The Kristian Harloff Show - Nostalgia Trend in Movies: Good or Bad? w/ Sam Roberts

Episode Date: February 16, 2022

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Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly. Protect your engine with Cintech full synthetic motor oil at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Cintech is designed for today's engines to dissipate heat and reduce friction and wear. Get five parts of Cintech full synthetic and a microguard select oil filter for just 3399, plus two times O'Rewards points. Choose Cintech available exclusively at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Oh, oh, O'O, O'Reilly, Auto Parts. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the big thing. I have been very excited to do these shows, honestly.

And it's funny because I know that I've told you guys a million times over once we started doing this. And we were back in studio, we're like, ah, you don't need to do Zoom things and stream yards anymore. That's over. Well, it's not over. And strangely enough, I'm pretty excited that I'm able to do these because now I can reach out to people that I can't get into studio and talk to them on a one-on-one thing. And a lot of people were wondering about the Christian Harloff 101 show. And I think that's why I love big things so much, because it's kind of a, everything that I used to do, whether it was on Schmoz or Collider, all of it,

it is now this show. And you guys have been responding to that, whether the interview with Freddie Pinch, Jr., and Steve Zaragoza and Danny Fernandez, and all the interviews that we've been doing so far, I've been excited to do, and there's just been conversations, right? So this is one that I'm really excited about. So I met Sam Roberts through Roxy Stryor a few years ago, and he was very kind in where I reached out to him on just DM, And he had obviously, you know, how involved he is in the WWE.

And I wanted to get his thoughts and stuff on Schmodeown. And he was so kind and told me he fucking hated it. No, I'm just kidding. He gave me some really great notes. And we kind of went back and forth. And we just kept in touch. And I did his show last year. It was a lot of fun.

But I want to talk to Sam about a lot. Obviously, his involvement in WWE, his show with Jim Norton, all this stuff. He's gotten taking another show to YouTube, how he's, manages all of it to be completely honest with you. And we're just going to bullshit about other stuff. I asked him before we started recording what he's watching. And there's some stuff, honestly, I didn't even heard of and tell me how great it is. You know how badly I wanted to see the new screen movie and I didn't have a chance to see it.

He saw it. He's going to tell us what he thought about that movie, some cool stuff that he also mentioned another movie. I won't spoil it or something to happen. Tons of shit that Sam and I are going to talk about today. But before we get into it, I told you many times over, I just need you guys to show a little class. It's all I need you to do. And in order to do that, you got to subscribe. You just show an ounce of class by subscribing and hit that notification button.

And that's all you do. And people are saying, you know what? I wasn't going to subscribe, but I didn't want to have no class. So now you have class. And then you go to the new Patreon. You got S.E.N. Live two or three times a month, depending on how many we get, rewatches, bonus episodes, all of it. And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and listen to it on the go, whether it's on Spotify,

Apple, Podcast, all of that. It's been great. All right. Let's do it. Welcome back, everybody. It's a big thing. It's me. And I am excited today, ladies and gentlemen, joining the show from his studio in New York.

God, that sounds so much more fancier than what I do. Ladies and gentlemen, it is Sam Roberts. What up, dude. Hey, man, how's it going? You have a very, a very radio way of coming in with the music under you, like that kind of casual, like talking with the music. It is very, like, it's very rock radio in a good way, not like cheeseball radio. And now there's not to throw a Dallas rains for weather.

Yeah, maybe it's because you also have a good broadcasting voice that it's like, oh, yeah, this sounds like what it's supposed to sound like. It's not real. It's all, it's all forced. I actually sound like Urkel. It's terrible. How are you doing, man? You doing good? I'm great.

Yeah, man. How are you? I'm well. I think that like last time we talked, we were, it was, we were in the same kind of circumstance, but a bit different, if that makes any. sense at all with the way that the pandemic was and kind of getting back into it. But you're in New York where it was really crazy a couple weeks ago, getting better now. How is everything kind of affecting? Because you're super busy, whether it's WWE stuff, you show with Jim, the stuff you're doing.

Like that's what I asked in the beginning, how you handle all this stuff and how are you able to manage all of it? Well, it's been, it's been interesting in a good way. I mean, I think, I mean, obviously, you know from, you know, launching shows like this that I I think that when the pandemic came, like, we all rethought how we can do things. And it's kind of spilled over into now that we can kind of get back into a studio, there is still this stuff that we did from home that is still good. And we can still now kind of add to everything.

So it's like, yeah, I've gotten to a pretty fun place of doing stuff in studio and doing stuff from home and having that confidence, right, of like, we know. how to do stuff from home now. So it's not a worry that any of the shows are going to cease because of any reason other than ourselves. Like Jim Norton, who I do the show with on Sirius every morning, pop positive for COVID right after the holidays. So it was like our first show back after the holidays and then he popped positive.

But, you know, we had the set, like we learned how to do the show from home for a year and a half before we were back in the studio. So it was like, we just want to do. went back to doing things that way. And then once, you know, the 10 days or whatever was up, we were back in studio and, and yeah. Well, it's funny that you say that because I was so, I was so hesitant to do these types of shows again, because I was like, oh, we just got past that, right? And then I did an interview and I was, well, and again, I shouldn't say interviews, conversation with, I had Freddie Prince Jr. on like a couple weeks ago. We were talking.

And I was, you know, going back and listening to it because I wanted to serve, I would give myself notes on the show, whatever. And I'm, I'm listening to it on the podcast. And I'm like, can't even tell. It seems like we're in the room. I mean, I definitely like the energy when you're sitting across from somebody and able to do it. I feel you get more out of it. But I don't know, man. I was like, okay, maybe, maybe I'm convincing myself now that I can do these more, even when this shit is died down, because I can get to talk to people like you. I can get to talk to people. Like Matt Sarah, who is on this show frequently also does something with Jim. Have you have a chance to geek out with Matt at all? Yeah, we've had Matt on the show a few times. Matt, it's one of my

favorite people to have on. I wish he came on more often to tell you the truth because, I mean, he's hilarious. Just like, the best. Yeah, I think the last time we had him on, I think he didn't realize he was going to be on for like an hour or an hour and a half or whatever. And he did the whole thing on his phone in his car. Sounds right. With that Matt Sarah energy the whole time, guys, I didn't know I'd be in my car the whole time. I'm sorry. Well, I had him on. We were talking. He loved Dune. Loved it. Right. So we came on. He's like, yeah, bro. And he's and we're getting into the whole thing. He's like he was setting up. I had to get him through this, this setup, because like you said, he wanted to do on his phone, but then he's like,

I'm going to do it from, I'm going to do it from my computer. So, so we had to go through all the setups to get him on here. It was a process, but it was, but it was a blast. I love talking to Matt Serra, man, because he, obviously in MMA, how knowledgeable he is, but he's very knowledgeable in like a lot of geeky shit because that's what he does. He, whether it's Spider-Man, he was on his way and we can just kind of transition to this. We talked about at Ghostbusters. He was on his way to see Ghostbusters. on the day that we shot. And he was all, that's what he does.

And whether he's on the road or whatever. And so I'm glad you got an opportunity to hang out with him because he's one of my favorite people. Yeah, I mean, I like people. And I'm sure you're the same way because we're probably the same way as people, too. Anybody that just gets super passionate about the things that they like.

Yeah. Like, that's a fun person to talk to when he's just like, he not only did he enjoy watching Dune, but he really wants to talk about how much he liked it. Like, I'd like those conversations. Yeah.

It just keeps you engaged and it gets you more excited about it, right? So that's definitely. And that's kind of why when we start talking about wrestling a little bit, I'm sure we'll, we'll geek out about a lot, about a lot. But speaking to Ghostbusters, something that was fun that I didn't realize is that there's a little, there's kind of little Easter egg. You want to tell us what that is? Yeah, we like started to get wind of it that I think one of our friends of the show, who's like a, you know, one of the film writers saw an advanced screening of Ghostbusters. And he was like, hit up our producer. And he was like, dude, Jim and Sam are thanked in the credits of Ghostbusters.

And we were like, what? He was like, yeah, it says, thanks to Jim and Sam for the, on Sirius XM. Like, it's definitely us. Thank you to Jim Norton and Sam Roberts from Sirius XM for photos or something. And we were like, what? And so like, I hit up Jim. I was like, did you know anybody doing Ghostbusters and give him a photo? And he was like, I have no idea.

And then people started. And I was like, maybe it's just in the preview screen. But then it came out and like, God bless the fact that post credit scenes exist. Because now everybody stays through the credits. Right. Like so many people saw the credits of that movie. And we kept getting hit up going, why are you in the credits of Ghostbusters? We were like, we don't know.

I have no idea. And we were like, maybe it was a scene that got cut. But we didn't do anything. Like we didn't give anybody. Like we didn't say here. We didn't send anybody a photo. We didn't shoot anything. It was just there in the credits.

And then finally a friend had a friend who knew the director that hit him up. And he said that if you look at this one of the scenes where one of the kids are on YouTube, they used the Jim and Sam photo in the thumbnail. Okay. And I was like, oh, and I didn't see it, the movie. But everybody that's seen it is like, no, I didn't see that in the scene. But I was like, look, that's what they said. And it's in the credit.

So I don't like that's it. Like we're, we're in, even if we're not in the movie, being in the credits is just as good. Like this is a historical document. They finally did the Ghostbusters thing right. And,

and they did such great service to all the fans and everything. And I mean, my name's in the credits. So that's right. It means that Jason Raymond is probably watching your show. Yeah. It's got you. Yeah.

You should have it. You should have them on now. That's a way, that's a way to get him. Hey, you know, you thank this in the credits, can do the show. Yeah, you should do the show. I mean, we're in the credits of your movie.

This shouldn't be that big of an ask, right? Awesome, Bill Murray. Come on. That's amazing. That's fun. So, yeah, a couple different things here before we get into the meat of this. But you were talking, I was asking you, I always asked the guests right before they come on with, cool shit they're watching, what they're into.

And you just told me about this thing that I'm not familiar with. And that's Archive 81. What is that? Yeah. So Archive 81 is a series on Netflix that I don't even remember. I don't remember how I found out about it. It's new. Like it was just a week and a half ago.

But I had to heard about it and whatever. I watched the trailer. And it's basically the story of this guy is like a New York guy. And his job is to, he's an archivist. Like he takes analog media and transfers it to digital. It's what he does. Like he repairs VHS tapes and film, and stuff like that, and he transfers it over to digital.

And like, I don't know, there's, like, I'm such a VHS geek from back in the day that, that caught my interest because I was like, oh, yeah, I remember having to get the tape and get scotch tape and put it together and flap the thing down and do the, so I was like, oh, let me give this a shot. And I think James Wan is the EP of it. There you go. And so I'm watching. And it's amazing.

Like, I was in Tulsa. And so I was on a bunch of planes this last week. And I watched seven episodes. episodes like through the through the flights. And I, I loved it. It's like the guy goes and he ends up in this like very isolated house in upstate New York where he's got this very mysterious assignment to go through all these like super eight tape or high camcorder tapes from like 1994 and digitize them. But we start to get the story of what's going on on these tapes while we're getting the story of this show. and they start to intersect with each other.

And then we start to see like stuff with like demonology and, and the occult and maybe alien stuff. And it just gets weirder and weirder and weirder. And it just like really does a good job of slowly sucking you in. And I haven't gotten to the end. But I will. Yeah. So it's funny.

I just looked it up. And I am aware of it. A friend of mine sent me the trailer. I guess the trailer popped like two, three weeks ago. go. I didn't watch the trailer, but he sent me it and said, this thing's going to be huge. So I didn't know that James Juan produced it. After everything, the way you just described it, that that makes sense because. So I think that horror movies in general, um, and the horror genre had turned in a good way over the last like five or six years. It went from for a while.

I remember like in 2012 and 2013 when Ellis and I were going to see movies, it was the same shit. Like January, you make it for 50 bucks and you put it in the theater in January and you hope to make a profit on it. It's just jump scares and slasher and bullshit. And you're like, it's the same thing. But then with James Wan when in like 2013, when the Conjuring came out, he puts such a layer of care. And as you were just saying, passion, right? And you can, you can feel it. It jumps off the screen, whether he's producing it, directing it, he puts that effort into it. So you sold me on James Wan produced it. Right. So that's it's a, it's interesting about James Wan because I feel like a lot of the sort of cheapening of the

horror genre kind of started with Saw. Like Saw was great, but the fact that it was so low budget and made so much money, I mean, the Sopranos did a whole season arc. That's right. About it. Like,

it got people, like the thing that made Saw so great was that story hook and the hook at the end and everything. It's just, Saw is brilliant. But I think people watched that and they were like, oh, well,

if we can just put very little money into something and put a bunch of of gore and make a whole bunch of money. And so it, it's interesting that James Juan did it and then had to go and redefine what the genre was going to be all about, you know? Yeah, it's true. But that always happens, man. I mean, look at Star Wars. 77, it comes out and it's, and all and everybody starts making like the dollar store versions of Star Wars and nobody can do it.

No matter, every time there's a trend, found footage movies, it hits once and then everybody starts doing it. 3D for Avatar. Everybody starts doing it. And it's like, it's not, it's not the trend that we like, guys. It's being specific to the story and having us care about it. It's not just the trend. However, what I will say, the trend that's working right now, and I've been bringing this up a lot,

is what we were just talking about with Ghostbusters, whether it's Ghostbusters, Cobra Kai. They just announced the Christmas story. They're doing a sequel to Christmas story on HBO Max, but Billingsley, Ralphie's coming back in the sequel with Vince Fawn producing. Nostalgia. Nostalgia is the thing right now, right? And nostalgia done right, I just had a great.

conversation with mark bernard about this and nostalgia done right and he he said it brilliantly he's the writer i'm not he talked about like the sprinkle a sprinkle of it on nostalgia done right chef's kiss when it's the meat of it that's the problem and you can't lead with nostalgia you can't be the only thing you got you can you can pitch it with nostalgia but you got to have that you know that thing and i think that that's what um a lot of the christmas stories you do you give a shit my christmas I mean, I like the, I love as a Christmas movie, and I really love Christmas movies that much, but I mean, a Christmas story is incredible, but I don't need a, I mean, I don't, like, I don't care what happened to them after that movie, you know, like, I'm, I'm good, like, with that story and the ending and they're in the Chinese restaurant and it's like, good, we told the story. Yeah, I'm not, I mean, I say I'll watch it. But I, you might, you might. I might. I probably, I'm, I probably, I probably won't. I probably won't watch it. No, I love the first one. I'll probably watch the first one again. Right. I do think it's a brilliant move for HBO Max. If it was coming out,

if it was coming out in the theater, I'd be like, oh, you're taking a shot here, right? But because what do you got to lose? You put, you give Vince Vaughn and they're good friends and you, you know, you have him do this. He finally got him back to, Peter Billings has been producing shit for years. He's, he's not really acting in anything. You know, he pops

up here and there, whether it's in a Marvel movie or whatever. But he's, but to have him do this, 40 years later, um, it's a smart move for HBO Max because, because like you said, you'll either, you'll be browsing around one day and go, should I try it? I remember that conversation I have with Harloff.

Should I, nah, I'm going to stick to what I said. I'm not. Or, or you might say, well, Vok, let me watch 10 minutes of this thing and let me see what happens. And I think that's why it makes sense. And that's why I think all these streaming platforms, the way that they're doing it right now, the battle has kind of begun. But, you know, you can mention all these.

I've assumed that your genre is horror. That's what you, that's what you gravitate towards? Yeah, I really do love horror. Yeah. Yeah. What's your all-time favorite horror film? Is it Exorcist like everybody else? No, I don't know.

I mean, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is probably the one that shifted everything. Like, I think if I had to have one favorite, it would probably go back to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I just, I mean, there's something about not only the fact that I do love like slasher movies, so that's kind of quintessential one. but there's just also like, I don't know, I feel like when horror is done right, like the storytelling that's happening, like you can, you can feel it and you can feel that the person who made this movie really wanted it to exist. Like when James, like, malignant, I loved malignant so much because I was like, this is the one, like James Wan did so many for the studio that he said, it's my turn now and I'm going to

do malignant because this is the movie that I want to exist. And I just, I was like, this is fantastic. Malignant is exactly what I wanted it. It was great. I loved it. I got to see it. I heard great things. I haven't seen it.

Oh, God. I heard. People hate it. It's either that you love it or you absolutely. I've heard good things about it. Brilliant. I thought it was brilliant. But yeah, I mean, I just feel like Texas chainsawed mask are so influential.

I feel like, you know, what Toby Hooper wanted in a movie is so, it's so clearly him. Yeah. That I gravitate to that. Like I feel like if I were to have a conversation, I want to be able to have a conversation with a filmmaker and have this guy go like, oh, yeah, this is what I wanted to do and be as into it as I am, not go like, yeah, I don't know. They hired me to direct this piece of shit.

You know what I mean? Right. And we have conversations about that on this show all of the time, right? And it's like I don't, and I, again, just talking recently with Mark Bernard and. Mark Bernardin was hired on a show where he to write and he didn't, he didn't know a lot about the show itself. He didn't, he's like, I don't know, but I can tell that the creators, like, they know this world inside and out. So then he did his research and he said, well, they hired, they didn't hire me because I'm a massive fan of this thing.

They hired me because I can get into the world and I can learn the world and I can do this and then I can get great ideas. That's cool. It's what you're talking about where it's like there's these people who get hired on, gave me the check. Fine, I'll blow some shit up. I'll do this. I'll do that. And you can tell it's, it's lazy. They didn't try to learn the material.

You don't have to love, you don't have to love it right away, but you should learn it. you should get passionate about it because it's like being in a comedy club. You know right away if the person you're watching on stage has confidence. You know within seconds if you're going to dig the vibe or not. And it's the same type of thing when you're watching a movie. You're like, uh, this, this is lazy. This is lazy. The writing's lazy, all this shit, especially for horror.

Yeah. Well, I mean, you know from the trailer. It's like, nowadays, like, with all the nostalgia that you're doing like you said and all the like fan service that they're trying to do, I feel like fans are now so in touch with what they're a fan of that you know immediately. Like you knew when the Home Alone reboot trailer dropped. Nobody saw it.

You didn't need to see it. You saw it from the trailer. You were like, this is garbage. And I don't, I don't want anything to do with it. I'm not going to watch it. This is horrible.

And you can, you feel that backlash come in the minute the trailer drops. And I feel like nine times out of 10, it ends up being accurate, right? Like it's rare that the trailer drops. There's a revolt. And then it's like, oh,

the movie was actually perfect. It's rare. There are sometimes that trailers, you're like, what, what was, why did they put that trailer out? The movie was incredible.

It's true. It's rare. And titles of movie sometimes. And I remember the, the movie that comes to mind for all that, whether it's trailer, title was Edge of Tomorrow. When,

when Edge of Tomorrow trailer is like, what is this? What are we? And then I saw it in the theater. And I was like, that, did you ever see the movie, Edge of Tomorrow with, oh, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt? It's, I'm a science, science fiction is like in time travel and all that shit is, is right up my alley, right? So that's that, the second I saw that, that one blew me away. But you're right, it is rare.

When it happens, you're like, yeah, I can pretty much guess what's going to happen. That he showed me the entire movie. So it happens often. I can't believe it. Spring is right around the corner. It's almost here. And we are so close to feeling that soft grass. Under our feet.

But first, first thing you had to do, you got to get your lawn back. It's winter. And you're like, I don't know, worry about a lawn. I'm telling you, man, pay attention to it now. I'm looking, I'm looking at my house. I'm saying, oh, man, look at that. I've got to get that lawn going again. And Sunday, Sunday is going to get your lawn growing and helps to keep it healthy all season long.

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point. That's 20% off. There's no exclamation point. They were so excited and they told me they were just excited to be working with Big Thing. No explanation point. I'm going to tell you the code again. It's 20% off your custom plan and get Sunday.com slash big thing 20. One more time. That's 20% off your custom plan at get sunday.com slash big thing 20. The link will be in the description. Speaking of nostalgia, speaking of horror movies, scream just came out. And so, scream, I didn't, this is, this was the bitch of this stupid ass variant going around is that my, I have a kid right now, four years old, not able to get vaccinated. So I'm taking, I'm taking a break from the theater at the moment. And I had a chance to impairment wasn't sending out the screening link. So I was like, shit. I actually really, it was on my number nine for most anticipated of the year. I really wanted to see it because I think, I didn't like the fourth one, but I liked where they were going with this one. Was I right in that assessment? Did you like it or is it?

So I'm in the same boat as you in terms of going back to the theater. I hadn't been back to a theater because I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old. The variants are popping in and popping. First of all, when you have little kids, like going to a movie theater to watch a movie, you kind of need a good excuse because you can't just go. You can't do that anymore. You can't be like, yeah, I'm going to take the afternoon off and just go watch a movie. It's like you got kids.

But so I was like, okay, so for this one, I'm saying, of like I think scream the first scream I rewatched it recently and I was like oh my god like I just I think it's a perfect movie like it's not a perfect horror it's just a perfect movie it's incredibly well done and so I'm watching it and then in anticipation for this fifth one I went on my YouTube channel not Sam and did like solo to camera a franchise breakdown of like here's the story of the first four movies and I was like I don't know like like, you know, it'll be 45 minutes or whatever. It was an hour and 40 minutes. I'm sure. He just like, and then he did this and then they did that and blah, blah, blah. And I just, because I was so excited and all the details matter and everything. So yeah, for me, I think I, going in, I ranked the Scream franchise as one, two, four, and three.

That's the, my ranking from best to worse. Sure. And so I went in and then I did. So I was like, okay, I got to go see it the weekend. It comes out for sure. I can't have anything spoiled. I can't, you know, I'm going, it's too important. I'm good.

This is the movie to go back to a theater for. And it's a thing to do on the Friday. And I was like, because I want to go during the day. Because you got kids and I'm the same way as you. So I'm like, let me schedule. And I was doing this before the pandemic anyway, because I'm anti-social. I love figuring out when the theater is going to be like almost empty. Same.

Right. Like Friday at 11 a.m. It's like a private screening. Exactly, exactly. So I was like, okay. And then so I figured out, I go, okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to wait until the kids are in bed, even though I'm wiped out Thursday night, 1015 showing PM. So it's like that way, like most.

No one was there at Thursday at 1015? Because people are back at work and back at school. So what kind of. It's in New York is different. Maniac. People are back at work. People are back at school. And Omnicroms is everywhere.

So it's like who's going to. So I got a. It was pretty empty. It wasn't like empty, empty, but it was still pretty good. Like, I had a nice amount of room around me. It wasn't a Spider-Man crab. No, absolutely not. And I'm going to tell you, I loved it.

Oh, great. Like, I mean, I'm leaving, and I'm still, recency bias is a thing. It's either the third or possibly second best movie in the franchise. might be the best and I'm leaning towards the best over one no it's since it might be the best sense one it's just they do such a good job of not like they're not it doesn't feel like they're stretching this story you know how like by the fourth sequel I think that was the problem with scream for it felt like this story it's the same story just being stretched a little further and you're like it's a bad gimmick it's a bad gimmick exactly yeah yeah felt like they were not trying to stretch the same

story and tell the same thing. It felt like they were going back to the original. They were catching that spirit, that feeling you got from the original. They were catching that. And they were applying it to the logic of making a horror movie in 2022. You know what it was, Sam?

It was fake Razor Ramon. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. That's what it was. Big Titan coming out in that purple vest. Yeah. It looks the same, but this is not the same. Yeah, I thought like the it was the killer was, he was angry and aggressive and and and it felt like it was what you were saying earlier. It was that sprinkling of nostalgia. It wasn't.

It didn't rotate around the characters that are now in their 50s from the original. It rotated around a new cast and they did a really good job of finding a strong new cast that then they could sprinkle in, you know, Sydney and Gail and Dewey in a meaningful way that made sense that made it so like, okay, this is not a rehash, this is not a stretch, this is actually. And they also did a good job of like the original scream is so uniquely reflective of the audience and the time, right? And genre fans and everything that that wasn't really happening. and I felt like they didn't really nail that and scream four to be reflective of fans at that time.

Like they were trying to, it didn't. It is so reflective of the way genre fans react to film now. That's great. It's, yeah. Scream always was. That's what Scream always was. Yeah. And what the other ballsy thing about it, what people aren't really talking about enough is it's the first screen movie that's not directed by West Craven.

Right. Right. And that's, yeah, that's a huge deal. Yeah, so Matt, Betanelli Alpin and Tyler Gillett did these. I'm not familiar with the guys. And they did ready or not. I don't know if you saw ready or not, but it's great. I'm like when Schmoz was a, we're doing our thing, Ellis was always the horror guy, right?

And I was, like I said, it wasn't to me that I don't like horror. I just, when I see it, I just want to be challenged a little bit more. That's why I loved conjuring. Conjuring, like, people were shocked because I gave it like five out of five when I saw it, because I was just like, that's a movie. I don't care if it's sci-fi or whatever it is. That's a movie. And Scream, the original scream, loved it.

One of my favorite movies, definitely. But in this one, I'm glad that my instincts were like, this feels different. It doesn't be. I didn't like four. I didn't like four. I remember seeing it, people were like, oh, it was really good. I liked it a lot. I'm like, everything you just said is bored with it.

I felt like I saw it a billion times. But this one, I'm glad to hear it. I did. I have heard great things. I already wanted to see it. And now once it hits, hopefully it's going to be a Paramount Plus soon. I think that hopefully within the next couple of weeks, because I will be watching it then. And because I'm planning on getting back to the theater, hopefully in February,

because I have a bit more of an excuse than say, you know, you do, like you, as you were mentioning that I, you just can't, when you have kids, you can't just run out and say, I'm going to see a movie. Luckily enough for me, I can turn to the wife and go, I got to, I got to cover this one. Right. And even so that, that I can, I'm back doing. I use that excuse so much. Like when you have a radio show where you talk about anything and then also have a whole side business that's devoted to wrestling,

like there is, I can't, like there, I can't even use a straight face sometimes. Like I'll go like, I got to go play Spider-Man on PS5 because I probably talk about it on the air tomorrow. Like it's funny. Why do we spend all this money?

Why didn't, why didn't they buy it? Well, you know, I figured they did enough. They did enough. I'm going to put the research into this one. Yeah,

no, whole bit about I'm going to talk about how it's funny that I'm building Legos on the show tomorrow, so I got to go downstairs and build some Legos. Yeah. You won't see me for like two days. Yeah. So just give me alone. Speaking of which, so let's let's talk about some of your shows, man, because like you're, you're super busy. The first is I've been, I've been a fan of Jim Norton for forever. Like he's just, as a, as a comedian, just he, I was always, I was always in awe of him and how just fearless he, he, he is and just his personality in general. I loved him. When, when, when back in the first Louis show, like, you know, like all that stuff that he's doing.

How did you guys hook up in the first place? Well, I, uh, I met Jim back in the day. I interned for Opie and Anthony while I was still in college. And that's where I met it. How'd you get that gig? Let's start with that. How did you get the, well, I was, uh, I was at Syracuse. I was doing a lot of college radio and stuff like that.

And I was a huge, I was, O'B. Anthony was my show. I was a huge opening Anthony fan. I listened to Howard. I listened to Wendy Williams here in New York. This was before she was on TV and everything. But that, yeah, so that was kind of like my three people that I listened to. I appreciated Imus and what he was doing. I didn't, I mean, listen to it, but my dad did.

I kind of grew up with my dad listening to Imus. But so, like, I sent packets starting the beginning of my junior year. I started sending packets to every sort of major radio station show in New York early and going like, hey, I'll be home this summer and I'd love to intern. I'd love to intern. And so like every, I had my list and my addresses and my resume and my CDs with my radio air checks on it. And like every three months, I would send the same list of people packages leading.

up to the summer going like that way, you know, hopefully my name would just keep popping up. And the only callback that I got after all those packages were sent was from Opian Anthony, which is, I mean, that's the one I wanted anyway. So I was like, this is great and, you know, whatever for the rest of it. So I went in and did an interview and everything. And they were like, yeah, you can be a summer intern. That sounds good. And so I was, I interned there that summer.

And, uh, I wanted to. come back and it was kind of still wasn't super corporatized. It was kind of Wild Westy still. And it was one of those things where radio was still in a spot. And I think you can still kind of figure out your way around it. But they were like, well, I mean, we would have you back, but you're going to be in Syracuse. And I was like, well. And so I did go back to Syracuse.

But every vacation, every weekend that was more than one day off, I would drive back to the city. And I would go in. just work for free. I would just go and just want to be around it. Yeah, just be around it and do a thing. And, you know, I ended up graduating that year. And then, uh, like once I graduated, I was in every day for free. Just as if I, I worked there just, I just kept going and going and going until eventually. You get familiar. They see your face. And then that's, that's, you become a, like, you add value. Like, that's the most important part is like I looked for every opportunity I could to add value to, to, to, to make it so that if I wasn't here, it would affect things.

Like, you know, the fans wouldn't notice, but like the, the day-to-day operations. I wanted to add. Did they get the interns? Like, so I was a Howard guy kind of. And so where Howard would get all the interns, certain interns involved, were they doing the same thing over? Sure. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And I would end up on the air here and there. And I would try to, I would always try to find reasons to get on the air. even if it was like if I saw something on TV that was like, oh, they should like make fun of this. I would sit there and like record it. And it was like the technology like is like 2005.

So like I would record the show off TV on like a DVD recorder and then take the disc and put it on my computer and start chopping up audio clips from it and bring it in. And I knew that they hadn't seen the show. So it was like number one, it's going to be good content. But number two, they're going to bring me in to explain. the show to them. And so, you know, I would like try to find opportunities like that. I remember one weekend, I spent the entire weekend taking my fast times at Ridgemont High DVD and then taking my recording of fast times at Ridgemont High off of like TBS or something. And every curse in the

movie, I would make a clip from the original movie and then make a clip from the overdub cable version. So you could compare like what would Here's the way the movie is here's the ridiculous phrase that they dubbed it out and that became a whole thing But like you know Like that Mr. Show bit mother father Yeah exactly exactly like stuff like that So I was doing all that stuff and then after several months I got hired at the you know kind of bottom of the totem pole level and

Claude and scratched and clawed and scratched some more but that's to say that's where Jim and I actually met each other. other because Jim was on that show. All right, be honest. You've been at the gas station. You're sitting around. You're going, hey, look at us. This is those erection pills.

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Joymode.com. Use joymode.com slash big thing for 20% off your first order. Thank you, Joy Mode, for partnering up with the big thing. I mean, there's no other show. It should have partnered up than the big thing. Links in the description. It's funny. Bernardin just keeps coming up because he's just such a great dude. I don't know if you have a chance to speak to Mark Bernardin, but he's the best. He hosts the Fat Man on Batman show with Kevin Smith. I asked a similar question on how they met and he was telling me the story and how it's just funny like whether you and you and you got to have that chemistry with somebody and you got to have those things that a lot of a lot of your personality is different but a lot of it you have a lot of things that

you both relate to and you got to be able to both have you know you can't and correct me if I'm wrong but I assume because I've never met Jim but you can't be someone who gets easily offended around and be friends with Jim Norton you just can't no No. And I mean, yeah, no, no. But I also, you know, I think that that's kind of, I don't know, I guess there are most comedians that are kind of trying to be in that space of creating comedy content. Like it, if you're somebody that's waiting to be offended, like that doesn't really lend itself to creating. It used to be like that. Comedy. It used to be like that. Now, now I came and tell you how my comedians that I've seen get offended and stuff. And I'm like, come on. true. I guess that's on. I guess that's true. I came up from the comedy store. So like I and I was talking who in the morning. I saw I saw blue iris blow a guy on. So I so I that you know, I don't get easily offended and I and being in that club I thought anything could happen and literally anything happened. So I'm the and maybe I and maybe I'm like my grandpa when it came to like grandpa you're old school. But like I just see comedians get offended by shit now and I'm like but. aren't you a comedian? Like I understand

people, but. And especially, I mean, and you'd have to go through it. Like, of course, there are some things that it's like, yeah, that,

there is, you can go over the line, right? Like, there is a thing or it's like, that's not cool. Like, there's plenty of stuff that's not cool.

But at the same time, there are plenty of times where it's like, you know what this is and you know what the intention was there. And I don't know why you're not acknowledging. It's a fighter going, oh, man, I didn't know I was going to get punched in the face.

Right. Right. I understand, look, if you're just someone who's tweeting, you're not a comedian, you're tweeting out and you see something or you watch a special that you don't like,

you have every right to go, I'm offended by that. I don't like that. I think that's bullshit. Sure, it doesn't mean that necessarily that the comedian and other person has to change their stuff

or maybe they do have to address it or that type of thing. That's fine. That's part of the comedian also to where, you know, George Carlin always said it. Everything can be funny, but not everyone can make it funny.

Yeah. And that's the thing. So anyway, just getting off track though it just tries it drives me nuts but but being around norton you got to have that kind of that sense of humor yeah and i think i was that way anyway you know i mean a lot of the opi and anthony thing was that as well so that i mean that's kind of you know where where it all came from but yeah i mean at one point like years and years had gone by i was doing my own show i you know left the o and a show and i was doing a solo thing on serious and jim and opi were doing

a show and they were not going to continue on together. And so Sirius was kind of talking to Jim and Jim and I were friends. Like we'd become friends since then and hung out and everything. And so I think, I don't know, I think Sirius was talking to Jim about, well, what do you want to, if you're going to do a show with Opie, like, we know, we want to keep you here doing a show. Like, what do you want to do? And Jim was like, I don't know. And I don't know if Jim suggested it or if somebody suggested it to him and went, well, what

about Sam? Like, Sam's doing his own thing. You want to do your own thing? Why don't we make it one thing? And then Jim and I, you'd like, talked about it. And I was like, yeah, I mean, you know, I, I, I know that this would be an easy thing to do. Like you, I've, like, you, I know that this is something that we could do every day very easily. So I think it would be fun.

And Jim was like, yeah, I think it would be great. And so, yeah, we tried it and it worked. And, yeah, we're on our, I think sixth. This is our sixth year. We've done, yeah, six years. I'm so glad that we started talking about your show because I just remembered some, an interview that you did from years ago, and I have to ask you if you've heard from this person since,

the little bagel guy. Remember that guy? Is he still around? You know, last time I heard, he had like a stroke and went to the hospital. Yeah. And then I was wild.

Yeah. I mean, we had, we have fun with him for a bit. Yeah. And then, like, you kind of saw like,

oh, there's a real anger here. Like, this is a really like, this is a, person that's got some deep-seated he kicked that woman out of the car, man. He was a fucking lunatic.

We were covering him on Collider Live, but then I remember looking at interviews, and the first one that came up was you guys, and I watched, and you interviewed him brilliantly by the way, because you knew exactly who you were talking to and how to get stuff out of him. It was like where we were in on your joke, but he wasn't. And I love it.

Yeah, I mean, I enjoy talking to people. I enjoy talking to people like that. I like, you know, getting into, like, just like, just let me see how your brain works. And I'm going to keep asking you questions. So I just, we, we can just keep watching your brain process. Like, there's just something extraordinarily interesting to me. Yeah. About that. But then when it starts to get like, oh, okay, this, this is a thing that can get dangerous at some point. It's like, okay, let's, uh, let's wheel it back now. Let's, you guys are interviewing a lot of great people, too. And that's, I, I'm assuming and guessing and you could tell me if I'm wrong,

but is that kind of how you started to get into the wrestling world through that side also? Because you had a lot of interviews through, I remember I think Hogan was on there, tons of wrestlers that you've had on. And because it was so close with Stanford and people kind of coming in, is that how you got connected inside of working in WWE? Was that something totally different? Yeah, kind of. I mean, it was one of those things where,

so we would have wrestlers on Opie and Anthony, and I was such a wrestling. that like I would always somehow, you know, be involved in it, whether it was usually making fun of me for something or having me ask dumb questions or whatever it was. Like, I would just get involved and the same publicist, Joe, would always bring the wrestlers in and, and, you know, have a good time. And like, what, I don't even remember who it was, but somebody came in and, uh, they were promoting WrestleMania and they were going to do the WrestleMania press conference, like three blocks away in Times Square. And, uh, so publicist Joe is like, Sam, are you,

you can go to the press conference and I was like, it's not open to the public, right? He was like, no, but it's open to the press. And I was like, yeah. And he was like, Sam,

you're the press. Like you work in media. I was like, oh, what? And he's like, he's like, yeah,

like it never occurred to me. Like, this is a thing that it's not a stretch. Like, I don't have to sneak in. I could just be like, this is a media outlet that I work for. I would,

this is what it's for. And I was like, I can go? Like, yes you're just such a fan that it's like exactly you don't even think to do it until you're like oh wait i can use this pass for things yeah yeah they go the guy go i can go he's like yeah do you want to interview anybody and i was like i can interview people there he was like yes just yeah i was like okay and so i went and i brought a recorder and a camera and at first like i would go and just

try to get sound bites for the show which would never like it would never really in my opinion work out very well because like I wasn't I I couldn't like poke fun at anything there because if you were going to make fun of a pro wrestling press conference you would have to make fun of me like this is my world like it doesn't make sense for me to go and be like hey how stupid is this because the reality is I would go this is actually not stupid at all this is the greatest place in the world yeah so then I was like I just started doing interviews there about, like, as a wrestling fan, four wrestling fans and putting them up on YouTube. And that kind of started to gain traction over years and stuff of doing it.

And there wasn't a lot of that going on on YouTube at the time. There were only a few of us that were getting these interviews and putting them up on YouTube and stuff. So that started to kind of grow. And then I ended up going to like a ton of events. And I would go to the press events. And then I would go to the shows. And it would just be one of those things where all the rest. wrestlers would have all done interviews with me a hundred times at that point.

Everybody, everybody knew me. I was just always around. Yeah. And similar to what happened with dopamine anything. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

So it was just like, oh yeah, that's Sam. Sam's one of our guys. Sam's cool. And, you know, eventually by the time that I was not like a lackey.

And it's always awkward too because like, there's like a handful of guys that met me very early on. So they're like, isn't that the kid that got the coffee? And it's like, but I don't get the coffee anymore. Like you can't like, you know, and you got to kind of show your evolution sometimes.

You took the bumps. Yeah. But yeah. And then, I mean, eventually, and I had auditioned to do like, broadcaster stuff with them that went nowhere. But eventually, after I started the show with you, like very early on to doing the show with Jim, I got a call for Michael Cole.

And he was like, and I had known Michael Cole for a long time. We were friends. and he was like, he was like, hey man, I've been trying to get this done literally for years. And I finally got it through. And now that it's through, we just got to go.

I want to bring people from the outside onto the pre-shows that we do for the pay-per-views. Do you want to come and do a pre-show panel? It's like, yeah, Michael Cole. Yes. Yeah, I would love to do a pre-show panel. And he was like, okay. And then I was like, all I can tell you is that we'll do one.

And then we'll see how it goes. But yeah, here's the date. And blah, blah, blah, we'll figure out the details. and we figured out the details. We came and did one, and then we did another one, and then another one, and then that's been,

yeah, like four or five years or something like that. Wow. This was, yeah, because I remember, because it was the network when I remember seeing you on there,

and then it switched over. Has there been much of a shift in difference for, for you anyway, would watch them to the shift from like WB network to like Peacock? Not, I mean,

not really, you know, it's just, you just kind of, it's just the wave, moves in that direction and you go. You know, at the very end of the WWE network, this was during the pandemic,

they reached out to me and just said, would you want to do a show for the WWE network? It's like, yeah, that sounds good. What kind of show? And they were like, you tell us. And I was like, yeah, okay. Now I like where this is going.

And I think it was like, you know, Sam knows what he's doing and also has his own studio and can deliver content even in this weird, time that we're in where we can't get anybody together. So let's do it. And we did like a 13 episode show for the WWE network where I was literally just making a show and sending it to them.

Like I produced the whole thing and everything and it was fantastic. So that was the last thing he did when it was the WWE network. But then, I mean, once it switched over to Peacock, we started doing the ultimate show, which I think you'd be into if you watched it, which we'd tape in Stanford like before every major pay-per-view. a panel of us get together and it's like so the royal rumble's coming up yep so right before the saturday before the royal rumble the ultimate royal rumble will be on peacock where it's me and a couple other guys and we fantasy book the ultimate royal rumble and can it be from anybody from any point in time every era every era love yeah so you go back and you go through every era but I'm sitting there going like, so you want me to be on a show where we just sit there for an hour

and we fantasy book wrestling and that's a WWE show and I get to be on it? Like what like it's like really walking the chocolate factory. It's like insane. That's crazy. You got a good gig there too because you don't have to worry about taking hits. You don't got to worry about you just, you just interview people. So I would assume the answer is just you're, so you're exclusive to them. But does that mean though, are you able to interview other,

talent on the like say gym like obviously in your show on peacock no because you got to do wb talent but on if if let's say let's say jericho wanted to come in and have a conversation with you guys on jim on your show with jim are they are they weird about that or you are you can you're open to it no i'm i'm actually not exclusive at all like i mean the the original deal of as much as it doesn't seem like it anymore because i'm just around so much like the original deal of we want an outsider to come in and talk about this stuff is still the deal that we're doing. So yeah,

I'm not going to like go on the WWE network and be like, hey, you should watch the competition. Like that really wouldn't make a ton of sense. But yeah, when I'm not doing stuff with a WWE logo on it,

I can, yeah, I can do whatever I want. You know you're a wrestling fan in general. So I mean, I guess, and if you don't want to get too much into it, because you don't,

that's fine. But have you been, have you watched any of their stuff too? You'd rather than even talk about it. No, no, yeah, no, totally.

Like I actually was just on my podcast this week on the not same wrestling podcast talking about how much I'm enjoying the fact that CM Punk is like doing Brett Hart tribute matches in AEW. Like I don't know if you've seen this, but like he's done a

couple of matches now that are almost move for move. They're at least like the key spots are replicating key spots in like classic Brett Hart matches. And like I love it because I love I love watching stuff like that and like realizing it as it's happening.

like I recognize that from somewhere. And I'm like, oh my God, this is Survivor Series 95. They're doing it. He's a wrestling in the game too. So that doesn't surprise me at all. But it's, I think that I was just having that conversation recently about how the, because I,

and I think you and I talked about this last time, but my journey in wrestling was so weird because I was a massive, massive, the golden era is like still. It's my, it's my favorite era. And then dropped out of it for a little bit. Watch attitude era got me back into,

in college, got the job writing for them during the attitude era. And then after that, I was off wrestling for maybe 15 years. Didn't start watching it again until I started really working on Shmowdown, wanted to get back into it. The WDB network was like heaven's end because I could go back, watch old shit that I used to like, and then start to get caught off on new stuff. And then just because of just life getting in the way and certain,

and just I just stopped watching a lot of stuff. but I wound up, whether it was Jericho or Rhodes or seen punk and talking to those guys and having them on the show, I tuned in to AEW to see why the, because it seems like to steal something that Leonardo DiCaprio said about Scorsese. At the moment, they seem like they're making punk rock, you know, as where it just, and I think that for WWE, they're comfortable in the concerts and the tunes they've been playing for a bit. but it's similar to me what went down in the late or you know mid 90s late nights with wcw where i think they need that kick in the in in the ass so what's what's it been like as far as because it's not just it's not just like t and a anymore it's not just like a a little like

they're making they're making a move so obviously as a fan what do you competition's good right i mean more is better ultimately right like more is better having wrestling on every night And it's like you just need to, like you, you accidentally watch amazing wrestling. Like, oh, I forgot this was on. Oh, this is amazing too. More for me as a fan, more is better. So that's kind of how I look at it. You know, I think it's very different because, you know, the Monday Night War,

it was literally fighting for survival. And I don't think anybody's fighting for survival at this point. You know what I mean? It's like it's, it's as interesting as it's been in forever. But like every company's staying in. I mean, you know, the big companies are staying in business, right? It was Game of Thrones in the late 90s. Exactly.

Yeah, it was red wedding stuff when somebody would have the, uh, have the, the, the raw, raw just lost. Oh, we're going under. Like, WW almost went under. Almost went under. You're absolutely right. There's, there's no world where one of these companies right now goes away. It's not a, it's not a, yeah, it's not a risk.

But I, what I mean, you talk about punk rock wrestling. What I've really been loving is post-pandemic, independent wrestling is just coming back so strong. Like there's just so much talent that even two major organizations can't house it all. And you're just seeing amazing stuff come from the independence. Like this this Jersey independent promotion game changer wrestling that's been running for years and people wrote it off as like a death match promotion and whatever. they just started gaining steam in the last like year to a year and a half where it's got like everybody

talking streaming has made all the difference in the world because now everything has a global audience potentially and they're getting ready to run the hammerstein ballroom which is not a thing that independent companies do i mean ECW did it you know it's it's it's incredible in new york city so yeah i just the industry as a whole it's so much fun and it's almost like like that's why people are like oh do you like this do you not like that shouldn't this be better shouldn't that be better it's like if you like wrestling and you can't find something that you like right now you don't like wrestling it's all happening like you know something in almost famous it's all happening it's this is it like it's all all you have to do is put a minimal amount of

effort to get your eyes on something and you will find it. It's just so, and even in the WWE, like even like there's this sort of thing that like, you know, the corporatized whatever. But man, if you turn on Smackdown and you follow the Roman Raines, Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar's story, it is a movie. It is some of the best stuff ever. I mean, especially where Roman Raines has been, where it's like fans were booing him, even though he was a baby face and they couldn't find traction and his WrestleMania main events and Bobba Bond

to watch this guy over the last year and a half. Creates new character. It's the best. Paul Heyman's my guy. Paul Heyman is, is, uh, he, Paul, Paul is, uh, was when I was there, um, was very kind to me, was very encouraging to me was a lot, a lot of, a lot of things. And I always feel that he's around. when those big kind of moments happen.

And I wonder how long he was pitching Roman as a heel. I wonder, I, I got to say it's a long time. And I don't think, I mean, knowing Paul Heyman as I know Paul Heyman, Paul Heyman being around when big things happen, I don't think it's an accident. No, I don't think it's not a coincidence. You know what I mean? And he's so brilliant about too is that he'll come up with that idea and pitch it. And you wouldn't even realize he just did that.

Like in the middle of a conversation, he'll, he'll know, he knows how to he what got me in with him he asked me he asked me at the table he's let me ask you a question if we told you right now that you're not going to get this job what would you do and i said well paul i would leave i'd come back and i'd probably write you another letter next week and try to say hey um i was thinking about and this is the way i want to get in now and he said well that got you the gate when when i like that particular but he also said there There was something you said inside of your thing about words and how they manipulate the audience. And with him, when he's having a conversation with someone, he'll throw in a couple things that he wants to happen.

But it's in a conversation. He's not basically going to say, this is what we need to do. He'll just put it in like a random conversation, have like a line that pops in there. And then your head, you're going, oh, wait a minute. Maybe we should do this. And he's a, he's a magician. Well, yeah, that's that all salesman trick of like making it your idea, right? Like getting what you want to happen.

And it's like, okay, if I can get that, if I can make that Christian's idea, all of a sudden, hey, good idea, man. Yeah, why don't we do that? And boom. And who gives the shit if you got the credit for because it hasn't matter. It's like, yeah. And that's the key, right? If people who want credit for everything, I don't, I don't understand it at all. It's like you want the thing to happen.

It doesn't credit doesn't matter as long as you get the thing done, right? Yeah. And it's, it's, it's, you can still get. credit through reputation. And that's what Paul Heyman does. Paul Hamon does it through reputation. Because what you and I just said, he's there, he's involved. And you know, you know that even though he's not saying, this is what I did, you know that he probably did.

Because he just, that's what he's got. That's his reputation. Like, does he get enough credit for ECW? As much credit as he gets, probably not. But the fact that it's 2022, and we're still talking about a company that went out of business over 20 years ago, that's the credit. Right. That's it. And he went to become like, and this, and when I was here was 2001, and I can only imagine 20 years later what it's like now.

But Vince, very much so when Paul talked. All right, buddy, what he got? You know, you hear like just the conversation that he had always when Paul talked. It's probably something good that's coming, right? Like that, that was, that was 20 years ago. Right. Before the CM Punk stuff and before the Brock Lesnar stuff and before all that. So, you know, and now, like, and he's had his thing where he's left for a little bit.

He's come back like everybody. And that's one of the things I actually really, and I've been using this a lot in my life recently of what Vince does in, in the business side of it. Like, because I've, you know how it gets in any business that you're in. It could be very high schooly. And people like, oh, you want to work with that person. But when you worked with them last time, they said this about you. or they did that. Who gives you shit?

Can we make money together? Can we do some stuff? Can we get along in the next run? I've worked with people where it's like, oh, people are I can't believe that you're working with that person again. The last time we're like, yeah, but it's, we realize we can do business together and we can make it work. You can't hold grudges.

You can't do that. And that's something like whether it was Ultimate Warrior or Brett Hart or all these things that Vince was able to do down the line. It was like, I remember that. I remember being on a plane with Vince and all of them and somebody talking about Ultimate warrior and how he'll never come and he didn't say it put someone on the plane he'll never come back he'll never do this we hate the warrior we hate the but he came back and did a speech and all that stuff too because that's that it also worked it was it was legacy and was also a matter of of uh

making another buck yeah but and yeah and it's also i don't know you know i think yeah i think there's such a less like the brett heart story it's similar right like it's it's and and it's always better it's always it's you never look at somebody who held a grudge and went yeah they were You know what I mean? Like that's never a happy story. Luckily, they held a grudge and they never spoke again and remained angry. Like that's not a thing that anybody should aspire to. You know, the way I look at all this, I mean, WWE, serious independent ventures, everything business related.

Let me know what you need me to do. Right. Whatever I need. Like, what can I do for you? Like you tell me. And if it's nothing, all right, let me know when I can do something. And if it's like, you know, and I'll go, I'm going to go. I'm going to go do a good job.

You're going to say thank you. I'm going to say, you're welcome. Let me know when I can do it for you again. That's it. Why burn bridges? It's easy. It's easy. Before we get out of here, dude, tell me, so the YouTube channel, you started

to what, two, three years ago? Well, technically, I mean, it's been around forever, right? It's the same YouTube channel that I was uploading. Really going after it. Yes. Yeah. In the last couple of years, in the last, yeah, three years or so is when it's been more like creating content specifically for YouTube.

You know, part of it was building this studio. And it's like once I built the studio, you know, I want to, I want to use it. Right. I want to, I want to use the studio. So I do a show called Sam Roberts now twice a week over at YouTube.com slash not Sam. That's a live show where I just go on, usually fairly topical, but it's, you know, like, that's where I did the scream show. That's where I do a lot of horror franchise breakdowns, but I'll also talk about, you know, there's like sort of topical viral stories, nothing serious.

It's a very lighthearted kind of fun show. But it does, I tend to draw from whatever's trending and just give thoughts on it. Also over on that YouTube channel, Not Sam, and I see the poster behind you, and I just love it so much. Because my friend Ian Fidance, who's a great comedian here in New York, he had never seen The Sopranos before. So he's watching it for the first time now. So he and I do a show on the YouTube channel every week where we break down a couple of episodes. So like just recent, he just finished season three. So we went on and broke down episode 12 and 13 of season three in the most recent Sopranos prima

Volta episode. But like, I mean, there's just something. I get so much joy out of watching somebody react to this stuff for the first time. Like he hasn't even gotten to the Paiomai stuff, which I can't wait. So I just did a I did a full in a and leading up to the movie. I did a full rewatch of the entire series. And I watched it all over again. And I had such a and I was always a massive fan of it, but I had such a more of

appreciation because I watched it because when I remember watching it back in the day and had and like five like six like there was such a break in between them like two or three years. By the time you watch them, you're like, oh, do I still remember everything? I don't love it as much. And then watching them the way I watch them now. I'm like, this show is brilliant. Like every episode, everything that I thought I didn't like in the past, like, what the fuck was I thinking?

I'm like this. It was, it was great. And just rewatching it again, like it, what used to be like breaking bad, the wire and the Sopranos, right now it's Breaking Bad, the Sopranos and then the wire. I have Sopranos at number one. I've experienced the same. I mean, I've rewatched this. I think I've done six rewatches of the entire series.

But yeah, yeah. It's like every time I finish it, I'm like, let me run this back like I also like every time like in the past it's been like when depression is kicked in I'm like it's time to start the Sopranos again to the point now where when I started my wife would be like is everything okay I see you're watching the pranos I just wanted to do it again it's so good How about speaking of Sopranos, did you hear the announcement? Okay, because,

all right, so the movie comes out and I, a lot of people, like, we're shitting on the movie. I didn't mind the movie at all.

I said for people, people that weren't paying attention enough. The movie was called Many Saints in Newark, which means Maltesanti and Italian and everything too. So if you're paying attention,

you would know that the movie is about Maltesanti. And even though David Chase hated that first trailer that they, that they put out, because it did make it look like it was Tony's origin story.

And even though he says, well, it's not a Tony origin story. it is the end of that the end of that movie it totally isn't what's how he was formed in general but then the announcement comes like because i always said this would have played so much better for it was a miniseries and and chase was like nah i'm not doing it no no tv and then someone unloaded a truck full of money in his living room and he was oh you know we'll do a miniseries so the rumor is that they're going to do a miniseries now for this um the mini young tony good

idea i mean i thought i thought the movie was flawed um And it's tough because it's put up to the greatest television series of all times. So like in that context, it's like it's not there. When I first watched it, though, I was so happy. Like I had a smile on my face the whole time because it's just so, it's so rich in Sopranos lore from beginning to end that it's like it's all there. Like I, I, the shoot in the beehive. Oh, everything. And then when you rewatch the series after you watch many saints and you realize how much is referenced, you're like, oh, this is great.

even the TV trays that Dick is bringing in everything. But, um, yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't, I almost feel like, like this whole side story. And I think that that was a problem that people had with many saints too. It's like there was this whole side story that people didn't care that much about that was going on that had nothing to do with the series that had more to do with the Newark riots and everything. Um, which I mean, I had no problem with, but I get the criticism. I feel like that, if you're going to do a mini-series, or if you're going to do a series in general, I feel like that is the direction to go in.

I feel like that's... You're so pissed off, though, if they don't go after Tony now, especially now you've got young Gandalfini. And I just, they got to turn Silvio into less of a Saturday Live character. That's my own. But it's almost like, yeah, like, is young Tony interesting? Like, Tony's interesting because he's a mob boss. I think, I think, see, I think, see,

I didn't just find Tony interesting in the series because he was a mob boss because that was his job. And when he could do it, it was that stuff underneath, like one of the moments to me, and it's also the brilliance of James Gandalfini. But one of the moments that always stands out is when AJ tries, is a stupid ass, tries to kill himself in the pool the way that he does it. And Tony, but Tony's like, what's wrong with you? And then he stops and he goes, it's okay, baby, it's okay. It's okay. And it's like, that's the stuff to me. that's who Tony Suprano really is.

And this kid who was trying to be an athlete, trying to do all this stuff and just his mom and that heartbreaking scene with Vermiga in the kitchen in the movie when he's, they have this moment. It looks like they're going to have the moment. And it's right back to where we saw in episode in season one, right? That stuff leading up of that transition of a Tony who's,

who's, he even says to Melphia at one point. He's like, I'm a good man. And you're like, no you're not, but in his heart of hearts, he might have been. He might have been. Yeah. That's what I'm interesting to me. What, okay, so I think that the, the reason that that show, one of the reasons that show is so

special is a lot of that, but it's the dichotomy, right? It's the idea that he's, like, he's this mobster that is a real person. It's like we're, we're seeing him at work and at home. And it's like, I, I kind of feel like, like all that stuff, like him holding AJ, and you seeing this sensitive side to him is amazing because five minutes ago, you just saw him being this gangster. And I feel like if he's not that other half,

like if we're seeing him before the other half existed, then I don't, then the dichotomy doesn't exist. And if the dichotomy doesn't know, I think it just depends on how, it's almost like the origin story of how, how that other side is created, right? Because you see him as the music,

music kicks in at the very end of the film. And that's kind of the beginning of it. So we might even, who the hell knows, but as the miniseries starts, we might even start with that other side kind of starting up and seeing that card game with Feet's Lamana, you know, seeing all the- I mean, you do want to see that stuff, right? You do want to see everything that got reference. Like that was, don't get me wrong.

Like when you realize, when he was like robbing the ice cream truck and you're like, oh my God, he's talking to Jackie Senior. He's talking to Jackie, like Jackie April. Like, of course. Like, I geeked out over everyone. one of those moments. Yeah, but I think it's just it, look, it's a tricky thing because of what we were talking about earlier. It's an nostalgia thing, but it's just a matter of how is it handled? Is it going to be just a mini series because that truckload of money went into David Chase's, you know,

living room or is he going to go, okay, you know, I'm going to do this is kind of the ideas because no one's going to give them money to do the movies again, even though, even though the movie should have never come out in theaters because we were just talking about with Christmas story, that movie did gangbuster numbers on HBO Max. Like, because that's where it's supposed to live. That movie, no one's seeing that movie in theaters.

Because you're supposed to literally be able to watch, they turn on the Sopranos right after you watch the movie. And I, Sam, I watched it with a bowl of meatballs. And I just was like, and I'm going to do the same thing. If there's a series, my wife,

just drinking Coke and eating spaghetti. Like, I was before my birthday. I had like a big bottle of wine and, and I'm just like a, just like a, leave me, I had a robe on. I was everything. I'm just like slamming it down and I'm,

and I'll do the same thing for the miniseries. Yeah. So either way, well, the Sopranos, by the way, when Sopranos comes out and there is a miniseries, you and I should do kind of recap episodes of those for sure. Oh, dude. I will talk about the Sopranos and anything related to the Sopranos.

Did you watch, did you listen to the, to Shuripa and Imperiali's show? Here and there, I got the book, so I'm reading the book. Okay. Yeah. Because that shows great.

Anyway, look, dude, it was, this was fun. I love to do this again with you for sure. And if you're in L.A. once this dies down for sure. And I'm supposed to come out to New York because Matt has invited me on to their show a couple times. So I'd love to maybe catch up with you and we'll grab lunch or whatever it is. So next time I'm in New York.

Yeah, definitely. Anytime, just let me know when you're in New York. I'll do the same. And we can, yeah, we'll definitely do this again. Awesome. All right, everybody. Check out Sam. Check him out his YouTube channel and follow him on Twitter.

it's not Sam and then they can find the, they can find the Jim and Sam show on on Sirius. Yep, Series XM Channel 103 every morning. All right, there it is. Ladies and gentlemen, it is Sam Roberts, and this is the big thing and one more time, guys, show a little class, will you and hit subscribe button and hit that notification button? We're just asking

for a little bit, an ounce, an ounce of class. And remember, the Patreon tiers do that. And the podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, anywhere podcasts are found. This is the big thing. I'm Christian Harloff. See you next time.