The Watch - Our Incoming Embarrassment of TV Riches. Plus, Jake Johnson on ‘Minx.’

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

Chris and Andy talk about the stacked TV lineup coming in March and April, including ‘Pachinko,’ ‘Moon Knight,’ ‘Slow Horses,’ and ‘Tokyo Vice’ (1:00), and how we prioritize what to watch in an age of streaming overload (21:40). Then they are joined by Jake Johnson to talk about his new TV show ‘Minx’ (32:48). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Guest: Jake Johnson Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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walk now. Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at the ringer.com and joining me on the other line pushing his daylight savings agenda. It's Andy Greenwald! What a week for us. The Sunshine Boys, I like to call us.

The big K-Street lobbying firm of Andy Greenwald and Associates pushed through daylight savings time being permanent. Man, I'm so proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. It's been tough. Do you know people have this image of, of American farmers as kindly, you know, as salt to the earth or whatever.

But you get into a lobbying war with them, they are vicious. They throw mud, but it's not mud. It's like nutrient rich, loamy soil. And it gets at you. Chris, we have a Jake Johnson interview today so we can riff because we're good. We have a great show already. We do. In fact, what we're going to talk about at the top of this pod is just some upcoming release dates

that we're keeping our eye on, but we don't have enough eyes. and the sort of maybe hitting this point where it's not as this too much TV, it's not as this too much TV to keep track of, because it is, but it's also like, you know, it beats working for a living.

But it's really kind of fascinating that this next six weeks is, I think, as stacked as any, like, cultural moment that I can remember, regardless of, like, the medium, regardless of television,

movies, like, I don't remember a time where we have this many notable titles, coming out in a six-week period. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. I was going to ask you, are you a big daylight savings time? Do you have a strong take on that? Yeah. Well, first of all, I love the way you're pretending that I'm driving this conversation when you gave me a personalized push alert that this occurred. I was just minding my own,

driving my car. My phone buzzed with a message. Of all the things that we're taking care of in this country, we just like knocked this out with unanimous consent. a total surprise drop. I loved it. It's like they were the United States Supreme Senate. You know what I mean? It was just like it was wild. It's like they can literally change the laws of time,

but they can't make voting laws. It was really, I respected it. I respected it. I am very pro this because as people who listen to this podcast know, I have children. And it's just stupid. It's stupid to be like, guess what, guys? Time is bending.

this weekend. And though I know your body says, wake up, wake up, you can't because it's 5 a.m. now. Please don't. So, well, I read the issue is that, like, it's not so much for people living, like, let's say, where Marco Rubio is a senator in Florida because of equatorially, like, it's not that big of a deal down there. But, like, if you live in northern Michigan, you know, then that's, like, you're taking your kids to school in the dark. Am I right? Did you read Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's? And maybe that's why Kelly Stafford left Michigan to get to California, you know? I think that's why.

I think that's also she was fleeing a dictatorship, which is something that, you know, it connects her to many people around the world. Did you read the comments by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the one of the two senators from a state that I would school in Rhode Island? He was basically, like if you read his quote and then you imagine like a crying Jordan meme, it's really rich. because basically he was like, he was like, in the wintertime, in Cranston and Warwick and all the fine towns along the ghost, father's son dips his head into the ocean at 415.

Do you understand? It's like, all the coffee milk in the world isn't bringing back your good mood after that. Like, yeah. That is gnarly. It is wild that as a nation, as we've become more, hopefully a little more plugged into mental health issues,

that we're just like, once a year though, we are going to pull the rug out from everybody and just make it unrelentingly dark and bleak in the afternoon. It's awful. What are we doing? I do think, though, that like the lack of, you know, as we spring ahead, right, spring forward. So now it's daytime later. It's like the sun's up later. It just puts a little bit of a squeeze on our TV time, on our TV watching time. I actually was going to make the same segue because I wonder, and I'm only. I would say I'm 70% joking if Netflix lobbied will lobby against this. Because all of a sudden, it's light here until seven, it'll be light until eight.

And I'm not, I'm not cave going into a couch cave anymore. You know, I'm not doing it. Are you one of those people who still feels like your TV and movie watching should happen in the evening in the dark? I do. I still, I'm still programmed by big prime time. I'm still like eight o'clock is when I start watching TV. Now, for professional purposes, I watch like stuff during the day now.

But like, if I had my druthers, I would watch stuff at night. No, it's always at night. Also because, you know, I think people parent differently, but we are a television is not on if children are around because then you lose them. You just cognitively lose them to whatever is up. Is that why? Is that why when I came over the other week and I was watching the Bucks game on my phone and your kids were like,

They were like, why is the monolith from 2001 in front of me? Yes, yes. I mean, I'd like to think that I'm raising like independent, strong, you know, decisive critical thinkers. But you could pied piper the shit out of them if you just have a basic cable subscription. Like, a picture and picture is all it would take. It's all it would take. A car commercial. And they're gone.

They would follow you anywhere. So as Andy mentioned earlier, we do have Jake Johnson from the HBO Max show Minks on today. Jake is one of our favorite recurring guests on the watch. And today, uh, today was an all timer. I, I,

I almost like don't even want to spoil anything by talking about it. Let's just say that if you are familiar with what Minks is about, it's about, um, a, 1970s, California housewife who wants to start a feminist magazine, can't get funding.

So she, uh, goes into business with a porn publisher to publish an erotic version of her feminist magazine. Uh, and Jake Johnson plays, said Port and Publisher. The year of the D is still going strong after euphoria on TV.

So there's a lot of male full frontal nudity, which we discussed with Jake in quite, I think, gripping detail. Yeah. Shocking. Shocking levels of detail. So check out Minks because Andy and I both really enjoyed it, and Jake's fantastic in it. And now I'm going to keep talking about the rest of the podcast.

I could keep talking about how Jake's great. I just thought you were going to jump in about Minks. I really like Minks. Minks is a very, you describe the premise, and then the show can get going, and then it's like has all the hallmarks of something that can really run for a long time. It's charming, it's fun, it's well cast, and it's like basically a workplace comedy that also has this additional layer of topical interest and also a lot of dongs. So Minks functions almost as like a starter's gun for this run that we're about to go on here. And I don't know when the run is going to end. frankly, I only like, I just felt like as I was watching TV is like, you know, you have HBO

Max on or something and they'll be like coming soon. And I just felt like every single thing was like April. I was like, that's, you know, because like we grew, we kind of came of age as podcasters in the era when there was like two things were, two or three things might be on a Sunday and then maybe one thing was on a Wednesday. And those were the four shows we watched for two or three months. Do you remember when we would have to huddle up to be like, well, what are we going to cover from November until January. Like, we weren't even sure. There were not options. And that's when we used to read, like, Jeremy Renner, House Flipper, fan fiction and stuff like that. Those were, honestly, we didn't know how good we had it. So I'm going to walk you through the next couple of weeks, Andy.

And, you know, I expect you to jump in and say, I'm very excited about this, maybe I had some context. And there's a couple of things that just had trailers drop. So we can also talk a little bit about what we've seen so far from these shows. Can I give just, just before we start, I really think it's an interesting moment, and I think it's interesting for two reasons, because I think that you could easily look at this wild content glut of the next month, month and a half, two months, and say, well, this is sort of the the caboose of the COVID disruption train, right? Like, I don't think any of the streamers or networks intended for there to be this level of bottleneck at this precise moment in this calendar year. Some of these shows have been delayed.

years, some of them months, some of them were always scheduled to go now, and here we are. But I actually think what we're seeing is much more emblematic of the state of the industry, which has, you know, which we've said it before, and now we're really seeing the result of it. Every single one of the shows we're about to go through was made with good intentions by people who gave their all and deserve to be, you know, every one of these shows deserves to be considered on its own merits. But the reason that they all exist at this moment is less about giving each of these creators their moment in the sun or, you know, an amplified voice as it is, these streamers are desperate to flood their coffers

with content to show shareholder growth and to keep their numbers moving up or at least not dipping down. And that's when it starts to feel overwhelming. If you see, if you listen to this list and you're like, there's no way I can watch all of these shows, you are right. There is not some Hollywood czar being like, well, let's hold this to Q4 because, you know, the good folks at whoever are not going to be able to watch it all. No, they don't care. They don't care. The Disney Plus pipeline has to stay open or else they will start to lose confidence in their ability to retain the current subscription number. So Moonnight's coming and Miss Marvel's right behind it. Who cares if you have time? Right. And then Obi-Wan's coming right after Moon Knight. So it's like

the entire, look, let's just run through the show. So next week alone we have. Atlanta returning for season three, Halo on Paramount Plus, which is a blockbuster adaptation of the Xbox game, and Starstruck, which is a very well-regarded rom-com on HBO Max coming back for its second season. We haven't covered Starstruck,

but I mentioned it because I know a lot of people who are big fans of it, and it's just worth mentioning, I think, because Atlanta's obviously going to soak up a lot of the critical space for that week that it drops, and Halo will certainly be interesting

to see what they've been sitting on for this years and years development of this, which would have been like a huge franchise movie maybe six, seven years ago and is now they're trying to make it into this flagship for Paramount Plus. Shows like Starstruck might go a little bit under the radar. It might actually find, you know, maybe it catches some spillover audience for a variety of other things. But I think that's the thing that I'm most interested about having like this conversation maybe at the beginning of May and saying, what do we feel?

like kind of was able to stick its head above the parapet and what maybe went overlooked because it was in competition for eyeballs. So after that first week, 324, and I don't think we need to really say how much we're looking forward to Atlanta, right? No, and we haven't seen any screeners. I don't think any are available, but it is wild to me how long it's been since that show has been on the air and that it's just going to be back now. It's great. Yeah. And then on March 25th, Netflix puts out the second season of Bridgeton, which is one of the biggest shows Netflix has ever produced. And Apple releases the first few episodes of Pachinko,

which we have an interview with a showrunner from Pachinko, Sue Hugh, coming next Thursday. And I've seen the first three episodes of Pichinko. The reviews are out. I agree with the sentiment that has been expressed largely across the board by critics, which is the show's a miracle. The show is absolutely beautiful and quite moving and is an incredible adaptation of this book.

And I think it's probably probably the best thing I've seen this year so far. But this is the period of time when I could see that changing three or four times in the next six weeks. After that, on the March 29th, Girl from Plainville drops, we've seen a couple of trailers for that.

Yeah, I'm excited about that. Friend of the Podliss Hannah show running with Patrick McManus. That is yet another in this 2022 pattern of ripped from the headline miniseries. This one starring El Fanning, it's a case that many people probably read about or heard about in which a woman was tried for texting, essentially texting encouragement to a boyfriend to end his life and whether she was culpable for it.

Very curious about that in how you make a series out of that and what the perspective is going to be. But here's the thing, El Fanning's really good. I know this isn't like a hot, hot, hot take, but a little bit more of the great season two been percolating in the Greenwald household. And her and Nicholas Hold are just really, really strong doing really high-level work.

Kind of, I mean, this is the conversation we're having. That's a major show that I think has its fans and adherence and it's produced at a very high level. And it doesn't really get talked about by us. Yeah. I mean, I enjoyed what I watched of this. second season. I didn't, I didn't get a chance to finish it. On March 30th, the day after Girl from Plainville drops, Moon Night premieres on Disney Plus, and I'm very, very, very excited about it.

I don't want to say I'm, like, worried, but I will say that I think that, like, the variance of how good it could be is, how good it could be is really high. And if it doesn't work, I think it might not work spectacularly, but I'm really hoping it works. It is also really going to be worth our close eye, not just because two of our favorite actors are in it, Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawk, but this really is, I mean, the coverage of it has been interesting. And when Oscar Isaac hosted Saturday Night Live the other week, a very good episode, he, in his monologue, he was basically like, I'm so excited to be joining the Marvel universe as Moon Night. And it's like, oh, I didn't know the subway ran there. You know what I mean? Like, I thought you had to take the

air train to get there. But no, he is now in the Marvel universe. and he's an amazing actor and a star. But this is their first attempt to be like, and this is a major new thing that's only going to be here, right? Unless I'm forgetting something major, otherwise they have been essentially spinoffs of the pre-existing MCU.

That's right. So that following week, after Moondet, well, actually, the following day on 31st of March, how we roll comes out. Now, we usually don't talk about CBS sitcoms, but this one comes from Pete Holmes. And we loved Crash. and I'm very curious to see

what he does with his sensibility on a network because Pete Holmes is actually someone who I wonder whether might work fine on a network because he's not a very racy comedian to begin with. No, he's a clean comedian. So I was curious whether or not this might actually be a perfect place for him and on that same day a show called Julia comes out

on HBO Max I guess and that star Sarah Lancashire who's best known for Happy Valley playing Julia Child. These are two shows that, like I said before, could fall under the radar because of the sheer amount

of stuff coming out, but really deserve our attention. Also, if how we roll is good, and by the way, some people have said Grand Crew is good. I haven't watched that yet. I should check it out.

Carl Tart is in that. A comedian, I really like comedic actor. Then you start thinking about trend piece, Chris. Three or four, because Ghosts... Abbott Elementary.

Yeah. Ghost is funny, big hit. Abbott Elementary. We love that show. legitimately love that show renewed for a second season, no-brainer. Is network comedy back because no one was paying attention? I mean, obviously, America was paying attention,

but I mean that all the hot young minds are going trying to pitch their interconnected, serialized dromedy, and then people are just like, maybe we just want to laugh again. Maybe America's ready to laugh again. You tell me. Well, the following week,

after these two interesting under-the-radar shows come out, Netflix is putting out a movie by Richard Linklater and a movie by John. Appetow. And Apple is putting out one of my favorite things I've seen so far this year along with Pachinko, which is slow horses, which is, we've talked about before the adaptation of the McHarran novel,

Jack Loudon and Gary Oldman and Kristen Scott Thomas star, and it's really great. I'll just say that. And I can't wait for people to see it. So that's all coming out the following week. Then the Oscars happen. Then Tokyo Vice comes out.

Which a lot of people have asked me like what I people on like social have been like what do you what do you think and I think it looks pretty sick I mean I I'm kind of curious to see whether it's just Michael man does the pilot and then is the producing director or the you know like it's just a producer going forward um you know that I think a lot of it will probably be determined by what what whether Elgorts any good in this show? You know, I think it looks really cool.

What did you think of the trailer? Chris, have you ever prepared like a beautiful piece of fish at home, you know, and you cook it right? I think you know that what the answer is to that question. The temperature is great. Maybe you've made a pan sauce or perhaps you've broiled it in a marinate that becomes the sauce and you get it on to the plate and you, you know, we live in California or there's an abundance of citrus and you slice into a perhaps even a Meyer lemon.

Let's get crazy. And you squeeze it over the top. And you cut into it. It's perfectly done. You put it in your mouth. But with all of your loving attention, you didn't notice that a lemon seed had fallen on top of the fish and is in your mouth and you bite down and there's just an explosion of bitterness that ruins everything.

That was my experience watching Ansel Elgort in the trailer for Tokyo Vice. Okay. And my question is, are there going to be a lot of lemon seeds in this? Or will I be like, oh, it's an interesting bitter note. And it works for the dish. I am just generally have not been a big fan ever since he came at you on Twitter. And because of that, because I am loyal, you know, and I roll for my number one guy, I can't kind of get over that.

But in all seriousness, I'm watching this trailer. I'm like, I have dreamed my whole life without realizing it for a Michael Man directed crime show set in Tokyo. Like, that is what I also want. but I'm getting weird lemon seed vibes. That's all. I'm excited. By the way, Ken Watanabe. Love that guy.

Great actor. So after Tokyo Vice, we get 61st Street, which is another one of these shows that I fear may go overlooked. It stars Courtney B. Vance, and it comes from Peter Moffitt who did Sherlock, the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock. And this is a crime drama set in Chicago on AMC. I'm just really curious to see this. And like Courtney B. Vance is one of those sort of. never not great TV actors. It's really true.

So, yeah, I really love to check out him leading a drama. Anatomy of a scandal comes out on April 15th on Netflix. It's a DVD Kelly crime drama with Sienna Miller and Rupert Friend. On that same day is Outer Range, which we talked about

a little bit earlier in the week, the Josh Brolin Western mystery that I'm really jacked for, and Roar, which is the anthology show from the Globe creators with Nicole Kiven. I mean, that's on Apple TV. That's one week.

Is this the point when we just say, let's pivot back to books? No, because here's what happens the following week. On April 17th, First Lady with Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jillian Anderson. On April 18th, Better Call Saul returns. And on April 20th, the second season of Russian doll drops. Okay, because what I'm saying is I'm reading a really interesting Polish novel right now called Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. and I think that maybe the most watch the most the watch thing we could do in April

is just Zag. You know what I mean? Like, she's a... Don't you want to talk about Saul though? Don't you want to talk about Russian doll? I do, but I'm starting to sweat just having this conversation with you. This is where April gets really, really nuts.

Now it gets nuts. The last two weeks of April, so we said, Russian doll on the 20th, on the 24th is Barry, Gaslit, and the man who fell to earth, the Showtime show with Chilotel, Adjafour, based on the Walter Tevis novel.

I mean, and then you get to April 25th is we own the city, the David Simon series, starring John Brunthall and Jamie Hector. April 28th, the offer of, and under the banner of heaven.

So the offer is the Godfather show on Paramount Plus. And under the banner of heaven, we talked about a couple weeks ago. It's the adaptation of the John Cracker book with Andrew Garfield. And then April 29, through Shining Girls, which is on Apple and is the new Elizabeth Moss mystery.

Okay, so a couple of things. First of all, if you know a TV critic or you have one in your life, send electrolytes, send snacks, send thoughts and prayers. Two, I'm glad we went through this because we have to level with our audience. We're not watching all these shows, buddy. There's just no way. There's no way. And so I genuinely wonder if this is a time, it's a time of creativity. It's springtime, a time of rebirth. How could one even approach this? Do we consider April like a All You Can Eat Buffet at Sizzler

and just take a little bit of everything and watch the first episode of as many things as we can and just kind of touch as many of them as possible? Or do we just carve out some thick slices of Saul and Atlanta and, you know, our bedrock proteins and call it a month. It's very daunting. It's actually like, how do you want to talk about TV

is an interesting question, because Saul, I think you can do on a week-to-week basis. Not only because there's so much depth of the episodes, but also because of the mystery elements of it, I think it lends itself to week-to-week dissection. I think that Atlanta obviously is an event and should be covered as such. I think Barry, in a lot of ways, demands that kind of attention.

Then you get into, like, can you watch all of Russian doll season two in two days? You know, I mean, like the episodes are relatively short, but Russian doll is something that I think you have to view in its totality because it's so complex, the plotting and stuff and the vibe of the second season promises to be very intoxicating, but like hard to talk about those Netflix shows all in one gas. You know, I mean, I basically, what, like, we own the city.

It's like, this is a major moment. This is a David Simon returning to crime in Baltimore moment. Like, that's huge. And it looks fucking awesome. Looks great. You know, all I can do is say, I can foresee a world, for example, where Pachinko, I'm so glad you're having Sue on the podcast, I can't wait to watch the show, where we watch, I watch the first episode, maybe we discuss it, you know, to get people, hopefully people join us on the journey, and then say, we'll circle back after however many episodes. And then I just hope that we're able to, and I hope that we do, you know, there's just simply so many shows. I'm glad you mentioned Russian Doll because, honestly, I loved the first season.

it was on my top 10 for the year. It was absolutely delightful, surprising, dazzling. And I kind of wonder, in this context of it being given to us here, I'm having a feeling that I never thought I would have, which is, do I need a second season of it? Now, I know that that was something people said at the beginning, you know, when the first season debuted, and it's unfair to say that.

We don't even know what it's doing. I trust the creative team to do something that is surprising and worthwhile. So I don't even mean that. this as a troll, I just mean that the world in which Netflix greenlit a second season of a critically adored and commercially observed, let's say, series, that world is gone. Like, I really think that not only as the leadership at Netflix changed, but maybe people's appetites and their approach to all this has changed. I don't think that second season happens if the first season debuted in 2020 or 2021. I just don't think they're in that business anymore. And this might be

the glut of this month might be one of the reasons why, frankly. Can you tell me out of this list of stuff that I've just rattled through, what's the new show that you're most excited about? Well, because of you, it's slow horses. That just seems like the thing that I'm most, most excited about. But I think you're asking the exact right question, which is even just now when we both casually try to imagine what the month is going to be like,

we gravitated instantly to the shows with which we already have a good relationship, frankly, like the ones that we can count on and we're eager for. And I think that more than anything else is another, from today's talk, is a sign of where the industry is kind of going and how it's moved away from the bedrock season to season experience of the TV that I think is becoming ever more valuable.

The other thing that I noticed going through this list, and like you said, it could be the trail end of COVID production stuff, but I noticed that there used to be a sense that you would clear out for certain shows that the rest of the networks, the rest of the cable channels would be like, ah, Thrones is going here,

we're going to kind of move around Thrones. Like if there's something that we feel like we want to put up on a Sunday, or even just in general, like we wanted to have the attention share that we wanted to have. And that is obviously not happening. That is not even happening for some of the same networks.

Now maybe Apple looks at it and they're not like, yeah, Pachinko and Slow Horses and Shining Girls, are competing for the same eyeballs or are driving the same conversation. And maybe we're just, we fully have emerged into this time where this idea that there can only be

three to six TV shows at any given moment that people are watching and talking about. Maybe that's just like so far over and we're just waking up to it. Well, I think that, you know, to go back, you don't even need to go back that far, but just in terms of our own experience,

Chris, when we were coming up, you know, 20 years ago as music writers, there was an album release cycle that had noticeable and understandable contours. And they were all basically the same in like if you worked for a long lead publication, meaning you were writing in it, you're preparing an issue three months before anyone would read it. You would be given access to the artist or to the music. And then at this point the single would drop. And at this point the album would come out.

And then the subsequent coverage and the next tier of papers would get the coverage of the access then. And it was all understood. And frankly, like many things from that. time, you just didn't question it. And everyone's job, people had jobs based on those cycles. And, you know, I hear the glut of things now. And please don't, don't, nobody cry for us or worry about us. But, you know, I think the people at Apple who listen to our show hope we like their shows and like it when we talk about their shows, you know, and hope that our listenership who built a relationship with us might check out severance, for example, because we're enjoying it.

But we don't matter. This stuff doesn't matter. They cycle and the review. And we're not saying this to be modest. We just mean literally like the game that these giant Titans are the war that they are waging doesn't care about our eyeball time or when we watch a lot of this. Yeah, but I think I, you know, the two things that there are two shows that I think about when you say that. One is Succession, which I think very much was a product, not of us like in the show at all, but just in general, like a critical kind of infatuation with that show that show that led to. I would say a healthy success, right? And then I think that success is put in relative perspective

by the jaw-dropping success of Euphoria, which is successful, I wouldn't say despite occasional lukewarm reviews or a dismissive kind of thing from the critical base. I don't think critics can really make or break shows. I mean, I guess they could, but I'm fascinated by that idea that euphoria is a phenomenon, almost outside of the traditional kind of like motors that drive TV success.

And I think that I'm glad you said that because I think there's a second half to the none of this matters anymore. Nileism of my previous monologue, which is to say that for as much as every one of these services will publicly say and then financially chase the biggest sexiest project. Like, you know, like Gaslit, for example, is indicative of so much of television of the last few years. And in that it is based on his, it's based on a podcast, which is based on history. And it is absolutely oozing star power. I mean, it goes, it's more than just Julie Roberts and Sean Penn. I mean, it has a lot of really good actors in it, Dan Stevens, Betty Gilpin, Shea Wiggum. And all of these services are interested and intrigued and want the glamour and the glitz of

projects like that. I mean, that is we're seeing so many things ripped from headlines or ripped from podcasts like that or shows that come preloaded with stars, purchased that like that or taken to market like that. But what is Succession and Euphoria have in common other than being on HBO? It's that they're kind of old-fashioned. Not the content, but in the sense that they were developed, they aired week to week, they didn't necessarily become phenomenons in their first season, and they both, without question, have made stars, have made stars rather than being made and defined by stars. And, you know, maybe the real lesson here isn't to say, oh, my God, we're dying, everything's changed. It's to say, like, Abbott Elementary and Euphoria, those are big hit shows from the last few months,

and they're going to be big hit shows when they come back in a year, and they don't fit with the trends that we are navigating at the moment. Well, I think this is a healthy exercise, if only just to like kind of get a real sense of what we have in front of us. We're going to get into our interview with Jake Johnson. Andy and I will be back on Monday. I'm sure we'll chat a bit about Top Chef Thin and a couple of other things. And we should just flag. Like, I don't think we have time to talk about it today because we just want people to revel in our conversation about full frontal male nudity and Jake Johnson. I wish it was one topic, but so far that's not the case.

But I haven't seen all the episodes of season one. But we should flag this Hollywood reporter story about the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of Obi-Wan. We can circle back to it, but people should check it out. Sure. It's real interesting. It's real interesting. And I think that I'd rather talk about it with you. Remember my new podcast skills where I just stake out a really, really, really extreme position?

I really want to try it out on this show. Okay. Coming soon on Monday on the watch. We were produced by Kai McMullen, as always, and we will be back on Monday. Thanks for listening. This episode is brought to. you by Amazon Prime. Ever have a plan come together out of nowhere and realize you're missing something? Like a last minute beach day, a spontaneous hike or an outdoor movie night you didn't

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you can go see the game live. Don't just dream about the trip. Book it with Priceline. Download the Priceline app or visit Priceline.com. Actual prices may vary, limited time offer. Andy and I are really honored to be joined by a pretty important person to this podcast, really to Hollywood too. He'll be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Academy Awards. We're really excited for him.

I'm way too young for that. Continue. Jake Johnson is here. He's in a new HBO show called Minks that Andy and I both find absolutely charming, Jake. And we love to talk to you about this show and everything else. We can start. Do you want to do Zach Levine, DeMar de Rosen? if you want to do Justin Fields. Like really what the floor is yours. Well, here's all I'd like to start. Again, we are all adults.

We're all doing our thing. Do you mind redoing that intro and saying new to Hollywood? This fresh off the bus kid. Right. The next big thing to set me up for what I am. And that's a kid just starting his crazy game with big dreams. I'm sorry personally that you lost out on the part of Nate and Euphoria. I know that you were up for that and that you were really gunning for it.

Yeah. Thank you. Well, that whole group, that's my peer group. So, you know, when I go out with, like, my peers and we go to the clubs, you know, I just, I'm so excited that, like, some of my friends are finally 21 years old. Because now we have fake IDs under 21. I got to say, Jake, that when you got, and let's be, that's not Peter on the Bush, you got dragged by the mainstream press for your behavior in the TikTok house in Hollywood during the pandemic. Yeah. But I was like, Jake is a young, I believe the term used his boy. Yes, thank you. He's in a house with his friends for the first time. Look, okay, can I explain something about...

You just love pranks. What's wrong with that? Let me just explain something to you old geezers about my generation. Please. We're just having fun. Yeah, I'm out there with Jake Paul challenging professional boxers too. Because, and you know what I'm also really into is NFTs. Oh my God.

Because I understand. Yes. Because so that's a great place to start because as our youth correspondent, Jake, is crypto money? So it's all about the blockchain. Eddie, you don't understand Web 3? No. 100% I don't. But I'm glad we have an influencer on to finally.

On this podcast, which I do feel like the third member of, can I for now on be the the crypto guy? know the youth correspondent. Oh, that would be even better. I think that would be great. And to be fully honest with you and transparent with our listeners, as you were talking, I was racking my brain to think of a question about a young thing, and I couldn't think of any young things. Like, I don't even know the framework to begin this segment.

This now, Kai, I believe I'm correct in saying, permanent weekly segment of the podcast. We got nothing for it for the first one. I guess we'll just have to talk about your TV show or whatever. You mean that old geezer show? I act like an old man in it who's heavy set. The prosthetics alone must have taken hours. I did a De Niro. I gained like 15 pounds because I walk around at probably like 125 pounds.

But in that show, I look like a heavyset dude who's about 5'10 and has a hard time standing up out of sunken. Okay, and there were a lot of sunken couches in the air. Okay, so let's start because I feel like there's a way to explain the show but also get a sense of you as a performer in your commitment. So for people who aren't aware, this is an HBO Max original show, as Chris said, it's called Minks. It's set in 1971, and it follows a character named Joyce because all aspiring women in 1971 were named Joyce.

That is a historical record. Ophelia Lovibon plays the part. She's great. She is a feminist who wants to start her own magazine. In the vein of Ms. Magazine, yeah. Yes. And yet, perhaps she doesn't quite have the common touch to appeal to the regular reader magazines.

She goes to a pitch fest to pitch. And at that time, and possibly still now, but nobody was interested in a angry feminist magazine that didn't make women seem bubbly and sweet. And she comes across my character, Doug Renetti, who's a smut publisher, such titles as Milky Moms, you know, jugs, things like that. And I get her magazine, her literature,

and I give it to some of my centerfolds during a focus. photo shoot. And the women find the writing very interesting. And the women who I work with at Bottom Dollar Production start talking about it a lot. And my character has an idea. And that is, I'm only tapping into creepy guys and I'm making a lot of money. What if I tap into creepy women? Yeah. What if I throw a nice big hog in the middle of this magazine with all this great writing? Is there a lot of money to be had? And my character is a true capitalist. It doesn't care who's buying or why they're buying as long as they're buying. And so she agrees to come with me, but it's a debate between who's in control and, you know,

art versus commerce. And I got to say, all bits aside, I love it. I think it's a great show. The script was one of the best pilots I've read. I think Ellen Rappaport's really talented our showrunner. I think Ophili is a killer as Joyce. Because if she's the wrong actor in that, and she's like annoying or trying to be fun, the whole thing breaks, but she's so earnest that I believe she's a real person.

And as part of the, I mean, to your point about the pilot, it is great. And that it's a heavy premise pilot, a lot of moving pieces have to come together to get these people in the same room, let alone in the same room full of dozens of nude male models to then launch the series, which it does so well. And then, you know, there's all the stuff you want in a half hour show. There's great chemistry. There's comedy. But it actually has the larger sort of societal stuff at play.

the question I have for you as a performer, which I know is where you begin everything, you know, from your toolbox. When you went to, when you met with Ellen Rappaport, she had the pilot script and about being a part of it, and I imagine you arrived at the audition being like, I thank you. I think I was born to play the part of Shane, the nude firefighter.

That's right. So what was the conversation like where she was like, you, Jake Johnson from the TikTok house, I actually see more in you, and I want you to put on perspective. pretend to be older and play this part of Doug, which is a much larger part, if not necessarily larger in the department that matters for the publication of Mix Magazine. I'm going to break down the truth to you guys that I was asked by HBO Max not to talk about.

Okay. This is also, this is great because if we break this out as a YouTube video, every good YouTube video is like Jake Johnson breaks down the truth. You know, like that's always like it hits the algorithm and it just gets going. So I'm going to give you two things. HBO Max begged me not to say this. And this is the truth of how I got cast. And this is the truth of Minks.

The part of Shane was played by Taylor. He did an excellent job, no doubt. His genitalia was played by me. So that is, in fact, my penis. So is it huge? That's not what it's about. I'm an actor. Yeah.

So, yeah. The reason they don't want it out there is there's all sorts of Emmy buzz. There's Oscar buzz for my performance in this. The town's freaking out. You know, I'm getting emails from Brad Pitt, George Clooney, all the top guys. Holy cow, we were at the tastemaker event and you really crushed it. And what HBO doesn't want is, and you have a ginormous penis. And I thought it's one thing at a time, guys, let me absorb these roses because of my performance.

when that's done and I've won the Academy Awards, I've won the Oscars, I've done the People's Choice, I've done the Blockbuster Awards. Weirdly, you won a Tony for this part, I believe. I know. Well, you know, that was an amazing opportunity. First of all, I need to thank ID, which is my PR. I need to thank UTA, Jacob Fenton, Jay Gassner.

I need to, dialist, Annie, Christine for hair and makeup. And most of all, I need to thank the fans. Also, my wife and kids. We're going to cut that bit. I ran out of time. Can you play them first? You know, I don't know if everyone, I imagine some people listening,

know this, Jake, but like the original title for the show where many people first encountered your talent, if not your girth, was New Girl. And New Girl originally was called Chicks with Dicks.

Liz Mary Weather script. So is this, I guess I want to ask, is this career full circle for you? Right. This has been a long time coming. Here's the truth. And guys, we can't just, you know, we were doing some bits earlier. The truth is, I'm not 21 years old.

And, you know, the truth of the matter is I'm a 43-year-old man, and I don't know much about that culture, and I don't do TikTok, okay? But here's the other truth. My career started off as a faceless man of pornography. They felt as if my nose was way too big, and I did not have the curvature of the upper frame, Some would say maybe I have a heavyset top, otherwise known as I was insulted and called muffin top at times.

I'd been called tities. But my bottom half, without denim or underpants, was a main player in the porno scene from 1997 to 2011 when new girls started. So the new wave, really. Yeah, it's what we refer to it as. Yeah, the new wave. I was in every great porno you've seen, my bottom half is business. I've worked with every, I know everybody.

I know everyone in the biz. It is not sexy to do it. It's not romantic. We are business people. We simply go to work, shoot 15 orgasms, and clock out. The simple is that, I know for you guys, it seems like, that's my dream job. That's you've rid of my mind. What's weird is, people aren't watching this on video, but Chris's face was just, it was, you

He was in cloud nine. I was just like, I was taking notes. He's like, I'm so jealous. But for me, it was as I was there having 15 to 16 orgasms, watching other people experience hundreds of orgasms while I was laying there on my body saying you're the greatest lover, you're incredible, you're number one. All I was thinking is, at some point, I hope my face is on TV. And now because of things March 17th on HBO Max, this is my first time having a speaking part.

I actually, I do have a quasi-serious question about this character if I'm allowed to ask it, which is that if I say 70s porn producer or 70s porn publisher to most people, they probably would imagine that this guy is a scumbag, right? Like just on the face. But you honestly have an inherent tenderness and likability as a performer anyway. And then I think you imbue this guy with a lot of sweetness. Is it on the page? And would you say that this is historically accurate for...

Yeah, so here's really what that is in terms of being honest. So there was a part in the pilot where it said... So when I first started reading, I just thought it was really fun. When I saw like a dick montage, I am immature enough where penises are funny. Right. I remember being at Wrigley Field as a kid where they had the trough and you see all the walkers and biting my tongue not to die laughing. And so I'm like, that is...

I'm sorry. I think you're going to have to explain the trough where you saw all the walkers. Like, I know that maybe that's kid slang. You know what I mean? Like, that's... I was TikTok talk. Sorry. So, at Wrigley Field, when I was growing up a long time ago, I actually am 43,

and I'm sure it's changed, that the way bathrooms at stadiums used... Oh, yeah. There was just a huge, like a pig trot, like where you would throw feed for animals. And all the... Everybody would stand shoulder to shoulder, take their penises off,

and piss. And everybody was drunk looking forward. Everybody's cracking jokes. And as a kid, when you're shorter, and I was a kid in the class where I always had to do the class sign, I was, puberty came late, as they said, 25. You want to hear a funny story about late puberty? That's a true story. Yes. So I did not have a pub on my body at 16. I was 4 foot 11, about 75 pounds. And we were doing swimming. And my high school had a swimming pool. We had swimming.

And I was next to a kid named Matt Walker, who was an adult man. Yeah, there's always a Matt Walker who can throw like a 75 mile per hour slider and has a mustache. Not only had chest hair, but had like those like back stragglers. So like he had had chest for so long

that his back got bored and wanted to join the party. And we're talking six nights. The kind of beard that he, He shaved so much that, like, his skin had changed. And we were sitting next to each other, and it was a hairy adult man. And honestly, but looked like a nine-year-old boy. But mentally, we were on the same page.

We were friends. Yeah. So we're doing bits, joking and, you know, talking about, like, the cutest girl. And I'm like, dude, she wants me. He goes, whoa, Jake, you don't have any hair under your armpit. And I go, what's that? And he goes, lift up your arm. And at that point, the examination, otherwise known as my nightmare started.

And that is, he peeled my arms up like this. The other gentleman came around to realize there was no growth under my arm. There was no even- What other gentlemen? I feel like this is a traumatic story. What do the guys have a jewelers loop, like uncut gems? He's just like, well, you're right. The cooler came out of the deep end.

They checked out my legs. There was no hair. And then Matt Walker, who had probably gone through puberty at seven, was so confused by this that he went like, and I remember his facial expression was not one of bullying. It was one of confusion. And he said, why don't you have any hair on your body? And in that moment, I said, the men in my family don't have any body hair.

No, you didn't. It worked. They don't? I was like, no. My dad doesn't have any mold like nobody does. And he's like, weird. I was like, yeah, whatever. Anyway, and the moment passed.

I realized I would rather have a genetic disorder that was a family passed on family genes than simply. say puberty hasn't started Matt Walker. So I don't want to get too carried away because I want to get back to the trough pissing, but what did Matt do when you finally grew hair? It was honestly about a year later

and that moment was only significant to me. So, nothing. You know, I went to a high school, 3,000 kids. The fact that I did get hair later meant nothing to anybody except I was like, like it's, you know, if you have a chia pit and you water and you water and then it works and you're finally

like, this thing isn't broken. I always have facial hair. I thought I was one of those human beings that would not ever achieve hair. All right. So now we go back up a level in the Russian nesting doll of this story, which is Wrigley Field bathrooms.

You would go, obviously at that time, at that age, the prepubescent guy we've talked about, I would have to grab tweezers to get my tiny penis out of my fans to pee. and out of the corners of my eyes, you would just see adult male penises. And there, it was to this day,

the funniest thing of all the time, you and a buddy would be in line and you would be standing next to each other, and then there would be some guy being like, I think we're going to take the pirates, and I'd be like, absolutely, man. And we'd just see, you know, the nose of an elephant next to you.

And you'd be like, don't laugh. Don't laugh. So that's, when I read the pilot, And I saw a penis montage. And I saw that the way it was going to go and they said real penises. And they said they wanted a real mix of men. So they didn't want just like certain hunks.

I thought, oh, my God. It was going to be like 70-year-olds for like, have you guys in skin? And I'm like, I'm taking this job partly. I want to see how that is executed. It comes off. Yeah. And you wonder, because they pulled it out and you pulled it off. And the scene, it's funny.

One of the changes for the better, I think, in Hollywood production over the last few years, has been the rise of the role of the intimacy coordinator, someone who's on sets, you know, to make sure that people are comfortable with intimate scenes, romantic scenes, nude scenes, and when we talk about that, you know, the knee-jerk response is, well, this is an overdue thing because of the amount of nudity women have been asked to do on screen. Then you have a montage, and it's you and Ophelia's the star at the show. A lot of the cast is there watching. I will note that during that, and this now tracks for me, because during the montage, when the camera is not fixated on dongs, it cuts to you. And your character is delighted. You are gleeful. There is a look on your face that now I know is not acting that you are having the time of your life. So I guess I'm just wondering about the overall vibe and clearly you enjoyed it. Yeah.

So the actual dick montage, we had to do that for, uh, the dicks came in, right? So we were not allowed to be on set and reacting in real time because of the intimacy coordinator. Oh, interesting. So you had to imagine. So we had to do it beforehand, but I'll tell you, it's funny you say that because when I read the script and going back to this type of character, Chris, and the real question you asked, thank you. And I'm sorry for Andy taking this into, what are we on stage here? We're trying to do a podcast, Chris.

Sorry, but. It's embarrassing. And I apologize. When I read the script, there was two things that happened. One, I thought, I think it's really funny to be able to discuss men's bodies in a way that's critical but not sexual. And I thought of Bert Reynolds and Boogie Nights. And I think his performance in that was one of my all-time favorites. When he is a straight man can look at Mark Wahlberg's dick in it and say, like, that's a great cock.

And I thought like, man, I want to play a character who looks at men, not in terms of sex, but in terms of profit. And aesthetics, yeah, right. Like there's an episode that comes up later in the season. The show, I think, is great. And I think as it goes, it truly gets better and better. And I don't want to give anything away, but there's a photo shoot and a model and his dick is a big part of it. And I got to do an entire scene with a man discussing his penis. And there was nothing about it where Doug is not attracted to it.

He's a businessman. And I thought, it's really funny. and it feels very new to me to be able to do bits where you're talking about men's bodies as product. And I thought, man, if I can tap into the way Bert Reynolds did it, where you never thought

Bert is seeing anything besides dollar signs and the greater the dick, the greater the win. And I really want, like, I'm used to like it happening with like women where like she's a real beauty and everyone's excited. And I'm used to seeing like a guy's face

was really hot, but I thought like, it'd be so funny to like have an action. business discussion about like a guy's butt cheeks. I don't know if this is... Oh, go ahead. If you want to jump on the butt cheeks, I'll let you do it. I was going to steer things in a more sober direction.

I was too, and I was going to say, Jake, great answer to that question. And now I'm going to tell you my story about my first encounter at a urinal trough, which is I was on a study abroad in Ireland. And I had never really been in that kind of like bathroom environment. I guess I had like a much more conservative upbringing in Philadelphia than I thought I did. But it was usually dividers, you know? And so we get to Ireland. I think I was like 19, 18 years old.

And we did a homestay. So like as soon as we got there, we stayed in this like small Irish village outside of Cork. And I was staying with this family. And they were like, well, let's go to the pub. And I went to this pub. And it's nighttime. It's like a Friday night.

And I walk into the bathroom. And I kid you not, it's like walking onto this set of a Ridley Scott movie. because so much steam is coming off the ice in the troughs while these guys are urinating while drinking Guinness so that it's just this pure biological experiment of like, but it's just like, like, shh, too much. Too much? That's too much?

Well, look, I get it. I've been in those moments. It's like, it's too much to sit there straight face and then just go like, what are we doing later? We get in a euros before we get home? There's simply 15 guys, pissing at the same time on ice and there's steam. And we're talking about like, do we have another 50 minutes or an hour before we leave?

We're talking about Gaelic football or something. Yeah. We're in another galaxy here, gentlemen. Andy, you're saying. Yes, I mean, I can't top that story, nor can I legitimately follow it up. So I'll just pivot. I don't know if this is accurate,

but I did see that initially, perhaps you were a guest star on the series and then became a part of the ensemble. And I guess, you know, here's a thing about you, Jake. We've known you a long time now. We've had you in the podcast. 100% a straight shooter.

Everything you say on the record, it's just true. It's always true. And because of that, we can tell that this show really does mean a lot to you. And I could tell even before we got on this podcast because you've been posting on social about it. Like, you're pretty excited about this. I'm doing the full press tour. I hired personal PR, which I haven't done in years.

Let's do this goddamn thing. And I guess I'm wondering as a, I'm sorry to break people's illusions, as a veteran of at least the industry, at least your bottom half. Kai, can we cut this and start over? What has been special about this experience? And I also say this sincerely. Like, when we have talked over the years, I know that being close to your family,

not being away for a long time, like work-life balance does matter to you. So why is this the special one? So this one came to be, and that guest, I think, was contractual because Stumbtown still might have happened and we weren't sure. This one does shoot very close to me.

and this one is I am near the family. I do have two daughters. I am very interested in feminist stories. I'm very interested in the stories of women pushing their world in the workforce because I realize a lot of great stories about like, like, yes, this is a feminist tale, but it's also a workplace comedy to me. And I like that it has these great themes in it.

But when I read it and I'm reading Joyce, I love the Joyce type character. I love the really, like, militant feminists who sees the world in a certain way, and no one is going to stop her. I loved the imagery that it was even written about about the cover of the Majorarchy Awakened. I love the old guys are like, why are you so angry? You know, there's that great mix. And then when I read Doug, you know, professionally, I'm not a man who likes to audition. I'm a man who, you know, I like an offer.

In terms of I grew up in junk shops. I grew up, my mother always had them. I like negotiating. I like bartering. It's hard to negotiate and barter when you audition, AKA, beg for a job, right? When you're like, please, and then they go, you got it. And you go, hold on, let's negotiate it.

I don't see how that works as well. But so the scripts that come my way are all essentially, you know, Eddie, comma, late 30. Cometristy's comma, Nick Miller, comma, has potential but hasn't achieved them, comma, lives on his parents' couch. And I had just gotten so bored of playing that character that when I read Doug Renetti,

and I'm like, oh, Doug is a success and he's a capitalist, and he's pushing. I thought, I love this start, but I can't just play a guy who's a 70skees ball because the men I grew up around, my uncles in Chicago, who would be in my house because they had legal trouble and we did do neon signs and they were drunks and they were partier and they were like real characters.

They were all two things at once. They were those shady characters who might steal from you if you left your garage. But they also really loved people and they really had your back. And there's a scene in the pilot where Joyce goes to Doug's home and it's on a really nice street. And she said, I never imagined you live in here. And he said, as a kid, I always wanted to live in a house like this and now I do. And what that meant to me is Doug's home is not like you get there. And remember the drug dealer's house in Boogie Nights where the guy thrown firecrackers.

If Doug's home was like that, I passed on this project. You know that that house has been on for sale a couple of times. I think it's in Tarzana. No, that's in Pasadena. The Boogie Nights drug dealer house? Oh, is that right? Oh, yeah. I think it's been on Redfin a couple of times.

Incredible. If that inside looks like that, I might buy it. But so that scene for me showed me that Ellen understands that Doug can be two things at once. And Doug can be a total. Like Doug does some things later in the season that are hard to justify in terms of treating people the right way. But when Doug, in Doug's defense, I can understand why he thinks that's the right move. And that becomes a character that, as you say, Andy, I am excited about it and I'm doing the hard push. Because I want to see what happens season two.

I think Doug's the kind of character. You can take him anywhere. and I can do some things that are like really hard to stomach for audiences because it would feel honest. And I'm like, that's the recipe for a great character. I think Joyce is a great protagonist. I love the 70s. I love the world. So I think there's a lot.

And I think Ellen's truly talented. So all the pieces are there. I also think what's really fun about it is that you, and you've done this before with some of the Joe Swanberg movies you did. Like I think that it's fun, especially for audiences, to see you use some of the capital you've built up as the beloved gad about Nick Miller and push a little bit. You know, not just as a performer, but people, I don't want to, Kyah, keep this part in. People like you. People like seeing you on screen.

And they're like, that's a nice, we like this guy. We want to spend time with them. And then that allows you the freedom, I think, to make a little better surprise. Yeah. You hope so. You mentioned the 70s in loving that period. And there is a kind of 70s sold to some of my favorite work you've done, specifically when at all, that is one of my favorite movies from the past decade.

and I wondered whether or not, like I was wondering if you could expand a little bit about how fun it was to like... The best. To get into that era, yeah. So, you know, I was born in 2001. So for me, the 70s, no, but in, so being born in 78, and being raised in the 80s and early 90s,

it was such a dorky era. And so, like, seeing photos of my uncles and my dad and my mom all hanging out in like Chicago and like near these cool. cars. That aesthetic was something I was so deeply jealous of and I really believed when my peer group got older, we would live in those

photos. And then when my peer group got older, it was like 2002. And I'm like, what are we? We can't take a cool photograph. Like, you look at my, there's like photos in my like family album. My mom had nine brothers and sisters.

And there's like photos of them all like drinking old style in cans. Their shirts like this, there's a beat-up old like 68 car behind them. The photos of like my cousins and I, it's so dorky in comparison. And so being able to be on a set like that and have the wardrobe, like a lot of times for me when I get to work and I change into the characters clothes, it's hard to feel any different when what you're wearing is like a different pair of jeans. Yeah, right.

I had shirt. but I would get there and put on a leisure suit have necklaces and bracelets and ring I had hair to hear that I was like blowdrying myself because I got all vain about it and I'm like man it's fairly impossible not to buy in right now and so all of that

and then being to a set the set designer did such a nice job because everything was 360 degrees so even at like my character's desk if you open up the drawers the paper the letterheads everything felt you know period accurate. Right.

So you're just like, man, this is the fucking best. Do you shoot a lot around the street? Every extra, every car. And we should shout out the DP too, who I don't know, but like the lighting, it looks like the photos you're talking about. Totally. Yeah, this guy, Jason did a great job. So, like, what have you been up to over the last couple of years?

I was curious, like, what you've been watching? Because, like, I feel like you're a very discerning taste when it comes to the stuff that you choose to do. But I was curious, like, what kind of stuff? if you've been enjoying, like, checking out, you know, like over the last year or so. So I obviously love Succession. I think Succession's the best thing on television. And I really just, I've been trying to find something else to get excited about. And there's not much that I find excited. And there's not much modern stuff that I think is great. Movies I went and saw Sing 2

with my daughter and all the previews were going. And I just felt like, what is this shit? What are we talking about. Chris, take five. We got to get into this. Go ahead. But it didn't. There's nothing that is saying to me like, man, there's a period of time you watch certain things and you say like, man, I wish I was in

that or I wish I was part of it or I wish I didn't. I love when I feel jealous. I love when somebody does something and it feels so great that you go like, God damn it, they beat like, he spout and down. I first saw that. I was so mad at Danny McBride because I thought it was so funny. And I was like, that's son of a bit. you did that whole tone, God bless him.

So what I did recently to get like re-inspired by like something that was like no doubt great was I've rewatched every episode of the Larry Sanders show. Oh, yeah. And I had watched it back in the day. But just to watch that and study what they did like, look, it's a lot of it's dated. A lot of it is you're like, man, like that, you really did feel the 90s. But just the character development and the consistency of character and the characters wants and needs and the.

tone. I'm like, man, what a great show, which leads me back to, well, I'm doing the pitch for mince. I'm like, it's really at its core, if it's right, it's a workplace comedy. This is simply about, yes, all the themes, feminism of course, capitalism of course, but this is about people trying to launch a magazine together. Yeah, it's kind of cool that way. I love that part of it. Like, it's really how a magazine would go. We had, you know, people consulting. They wanted that to feel very real. And that is how in 1972, you tried to move magazines. And if

this one is going to be a success, then my thought is season two if we get it. But what happens? What happens to this magazine? Does it get more and more popular? And I really like the actual, the way Larry Sanders obviously said, the Larry Sanders show, they were all connected to that.

But like, you never had to go to Hank's house. Right. You heard about his restaurant, but like, who cares? Right. I'm like, we all are connected to minx. And at the bigger picture bottom dollar, then that's the engine. If that breaks, these characters fragment and the show's done. And that was something that has been a nice reminder of watching what I love to remember what I'm trying to do.

So you did touch on the total barren wasteland of children's entertainment, which is something that's near and dear to my heart. But it is a segue to talk about one of the things that you have done in the last few years, which has really come roaring into my life. And when I say in my life, I mean my two daughters. So the thing that they're obsessed with And the thing that they are obsessed with is Into the Spiderverse

They are? Yes. They're not? They don't like it? Have they checked it out? Yeah, I've tried a bunch. I'm a bragger. Did you tell them that that's Daddy's voice

that people are laughing at? They're old, they totally get it. They do not. They tune off before my character even comes in. Wow. So I was nervous because I Let me take a step back. I was in no way nervous.

But I had wondered if they would ever be interested in anything like super heroic and that stuff. And clearly they had not been. And that's totally fine. But they loved the Lego movie. And I was like, Lord Miller, you know, involved in that. So let's give this a try. Very dubious until they saw Spider-Gwen. And then they were like, that's the coolest person I've ever seen.

But now, I mean, they, we purchased the film. They re-watch it. They love it. every viewing of the film has to watch a trailer for the upcoming part one of the two-part sequel. It's an incredible film, and you are, you are, tell your daughters that these very young TikTok podcasters think you're great in it. How has that project been? Because I feel like we talked about it right when it had come out, I think, or before I'd

even seen it, and you said it was sort of a, it had been in development for a while. And when it was released, there wasn't this, like, it's not like the Tom Holland Spider-Man. People weren't checking for it, but it's become a total phenomenon. and you made two more of them. I think the beauty of that is I am not a huge comic book guy myself. I'm not a big, I am similar to your daughters in that I don't check out the action movies and I don't really care about the superiors. And you respect me.

And I respect you. I respect your wife more than you. I got it. Do you know them? It's incredible. It's not that, Andy. I just view her more as like the center of my life and you're, you're. It's getting real, but I could take it.

These aren't tears. This is just, I'm sweating. I had a funny thing happen with my daughter really fast where my wife and one of my daughters was off camping and I'm with the other daughter. And as my wife was saying goodbye to my daughter, my daughter said like, are you going to really miss me? And my wife goes, yes. And then she goes, but you're going to miss Daddy more.

And my wife started laughing. My daughter goes, Daddy, I just said, Mom's going to miss you more on me. And she laughed. And she looks at him and she's like, I'm me. And I'm like, no, Elizabeth, it's right. But it's time you learned. Either of the kids, I'm definitely here as the number one plus one of the group. Enjoy, you three have a wonderful family.

My thing, and I don't know if I've said this in the podcast, but like, and I've come to appreciate this, is that it's not a bad gig to be the vice president in that when the president is in office in the White House in the situation room, you are a joke. You are completely extraneous and you have very little role to play. It's certainly in terms of authority. But there are a lot of ceremonial, like, duties you have, you know? Yes, yeah. Of course there are.

You're around other vice presidents. You like to talk about how you're really running the White House. Oh, it is V. But then, and I mean this sincerely, when the president is away on business or perhaps at Camp David for a girl's retreat or whatever, your authority is tolerated. You know, it does, the mantle does shift to you, but, you know, it is not. That's because you're the only one who knows how to drive, though, right? Like, there are some basic needs that you do be fulfilled. A million percent.

And then, you know, and then perhaps, and this is hypothetical, a four-year-old might say, the reason I don't want to do that is because you do it badly and mommy does everything better. I'm like, okay, I'll take a fair. First of all, let's start from that. In the vice president and in terms of the authority, my children are a little bit older, I believe. Not by much, but last night, my daughter wanted to go to sing too at a movie theater. So I didn't know on a school night if that's the right move, but why not? And then I said, the screening starts at 5.30.

We mostly cut sugar off at around six. So I said, okay, here's the rule. One sweet. Pick it. She goes, you got it. We get in line. She goes, I really want one of those icies. And I go, that's a sweet.

And she goes, but I also want M&Ms. And I was like, well, therefore, that's two sweets. And she goes, but we're at a movie. We need popcorn. And I go, we made a deal with the car. Within three minutes, she had all three sweets. And this is disgusting abuse of power. And for the first 15 minutes of the movie,

I sat there soaking because I'm like, I want her to throw a fit in movie theater. But I'm like, this didn't end the way it was supposed to. She's eating a gallon of popcorn. And a gallon. I'm like, God damn it. I also love that you said, cut off sweets at six as if your children are wearing like dune skin suits for water, but

pure like Gatorade being pumped through it? Take off your suit. Okay, but wait, but, okay, Spider-Verse, I just wanted to know, like, it kind of came into your life, percolated, got big, and so then you had to follow it up. So how has that experience been? Have you been in the booth working on the sequels? Has that been a good experience, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, I don't know how much I can say.

I have been in the booth. You know, honestly, I love the character. I love working with Phil and Chris and everybody there. it's a wildly talented group. And what I love the most is their take on Peter B. Parker because, you know, I think the idea of playing a superhero, in theory is cool. But in reality, like, you got to really care about the person.

And I love the idea that Peter, when we meet him in this movie, you know, is kind of over at all. And, you know, because the truth is if you look at, like, I always looked at Spider-Verse, at least my part in it, like I was in an indie movie. And the indie movie was about a fallen superhero because the writing was so good. So when I'm in the booth doing those scenes, those scenes are just as good on page as any indie that I'm doing or any show that I'm doing. So it was a really fun way to view Peter as not a superhero, but just a guy named Peter from Queens.

And that when he was talking about being a superhero, it's more talking about going to work, having responsibility to you. you're like talking to a young kid who you're trying to mentor about like, you know, show up at the office and be there for the people in your life. And I loved that view of Peter and I love kind of what they're doing with them. Everything about it's been a lot of fun. I can't wait. I mean, it is much anticipated in my household by all of us. I'm very excited about it. Man, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you guys. This was a really good first youth segment. I feel like. I feel like we've really opened up a new demo for ourselves. The zoomers are going to love this content about the, about the penises and the troughs and like, I just feel like we're

speaking their language. Do you guys mind if I say something directly to the younger audience? Yeah, definitely. This is just to now my people 15 to 20. Okay. What's up, everybody? It's your boy, Chick-Johnson. I'm here on this podcast with these two geysers talking soups boring stuff.

Check me out on my TikTok channel. Check me out of my Instagram, my Facebook, my YouTube. click below, like. All right, and then you guys can obviously use that wherever you want for your advertising. You could play it throughout this bit multiple times, whatever you guys need to do. I have like a Roblox account

that I'll probably be throwing that on, yeah. Just keep doing that. My group likes to watch the same short clip 100,000 times. Is Twitch a thing? That's the thing, right? Yeah. Yeah, cool. So, yeah, I'll Twitch you, the deeds.

Crypto.com. Put it on, make it an end. NFT, if you want, put it on the blockchain. Absolutely. This is so relevant. That's the amazing thing. Pandemic, Ukraine, all these buzzwords, I know them all, okay? Cryptocurrency, Biden, Trump.

These are terms I understand, okay? Network, movies. Spider-verse, Marvel. Let's let you guys know, put a hashtag in front of all those. This is going to be your number one podcast. It already was. Ha ha!