm stealing that story, I'm changing the ending and I'm claiming it as mine. And damn it if he didn't make the story better, which I'll tell.

And we never called him for this show and that one I am really kicking myself for. He'd had a stroke. I didn't know what kind of condition he was in. I thought maybe I shouldn't roll the dice and press my luck since I'd had such good memories of him, and I didn't want to run afoul of him, and maybe I should have taken the chance. I still have his phone number written on my wall at home.

Legendary. Read Harlan Ellison's Watching, which I'll say to our listeners which you should read as well, which is a collection of reviews. A collection of his savage reviews in some cases. Those are the best kind. You'll learn what Jerry Lewis

Syndrome is. Oh my goodness. Which he talks about or read his anthologies or the documentary Dreams with Sharp Teeth which is great there's so much we could do whole episodes about Harlan Ellison

and keep going and here's another guy like that as we try to move along as fast as we can and the Hot Rock came up on the previous show and I think something else

the great Waldo Pepper came up on the previous show written by the peerless william goldman he is my that that is my number one he is my guy he is as much as the granddaddy of screen as much responsible for any screenwriter for me wanting to do this uh his work more than anyone else and uh i would say to anyone interested in in film history or the business and would say to anyone interested in film history or the business, and especially if you're interested in screenwriting,

he wrote maybe the most brilliant book ever written about screenwriting and how fucked up the industry is, Adventures in the Screen Trade. I read it every year. Oh, I read it for the first time in college. Oh, that's great. And I read it every couple of years. And Glory's great too.

Oh, yeah. Which lie did I tell? Which lie did I tell? They're's great. And I read it every couple of years. Hype and Glory is great too. Oh, yeah. Which lie did I tell? Which lie did I tell? They're all great. He's really just so brilliant and so many lines that are everywhere now. Follow the money. Nobody knows anything.

Sure. All go back to him. It's really, what a career. What a career. And wrote one of Gilbert's favorites, No Way to Treat a Lady oh yes yes

yeah one of the one of the things in Adventures in the Screen trade he says if he could do his career all over again he would make

all the same decisions except he would not work on all the president's men I read that it was the biggest regret of his career

yeah because making that movie was such a nightmare and was so stressful and was such a complicated process and he goes through it was the biggest regret of his career yeah because making that movie was such a nightmare and was so stressful and and was such a complicated process and he goes through it in the book in a lot more detail yes in like a giant chapter but that it was so challenging it really um pained him in so many ways that he said if he could do it all over again he would not write that movie he won an oscar for that but would would choose to not do it all over it's a pretty perfect movie oh my god yeah it's really uh you know maybe like the greatest movie ever made about process my wife watches it every month to give her hope and

you know what i mean i do in question how much of goodwill hunting um, that is in question. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote and how much will William Goldman. Later in life, before he died, he denied it. But it's so weird to me that those guys never wrote another great movie. It's just a very... It's a little strange. It is a little strange.

Gus Van Sant might have had his hands on it too. Yeah, yeah. The other interesting thing is considering... Screenplay, I is considering William Goldman's career and all these movies we think about like Marathon Man and All the President's Men and Harper Princess Bride,

Misery. It's a great body of work. His favorite movie of all time that he wrote? No, no, no. His favorite movie of all time, Gunga Din. Oh, I thought you were going to say Hot to Trot. No. That was his second favorite. Gunga Din. Oh, I thought you were going to say Hot to Trot. No. That was his second favorite. Gunga Din, pretty good choice.

That's his favorite movie of all time. Pretty good choice. He was a novelist. Again, we talk about people who had no designs on what their actual careers became. And an advertising guy, I think, too. Yes, but a novelist and didn't really plan to be a screenwriter.

No, no. And The Princess Bride was a bedtime story. Correct. He whipped up for his two daughters offhand, then turned it into a novel, then turned it into a movie. Here's some trivia, too. He and his brother, James Goldman, who wrote Lion and Winter, and John Kander, the composer from All That Jazz and Cabaret, they shared a walk-up apartment, the three of them,

when they were young and struggling, and all of them went on to win Oscars. That's amazing. That's kind of fun. That's kind of fun. I also like Magic, the Anthony Hopkins picture. Very strange movie.

Burgess Meredith, Anne Margaret. Which he wrote. We've talked about Marathon Man on this show at length. Yes, terrific. Which is so good. To this day,

I am so squeamish at The Dentist. I was there last week. It's a nightmare for me. All because of that movie. And Harper, which I watched recently. Yeah. Which is uneven, but good. He adapted Ross McDonald.

I mean, he did adaptations. He did a lot of doctor work. We haven't mentioned Butch Cassidy in The Sundance Camp. We have to mention that. He said, the scene of them jumping off the cliff into the water you know and they banter a little bit and redford can't swim and um he said he owes his entire career to that scene that everything that came later in his career would not have happened if not for that unbelievable yeah yeah simple oil of clove relief. Life could be that simple.

He's doing the dentist thing for you. Yeah. He doctored other scripts. Chaplin, A Few Good Men. Oh, so many movies. Dolores Claiborne, and the list goes on and on and on. And I spotted him in New York during a blackout, and I screamed like a little girl.

Huge Knicks fan. Was at a lot of Knicks games for years. He was in declining health, so it's not, I think, he was certainly already in decline by the time the podcast started but i would see him at nicks games but be scared to go over and say something to him oh too bad yeah yeah there was a blackout when i first moved back to new york and i was walking around the upper east side with my friend rick willett and people were walking in the streets with flashlights and i don't know how i spotted william goldman in the dark, but I screamed, William Goldman!

And he jumped like someone was about to attack him. And then he told me he was going to tell his grandchildren that he was recognized in the dark. I even like Hearts in Atlantis. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Boy, one of a kind. Read those books, Adventures in the Screen Trade.

Really, there'll never be another one like this. Which lie did I tell? I mean, he had a great... You know the movies. He had a great movie in four decades. That's pretty cool. I mean, what other screenwriter can you say that about? That's pretty cool.

And if you haven't seen... Everybody's seen Misery. Everybody's seen Princess Bride. But if you haven't seen Magic or Harper or No Way to Treat a Lady, they're all good. Yeah. What a body of work. Perhaps surpassed only by the person on this last card. Really?

And I don't know how we're going to get to this in four minutes, but let's try. Neil Simon passed away this year at 91. With Neil Simon, it's so funny. It seemed almost like a machine. He would write a play. The play would become a Broadway hit, and then it would be made into a movie. And it seemed like practically every month.

Again and again. Yeah. Where do you begin? How do you wrap your arms around this guy's career and life and body of work. I mean, a Pulitzer, four Oscar nominations, 17 Tony nominations, 50 nominations for actors in his productions. He had almost that many marriages too. Yes, a lot of marriages.

The only living playwright to have a theater named after him. During one season, he had four successful plays running in New York on Broadway at the same time. That's incredible. No one's ever had that.

And then I think at one point late in his life they voted him as like no longer revelant or something. Like he wasn't important to people anymore. That's insane. Can't be.

He would have been the perfect guest. I mean you guys say that a lot but he got into writing because he loved Chaplin, Buster Keaton. I know. Laurel and Hardy. These were his guys. It was a reluctant interview, so I never went down that road. And his health was failing for years,

I think even since we started the show. I mean, you could go back to the show of shows, that experience and that writer's room. He had an unhappy childhood. You saw that in the notes that he used to escape into the movie theaters. And he said that part of what made him a comedy writer was the pain of his childhood. And his parents were apparently always going at each other. First play, Come Blow Your Horn.

Way back in 1961. And then that string of hits a barefoot in the park and and then the odd couple and plaza suite and then it just kept going um and then yeah you mentioned the four plays playing simultaneously and then there's the screenplays you know there's the goodbye girl and and the out of towners and murder by death he wrote the screenplay for after the fox oh which, which you love. The Sunshine Boys, we have to mention. I mean, you can't, you know, I can't think of a more prolific writer,

let alone comedy writer. And it's staggering to just sit there. And so many of them hold up, too. So many of them hold up. I know Darragh is a big fan of the Out-of-Towners. Yeah. He worked with a lot of our hold up, too. So many of them hold up. That's the other thing. I know Dar is a big fan of the out-of-towners. Yeah. He worked with a lot of our podcast guests, too. Jake's Women with Alan Alda.

Yeah. Brighton Beach with Matthew Broderick. Joyce Van Patten and Ron Lieben were in the original cast of I Ought to Be in Pictures. Wow. And I remember hearing a story that Neil Simon, when he was putting on The Odd Couple, he wanted Walter Matthau to play Oscar. And Walter Matthau said, I know I can play Oscar. It's too easy.

I want to act. And Neil Simon said, act in someone else's play. I love that. That's great. The Goodbye Girl is a favorite of mine. And if people who are listening to this show now haven't seen it, we did a mini episode about it. Get after that.

Even stuff like Murder by Death and The Cheap Detective. I mean, they're fun. They don't entirely hold together, but there's great performances in them and they're sweet. And it's the kind of comedy writing nobody's doing anymore. And what we love, so this show is so much about New York City too. And New York City was a character.

And so much of his work, I want to point that out too. Yeah, The Odd Couple, Sunshine Boys. Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Out of Towners. You could go on and on. I saw Prisoner of Second Avenue on Broadway with Peter Falk and Lee Grant. Oh, lucky you.

Did you tell Lee that when we had her on the show? Probably not. She probably would have gotten a kick out of that. What do we want to recommend from this list? Wow. Where do you begin? Where do you want to tell people to see? I'm going to say The Goodbye Girl for sure.

I love The Out of Towners also. Yeah, and The Sunshine Boys. And if anybody can find a copy of Laughter on the 23rd Floor. Does it exist? Because they never turned that into a movie. I think they made a TV movie. Oh, really? About it.

I could be wrong. They did. I've never seen it. I'd love to see that. I saw it with Nathan Lane on stage and it was a revelation. Nobody like him. Also, the comedy of Jewishness, Gilbert. I mean, he's of that Bruce J. Friedman.

Oh, definitely. The school of Jewish humor, the comedy of angst, the comedy of pain. I also read somewhere, this is so random, he had a kidney transplant in 2004. His publicist gave him a kidney. Oh, yes. Gilbert, would your publicist gave him a kidney oh yes would you gilbert would your publicist give you a kidney i'm gonna give gilbert one after the show's over nice after we finish this bill prady the comedy the very accomplished comedy writer uh said no american comedy writer uh isn't

influenced by his rhythm by the rhythm and music of his words and i think i think that's true it's really i remember like my earliest memories of watching movies are my grandparents sitting me By his rhythm, by the rhythm and music of his words. And I think that's true. It's really, I remember, like my earliest memories of watching movies are my grandparents sitting me down and showing me his work. It's really, yeah, there'll never be another. Yeah. Sometimes when we're doing this show

and I'm doing the research and I think, boy, I just want to do a marathon. I just want to lock myself in the house and watch every Neil Simon movie and read every Neil Simon play. And I want to do that with, with William Goldman too. Yeah.

I bet you the two of them probably have more things on TCM than any other writer, like on a regular basis. Yeah. A big loss this year and a lot of wonderful people lost this year. And we try to keep their names alive and we try to keep their memories alive. So Michael, thank you so much.

Thank you guys. For being part of this this is a lot of fun it's really you know some special people that are gone we're glad

we're glad we have a place to talk about their work they are special people and we'll do we'll do a music episode with our friend Raybone next week up

and there was some how's his health he's okay he's okay he's taking shots he's getting he's getting fluids Gilly week up. And there was some wonderful... How's his health? He's okay. Yeah. He's okay. He's taking shots. He's getting fluids. Gilly?

This has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and our special guest, Mooshy Wooshy. There's a whole Asian thing there in that one. It works.

Mooshy Wooshy? Mooshy. He used to play Japanese general. There's a whole Asian thing there In that one It works Mushi Wushi Mushi He used to play Japanese general I didn't know that With Richard Liu By the way If you ever need a pseudonym

If you ever have cause To put a pseudonym On your work I think you've got Something to choose from Oh my god I have quite a few now We are thrilled

That you came here And joined us Thanks for having me back guys Okay pal We'll do it again Definitely thrilled that you came here and joined us thanks for having me back guys okay pal we'll do it again colossal obsessions