The recent death of actor George Segal sent me to finally watch Altman's 1974 gambling opus, 'California Split', starring Segal and Elliot Gould.  It's a fantastic film and a great representation of the prime Altman ouvre. But behind the scenes and extending into the present day...there are cast-member murders, deaths, prison stints, and tragedies that offer a hypothetical parallell to the varied paths taken or not taken by many American children of the 60's navigating the decades beyond.  In this episode, I talk about Altman's history in Hollywood, his three main periods of filmmaking, including his late-career renaissance in the 90's, and explore the tragic  deaths of 4 female cast members as well as the bizarre cult that provided all the extras used in the film.  A masterwork of American ennui and a timeless time capsule of 1970's American neuroses, 'California Split' is a lot of fun with some surprisingly moving conclusions when all is said and done.

Full Cast And Crew

97. Robert Altman's 'California Split' (1974)

Charles Grodin died at 86 on May 18th, 2021.  His career spanned from 1954 to 2017, but what's notable about Grodin is how he always prioritized happiness over success and power within the entertainment industry. This is something he wrote about over his several books, and is contained within the evidence his career leaves behind. Offered club gigs, he turned them down because the thought of doing two sets of the same material each night felt like fakery that would cheat the audience.  When reminded that the audiences wouldn't overlap and that they'd never know, Grodin replied, "Yeah,  but the waiters would know".  I think that anecdote contains everything you need to know about how Grodin viewed comedy and his role in performing.  Aside from his movies and theatrical and television work, Grodin was also a groundbreaking and vital guest on Johnny Carson and the David Letterman shows.  He viewed promotional talk show appearances as awkward and phony, so he always viewed every appearance as a performance he committed to regardless of the percentage of the audience that might not be in on the joke. His humor, warmth, and decency is what burbles underneath the prickliness with which most of his film appearances lead.  In this episode, I'll talk about Grodin's career beginning with 'Rosemary's Baby' (also an FCAC episode with special guest Ted Jessup), his many legendary TV appearances, with particular emphasis on Johnny Carson and Letterman, with a clip from the time he brought his attorney onto the Letterman show to complain about his previous treatment at Letterman's hands. Then, diving into a recent re-watch of 'Midnight Run', we celebrate the genius of this movie, it's perfect script and construction, it's (for some) difficult production, and the many many wonderful moments between Grodin and DeNiro and their castmates captured within. I've also been a particular fan of the touching family reunion scene within 'Midnight Run', which, even tho Grodin doesn't DO much within the scene itself, has an emotional resonance because the Duke character motivates Jack Walsh to go home and visit his family for the first time in 9 years, and so much of the truth of this brilliantly handled scene stems from that place of warmth and emotional certainty that Grodin brought to the role of Johnathan Mardukas.

96. An Appreciation of Charles Grodin & Midnight Run (1988)

Gone in 60 Seconds is a 1974 American action film written, directed, produced by, and starring H.B. "Toby" Halicki.[2] The film centers on a group of car thieves and the 48 cars they must steal in a matter of days. It is known for having wrecked and destroyed 93 cars in a 40-minute car chase scene, one of the longest in film history. A total of 127 cars were either destroyed or damaged throughout the entirety of the film.[2] Gone in 60 Seconds proved to be extremely successful at the box office, grossing $40,000,000 on a budget of $150,000. A loose remake with new characters and a different plot was released in 2000, starring Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie.   Fear Is the Key is a 1972 British action thriller film directed by Michael Tuchner and based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Alistair MacLean. It stars Barry Newman and Suzy Kendall, with supporting roles by John Vernon, Dolph Sweet, and Ben Kingsley in his feature film debut. The film features a soundtrack by Roy Budd.   POD NOTES & LINKS OF NOTE Fear Is The Key Wiki Fear Is The Key on Amazon Gone In 60 Wiki Gone In 60 Seconds on Amazon Roy Budd 'Get Carter' Theme Roy Budd 'Fear Is The Key' Theme 'Gone In 60 Seconds' original songs replaced in current streaming version due to rights issues can be heard here. Dolph Sweet on 'Gimme A Break'.

95. 70's Crime DOUBLE FEATURE!

The Grateful Dead Movie, released in 1977 and directed by Jerry Garcia, is a film that captures live performances from rock band the Grateful Dead during an October 1974 five-night run at Winterland in San Francisco. These concerts marked the beginning of a hiatus, with the October 20, 1974, show billed as "The Last One". The band would return to touring in 1976. The film features the "Wall of Sound" concert sound system that the Dead used for all of 1974. The movie also portrays the burgeoning Deadhead scene. Two albums have been released in conjunction with the film and the concert run: Steal Your Face and The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack. In this episode, Jason is joined by...well...another Jason, his long time friend Jason Blumklotz, for a discussion about the Dead and the various eras of their music and performances.  We detour into offshoots like Dead & Company, the Veneta, Oregon Dead documentary 'Sunshine Daydream', the Wall of Sound, Phil's giant 50-lb bass, and much more.  Not just a clubby discussion of the band, this episode presents the Grateful Dead Movie as an amazing time capsule of 1970's fandom.

94. The Grateful Dead Movie (1977)

A quick recap and assessment of last night's Oscar telecast, which, to me, was a much-needed reboot and refresh of a format that had become stale, out of touch with itself and increasingly at odds with the stated mission of awarding creative efforts. In this episode I talk a bit about some of the conventional wisdom (or lack thereof) that's hampered the evolution of the Oscar telecast over the years, and highlight some of the innovations that the production team, which included Steven Soderbergh, Stacey Sher, Jesse Collins, Richard LaGravenese, Jennae Rouzan Clay, Dionne Harmon succeeded in implementing.  

93. Oscar Recap 2021

The Rockford Files is one of the most beloved tv titles and James Garner's Jim Rockford would become the character this veteran actor was and will forever be best known for.  There's a reason Garner, whose career began in the 1950's, titled his excellent, charming, and self-deprecating autobiography 'The Garner Files'.  In this episode, I take a look back at my own introduction to the series during a specific and off-kilter part of my life, and talk about what makes the series so special to so many. Then, in a bit of TV Nerd indulgence, I delve into how the show came to be and we hear from some of the key people involved: co-creator Roy Huggins, Executive Producer Meta Rosenberg, Rockford Files theme composer Mike Post, and Rockford Files Producer Chas. Floyd Johnson.  Plus: plenty of great Rockford clips and answering machine messages and a special guest appearance by the Ben Folds Five.

92. The Rockford Files

Is there a moment, a single day, a couple of hours even, in your teenage years that you could point to and say "that was one of the most important and formative times in my life"? In this episode, Jason is joined by two of his oldest friends, Chris and Roy, and they revisit a specific afternoon in 1985 when, as 15-year-olds, they began a friendship that opened up so much into all their lives. The movie they watched was Pink Floyd's 1972 concert documentary "Live At Pompeii" and it's mind-blowing contents represented the ways in which lives can be opened up and expanded through friednship, music, and a shared POV of the world around us

91. Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii

Heather Thomson and Marianne Sierk are two of my favorite people and social media follows guaranteed to brighten your day with laughs.  They're talented and funny comedians and Marianne is also a Sorceress who somehow put a spell on my cinephile dude self and made me watch Practical Magic and talk about it for an hour and a half with two die-hard "Prac Mag" obsessives! Much fun was had and our conversation veered into all sorts of unrelated areas, like Heather's quarantine singledom, Marianne's thrifting, Dolly Parton, why the myth of the broken comic persona is just that...mostly..and more!   Practical Magic is a 1998 American romantic comedy fantasy film based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Alice Hoffman. The film was directed by Griffin Dunne and stars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Aidan Quinn, and Goran Višnjić. Bullock and Kidman play sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, who have always known they were different from other people - they are witches. Raised by their aunts after their parents' death, the sisters grew up in a household that was anything but normal — their aunts fed them brownies for breakfast and taught them the uses of practical magic. But being a member of the Owens family carries a curse: The men they fall in love with are doomed to an untimely death. Now adult women with very different personalities, the quiet Sally and the fiery Gillian must use all of their powers to fight the family curse and a swarm of supernatural forces that could take away all the Owenses' lives. The film is considered a cult classic

90. Practical Magic W/ Marianne Sierk & Heather Thomson

Starman is a 1984 American science fiction romance film directed by John Carpenter that tells the story of an alien who has come to Earth and cloned a humanoid body (portrayed by Jeff Bridges) in response to the invitation found on the gold phonograph record installed on the Voyager 2 space probe. The original screenplay was written by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, with Dean Riesner making uncredited re-writes. Bridges was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role. The film inspired a short-lived television series of the same name in 1986.

89. Starman (1984)

A listener question prompted this episode about Peter Weir's excellent 2003 period naval-warfare epic 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World', and why it's one of my favorite films and a comforting re-watch at any time I encounter or am in the mood for it. The movie is an interesting demarcation line between a Hollywood that would make a movie like this for 150 million dollars...and a Hollywood that, post TLOTR-trilogy, would increasingly focus its efforts on movies costing two and three times that much designed and engineered to recoup in the billions-with-a-b and not millions. In almost any other era, 'Master and Commander', coming as it does out of a deep well of pre-existing IP (the 20 novels in the Aubrey/Maturin series by famed novelist Patrick O'Brian), would have easily been a repeatable franchise.  The film itself is top-notch, so it's not a question of a bad film failing to light the spark.  So: what happened? In this episode we take a look at what makes the film so special, praise the cast and crew for their efforts, talk a lot about the incredible music used throughout the film, and speculate a bit on exactly why this film, so beloved by those who love it, and returning a fully respectable return on the studio's investment...did not turn into the franchise everyone involved hoped it might. On thing I forgot to mention in the pod: after this experience, Peter Weir made exactly one more film.  He's certainly been at it quite a while, starting his feature career in 1973...and as Tarantino says, directing films is really a young person's game...but one wonders if after putting in ALL the effort, including a necessarily-grueling water shoot, and turning in an excellent film nominated for 10 Oscars....and having that all met with the popular audience version of a damp squib...he just decided that it wasn't worth it anymore, that if Hollywood wasn't going to allow a filmmaker like him to tell the stories he wanted to tell, at his price point...then it might have been time to step off the apple box. A shame, if that's what happened, because Peter Weir is one of the greatest film directors, with a lot to say and offer the medium.

88. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

In our first post-Trump episode, Jason is joined by Friend Of The Pod Richard Brown to discuss the 1979 Nick Nolte film North Dallas Forty. Before that, Rick and Jason catch up on withdrawing from political mainlining, growing up as children of single Mom's in the 1970's, and then get to the good stuff; a robust, detailed discussion of the genius of Ted Kotcheff and the singular pleasures of North Dallas Forty. North Dallas Forty is billed as a "sports comedy-drama" which just shows how hard to categorize this brilliant and subversive counter-culture take on battling corrupt institutions actually is.  And yes, it IS about professional football, and the NFL, and the Dallas Cowboys and what at the time was a rare behind-the-scenes look inside an NFL locker room.  But it's also, like many of director Ted Kotcheff's other films (First Blood, Wake in Fright, Fun With Dick and Jane) about the individual fighting against or being co-opted by unfeeling authority.   When Nick Nolte developed the movie, he hand-picked Kotcheff as a director precisely because Kotcheff admittedly knew next to nothing about football.  All the more impressive then that what few football scenes there are tend to be so impressively and bone-crunchingly filmed in North Dallas Forty. Featuring a fantastic supporting cast of character actors like Charles Durning, G.D. Spradlin and Dabney Coleman, all of whom plumb familiar territory with sometimes surprising depths.  And it was the film debut of country superstar Mac Davis, who turns in a remarkably nuanced and complicated performance as the QB who has made his peace, sort of, with the professional and moral compromises he has embraced thus far. North Dallas Forty is a great football movie, it's a great 70's movie, it's a great New Hollywood movie, and on and on.  

87. North Dallas Forty (1979)

Two-time FCAC Very Special Guest Ted Jessup and I revisit 1974's Panavision international espionage and Nazi-hunting thriller 'The Odessa File' and make plenty of stops along the way to discuss 'The Rainmaker', 'Deliverance' 'The Seven-Ups', 'Anaconda', 'Coming Home', 'Heat', 'The Assassin', and much more! 

The Odessa File

Gomorrah (Italian: Gomorra - La serie) is an Italian crime drama television series created by Roberto Saviano for Sky Atlantic. Based on Saviano's book of the same name,[1] the show premiered on Sky Atlantic in Italy on 6 May 2014, and has run for four seasons. The title of the show is a play on the name of the Neapolitan crime syndicate, Camorra. The 2008 film of the same name is loosely based on the same book, but unrelated to the TV series.[2]. The fifth season will be the last.[3] The show, largely filmed in the Scampia neighbourhood of Naples,[4] tells the story of Ciro Di Marzio (Marco D'Amore), a member of the Savastano clan, headed by Pietro Savastano (Fortunato Cerlino), a high-ranking member. Ciro aims to navigate the dangers of the criminal world, while also fighting a brutal civil war.[5] The Savastano family also consists of his wife Immacolata (Maria Pia Calzone) and son, Gennaro (Salvatore Esposito). The show also features rival crime boss Salvatore Conte (Marco Palvetti), while introducing the characters Annalisa Magliocca (Cristina Donadio), Patrizia Santore (Cristiana Dell'Anna), Giuseppe Avitabile (Gianfranco Gallo) and Enzo "Sangueblù" Villa (Arturo Muselli) in the show's later seasons. The series has gained critical acclaim for its characterization, pacing, atmosphere, acting, directing, and writing.[6][7] It has also become a ratings hit for Sky, regularly featuring as one of the network's most-watched cable shows.[8][9] The series has been sold in 190 countries worldwide.[10][11] It premiered in the United Kingdom on Sky Atlantic on 4 August 2014, and in the United States on SundanceTV on 24 August 2016.[6] The spin-off film The Immortal, which is both a prequel and a sequel to the events after the series' third season, was released on December 5, 2019.[12][13]

85. Gomorrah La Serie

The Bureau (original title: Le Bureau des Légendes) is a French political thriller television series created by Éric Rochant and produced by TOP - The Oligarchs Productions and Canal+, which revolves around the lives of agents of the DGSE (General Directorate of External Security), France's principal external security service. Originally aired in France from 27 April 2015, it was launched in the United States and Canada on iTunes on 1 June 2016 as part of a new international "Episodic Cinema" label, quickly reaching the Top Five.[1][2] In the United Kingdom, the series was released exclusively by Amazon Prime on 17 June 2016.[3][4] The first season received positive reviews in both France and other countries, and won several awards. The second season has been universally acclaimed, and has even been seen by some as the best television ever produced in France.[5] The third and fourth seasons, respectively aired in France beginning 22 May 2017[6] and 22 October 2018,[7] have met with further acclaim, with praise for the show's acting, pacing, plot and realism.[8]

84. The Bureau

It's been a long time coming, and finally, its time to devote an entire episode to singing the praises of 'Columbo'!  In this Very Special Episode of the pod, Jason is once again joined by TV historian and pop-cultural eminence grise Richard Brown as they discuss the classic Columbo episode 'Try and Catch Me', starring Ruth Gordon and work their way through 20 Questions About Columbo as submitted by Full Cast and Crew SuperListeners Cindy and Mike.

83. Columbo

(Werner Herzog voice) FULL CAST & CREW is a podcast that awards a film the coveted honor of our going down the rabbit hole of the Full Cast & Crew section of its IMDB page, coaxing forth meaning, dancing with its animal spirits, divining the divine fire that burns at its very heart, and reading, like runes, the unlikely connections, weird trivia, and strange quotes to determine where this film sits in the grand cave painting that is human culture. All done in the patented FCAC way that has made hosts Chris and Jason household names. Or will make them household names. By March. At the latest. Maybe early April.

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Full Cast And Crew

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