Dana Gould on Planet of the Apes

This week Chuck finds himself in conversation with writer/comedian/director Dana Gould. Aside from talking some Simpsons, they go deep into the 60s sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hey, everybody, and welcome to Movie Crush Charles W. Chuck
Bryant here at our home studio, Pont City Market, Atlanta, Georgia.
And this week what a treat. I had Dana Gould
in the chair across from me. And Dana Gould is um. Well,
if you know The Simpsons, then you love Dana Gould
because he was a writer on The Simpsons. If you

(00:45):
love stand up comedy, then you probably love Dana Gould
because he's one of the best. Uh. He is also
the creator and director, show runner and writer of Standing
Against Evil, the Great i f C television show with
my Janet Barney, and Janet hooked Dana and I up
when he came through town doing some stand up shows,

(01:06):
and I was able to get him in here in
the home studio to talk about the original Planet of
the Apes movie. Um. Obviously not the remake, although we
do talk about that a little bit. But Dana knew
right away what movie he was gonna pick. This was
not one of the ones that someone had to deliberate
on because he is a super fan of the original

(01:27):
and Um, as you will learn, is a collector of
items from the movie and has met and befriended some
of the people from the original movie and just had
a lot of good knowledge about um the Great, Great
Classic a movie with Charlton Heston. So I hope you
watched it recently because it's a great film. And here

(01:48):
we go with Dana Gould on Planet of the Apes.
Had the show go last night. It was good. It
was the first show. It was the first show that
I done since before the holidays. I felt that was
really rusty and crappy shaking it off. Yeah, people don't
seem to no one ever notices and you know they

(02:08):
I have I have an album out now, so oh great.
I feel like everybody's in my own you know, you
don't realize that not everybody has listened and memorized it.
So if I have anything in the live show that's
from the album, I'm like, I'm a hack that whole
pressure to come up with new bits or whatever. People like, yeah,
it's I mean it's right now, it's about sixty and uh.

(02:32):
But also people people don't care. Yeah, we people like
stuff stuff you should know does has been doing shows
for a few years now, and we had to just
get used to doing because you know, we just do
with the podcast and release it and then that's it. Yeah.
So we had to get used to just doing the
same topic for like six or seven shows because we
don't do a new one for each city. Sure, of course,

(02:52):
and we had to reckon with you know, just repeating
material and like, oh, I feel gross and I not
wait a minute, that performers do that all. But yeah, yeah,
try being in a play. I can't imagine. Have you
ever done that? Oh? Yeah, I know, yeah, sure, No,
it's it's it's a different mindset completely. Uh So where
are you from. Well, I grew up in the middle

(03:14):
of Massachusetts and a little really small town called Hopeedale. Uh.
And the Hopdale's claims to fame our it was a
socialist experiment in the eighteen hundreds, but it was. The
entire town was built around a loom factory, and everybody
in the town worked at the loom factory. The factory
built the houses. Uh. If you needed a light bulb,

(03:37):
you just go to the factory and get a light bulb.
If the if they thought you weren't taking care of
your yard, you'd get called into your supervisor's office and
they go clean up your yard. So the factory built looms. Yeah,
it was called Draper Corporation. Uh and uh and but
the town, the factory built the town and it was
a socialist experiment didn't work. And uh, well I think

(04:01):
eventually capitalism took over. Capitalism was like kut zoo. He
could really keep it up. Yeah, um uh and uh
Joe Perry from Arrowsmith and me really Yeah. Joe Perry's
mother was our jim teacher in high school. So you
guys know each other. Um, I've I met him briefly,
I know his son and uh. But the really weird

(04:21):
thing was when I was married, my wife and I
were my wife's a big show business executive, and we
were leaving a she party and as relieving Steven Tyler
was walking in right uh and as he walked past me,
I said, uh, my brother used to load your amps
when you rehearsed at the Hopedale Community House. And he went,

(04:44):
that's a deep gut. Yeah. An he went you're from
Hopedale and I said yeah, And he goes, what are
you doing out here? And I said, same as you
went in show business. And then we just started chatting.
My wife didn't know that I started talking to him,
so she kept walking, She goes, I was talking to you,
and then finally I looked at you were a hundred
yards back talking to Stephen Tyler. That's acceptable. But he
was he was just he was lovely. It could have

(05:04):
been nicer. But no, Joe Perry, they weren't obviously, No,
he was. He was with somebody else, but I don't
knew Joe's son. Yeah, he was a good guy. I
think they're all good guys. So Central Massachusetts, yeah, very much.
You know, it's it's it's upstate New York. It's it's
you're in the woods. It's Trump Country. Ye, Camo, a

(05:26):
lot of camo, a lot of gun racks. It's weird
to think of Massachusetts that way, being from Georgia, because
I just think it's all just a liberal haven. No. See,
that's what's so funny. It's not. You know, you get
out of Boston and you're anywhere. And as far as
racial integration, Boston is one of the least racially integrated

(05:49):
cities in the country. Atlanta is the most racially integrated.
So Atlantic gets bad, but I don't know why it
has been the most racially integrated. I mean, you see
rednecks with hot black girlfriends. It's the craziest thing. Like
I've always told people, if you want to see like
an example of racial harmony, go to a Falcons game. Yeah,
like hardcore rednecks and inner city black folks just like

(06:11):
hugging each other. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's it was really
a revelation. And it was it was it was quite Uh,
it was cheering. Yeah, it can work well because Boston.
Good luck, because you spent uh. And of course we'll
have already plugged staying against evil, but Janet and in
the in the pre show intro which I'll record later.

(06:32):
But you spent a lot of time and hit my
podcast yeah of course, yeah, and the in the album
and everything. Sure, it was a lot. Just you have
to overdo it. I like to overdo it. Uh. But
you stay six kids, keep going, It's great, keep chugging. Uh.
How many weeks have you been at Lanta past couple

(06:52):
of the years. Well, I'm you know, I'm down here
every summer for two months. Uh and brutal in the summer. Yeah,
but I'm too busy to notice. You know. The first
season we shot in July, which was excruciating because we
are quite literally shooting in the swamp at the time.
A lot of nights, right nights, and that doesn't help.

(07:13):
And that's yeah, exactly and steamy. It's like opening the
dishwashers in mid cycle. Uh. And we're a lot of
the time we're literally out in a swamp, like we
can't go down until the snake guy clears it, right,
which is never something I thought I would have to
deal with. And uh and then we h the second season,

(07:34):
we did uh in June, which is a little easier,
a few degrees a little bit. Yeah, and then although rain,
we got our ass kicked Rain, and then the third
will be the same. That's great. I have a few
buddies on your crew. Actually, yeah, Molly Coffee, Yeah, it
was a Molly last night. A Molly came to the
show last She is the greatest and a genius. Oh yeah,

(07:57):
she's so talented. Yeah, she's a crazy genius. People would
be working. She saved that show. Yes, I think Mallory
Coleman might have worked on it. And she's a good buddy. Yeah,
there's Mallory worked with Molly and Art Uh yeah, yeah,
covered legs, covered in tattoos, that's the one she was
with her last night. Yeah, May is awesome. Yeah she uh,

(08:17):
she worked on the stuff you should know TV show
that we did years ago that nobody watched. Well I
feel it. Yeah, great, ladies, No dance doing all right,
seems like dance okay, but it's just like I look
at the stuff my kids watch and I'm just like, oh,
that's what people are. Like Dance Moms. It's like dance
every epiode if you even know, if you've ever seen

(08:38):
Dance Moms, it's just the worst of human behavior. It's like,
I would every episode of Dance Moms should end with
Charlton Heston exploding the Adam bomb from the end of
Beneath a Planet of the Ape. That would be Somebody
said every porno movie should end with footage of birth

(09:01):
to this stuff. Yeah, yeah, that would be just at
the end, just have the earth blow up. That's funny,
fun with me. So um growing up where you grew
up was how did movies figure into your earlier life?
It was it was huge. I I I'm from a
really big family. I have four older brothers, I have
a younger sister and uh and the three bedroom house.

(09:27):
And I was very much out of place in my family. Everybody.
You know, they're real man and man, yeah, you know
they're balls at balls man. My brothers are prison guards,
you know, they're and and everybody hunts and they're all athletes.
And I was just a little weird creative type. Yeah.

(09:48):
And I mean I literally figured it out like I
was the fifth boy. And I just think my mother's
body was out of testoster like and they gave me
like I was a sue gennerous the name of Dana's
segue name. Um, it's alarming that I'm straight, I guess, um,
but uh uh so I was. I became obsessed with

(10:11):
horror movies. I think one of the reasons, Um, you like,
who knows why you like something? You know? Who knows why?
Some people are obsessed with Breakstein and other people. I don't.
I don't. I can't tell you. But one of the
things about horror movies, uh and and science fiction and
stuff is that the kids relate to the monster because

(10:32):
the the monster. No one understands the monster, and and
that's how kids feel. Kids feel like the Wolfman of Frankenstein.
I think I'm okay, but nobody gets me. Nobody understands me.
Um and uh, Planet of the apes specifically, which it
was a very huge movie for me. Um. Uh, it's
literally like the charlotood Heston in that movie is on

(10:54):
this planet that he doesn't under he's in this world.
It is upside down, it doesn't understand and and that
is is very subconscious. But that's how I felt like
nobody understands that I had books and and and just
I was just in this world. And you know there
was to a little kid that are like apes of
these giant people and uh, like yeah, I can't relate
to this guy. It was. It was strange. And then

(11:17):
the other thing just growing up in a in a
you know, an alcoholic household where everyone where it was
just chaos all the time. Um, you know it was
dependable every night at six Star Trek was on and
uh uh and that was That's a huge thing when
when when you live in when you live in chaos, Uh,

(11:39):
that sort of uh stability is really important. Like I
knew and I don't there's a little old black and
white television upstairs. Uh and uh every night at six
Star Trek was on so I could go and watch
Star Trek and I was like it was a really
important thing. That's awesome. Yeah. And then that's and the
stuff that you like as an adult is just carries over.

(12:00):
Yeah yeah, sure, yeah, you just stick with that. So
a lot of sci fi, a lot of horror. Yeah,
that was that was the That was the stuff that
I really uh uh stuck to and then around and
and there were certain things that everybody would shut up
four Like everybody would shut up when a Clinting Swood

(12:22):
movie was on. Everybody would shut up. Yeah, everybody would
shut up in James Bond movie was on, and everybody
would shut up when George Carlin was on. He was
on TV a lot in the seventies when I grew up,
and I thought and and it was funny, I just
it wasn't It was the only way to kind of
get around all that stuff. And uh, I kind of like,
it's interesting everybody likes him. I like him. It was

(12:45):
one of the few things that I had in common
with everybody, you know. It's like, oh, you like him,
I also like him, and that's so that's the thing
we have in common. Um, and those and that's sort
of like where I I latched onto to that. And
I also came of age. I was, uh, you know,
the first blush up Saturday Night Live and Steve Martin's
huge stardom in the late nineteen seventies, mid nineteen seventies. Uh,

(13:08):
that's when I was fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old and uh,
and I, yeah, I'll be a comedian. That's great. But
I did have this weird theory that like, I would
become a comedian and I would become a movie star,
and I would be so popular that they would let
me write my own movies and then I could write
horror movies and be in them, right, which is the

(13:31):
most bass ackwards way of becoming a writer. It's almost
like I want to be I want to be a
pastry chef, right, and if I'm elected president of the
United States, they would have to let me bake anything
I wanted. It was really an aspect, but I did
end up doing exactly that. I did end up doing
exactly that, but it took a long time. Well that's

(13:53):
really cool though, like hearing horror sci fi. Uh, James Bond,
George Carline and now to look at your career that
really there's a through line. Yeah, Joel James Bond is
sort of an outlier. Well, but but But the point is, like,
but I love all that stuff, Like I still love
Clint Eastwood movies, and I still love James Bond movies
and and and they're the kind of things that don't

(14:14):
fit in with my sort of right. But people would
assume I would, you know, people would assume I like, um, uh,
I don't know how James Bond would fare in the
me too era. I don't know how they're going to
make another movie. Hell, I m de Bond, I'm Ivana,
suck you off. I used to meet you have a
good afternoon, and I have to leave now. I feel
a little uncomfortable. Continued success. Yeah, they have tamed that

(14:37):
a little bit though, even before the me too stuff. Any, Yeah,
they did, And I think the movies are great, you know.
I remember I went to see uh I guess it
was Specter was the last one with my friends, you know.
And they're like, I don't like what what well, what
does the James Bond movie have that this didn't have?
Come on, he's up, Well, we definitely won't see any

(14:58):
I mean there was a movie called Octopusy for sure,
which is honestly the only one I've never seen. Oh really, Yeah,
it's the only one I've never seen. I saw him
in a clown suit. And yeah, I mean, I don't
know how you feel about the various bonds, but Roger
Moore is who Roger Moore was. I enjoyed it because
he was my bond growing up. I'm forty six years old,

(15:18):
so he was. I get it. I get it, I
get it. I mean I like him. I like them all.
I like them all. I grew up with Sean Connery
on television. Yeah, and I think he was the best one.
And then I think Daniel Craig, Yeah, that would be
and then and I even liked I liked one of
the Piers Pros in the movies. I hear he's a dick, really,

(15:40):
you know what. I think I heard that from someone. Yeah, so,
and that affects how you like him. Like I know
somebody who was at a party, like a big party,
like the Vanity Fair party, and there's these picked and
and Daniel Craig had a crazy mustache at the time,
but he photo bombed them like and it made me
like him. So it's him and his wife and Daniel

(16:02):
Craig's literally behind and going, which I just think it's hilarious. Yeah,
that's great. Yeah. Now I've heard Pierce brows and yeah,
and Daniel Craig bumped into me at a party once
and it was like getting hit by a car. He is,
he is just a giant muscle. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, people
bounce into me and they bounced right back. Yeah. No,
he was not. He was very sweet. He was like, oh,
I'm so sorry, but he was literally it was like
it was like a bull ran into you. Yeah, it's funny.

(16:25):
Solid is he's like I think, but but just just
a rock. Supposedly he works out and like he has
this cold room that he exercises in so you can
do more. It's just this weird the science of the
science of becoming a terrifying Uh so all right, we'll

(16:52):
get into Planet of the Apes, but um quickly before
I I kind of had a hunch. Were you on
the Simpsons when the Planet of the Apes music? No?
I I I assumed you wrote it. No, but I
had the same I pitched that idea for the Ben
Stiller Show and we and we got canceled before we
got to do it. It was it was two things.

(17:13):
It was gonna be in the you know, you know
it was going to be The Planet of the Apes
the Musical in the first act and the second act
it was gonna be uh, doctors A is doing Mark
Twain tonight. That was gonna be good too, and um,
Planet the Planet the Apes the Musical ended up at
the Simpsons. I don't know if, uh, if the idea

(17:35):
carried over. They just had the same idea at the
same time. Um, there was some crossover writers. I don't care.
They did a great job, and they did a much
better job than I would have done. I just figured
and I looked it up and saw that you didn't
write it, But I thought, well, he was probably on staff.
I couldn't know. It's not on Steff and I could
not write from Chimpane to Chimpanzee that was that was
David Jon, that was David Cohen. But I ended up

(17:55):
doing drs A is doing Mark Twain tonight for Jon
Hodgemanlive Show, and that's fron that's on YouTube. Yeah that
was pretty great, huh. And it was yeah, it was
as that was as good as that it could have been.
That's one of those things like and and then I
laid I had this weird side career as start to say,
then I did uh William Shatner doing No, it was

(18:18):
it was it was me doing doctors As As William
Shatner performing uh the night before Christmas, and it was
circled around and it was like a Russian doll like
it was drs AIS and then it was it was
it was it was doctors As comes out talking like
William Shatner, then he breaks character and talks like drs

(18:38):
AS and then I break character and talk like me
and then I go back to William Shatter. That's great.
When did you leave the Simpsons? How many years ago
was that? I guess it was two thousand eight or nine, Okay,
because my co host from Stuff you know, Josh and
I we're lucky enough to go to one of the
table reads. But that was, um, it was like five
or six years ago. Yeah, probably I was just left. Yeah,

(19:02):
and it was I mean, just did you get into
that A friend knew a person kind of one of
those things and they're they're all great, just so much fun. No.
I talked to hankas Area on the phone yesterday, like
everybody's still close. That's awesome. And as Simpsons guys like, uh,
stuff you should know we're always making the references. And
we met Matt Graining and it was just like one

(19:22):
of those moments, you know, like he signed the script
and it was a little bart and I've got that
frame now and yeah, and then for ours and one
thousand episodes. Um, just this past year we did Simpsons
Part one and two, which was people have been asking
for for years. So we finally our Simpson's retrospective and uh,

(19:44):
it was just great, So thank you for all that
work of it meant a lot to a lot of people.
Oh sure that yeah, it's I mean, uh, it's funny.
I'll watched my my daughter as a character. Yeah, my
daughter Lulu is ling Boogier, Selma's adopted China. I wrote
that epi ssode and the design is her baby photo.
That's awesome. And uh and that character recurs and like

(20:08):
she was watching the Simpsons and she's fifteen. She's pretty funny.
She's really funny actually, and uh, that character came in
out and oh, honey, that's you. It's like yeah, like, no, no,
that's you. Based on the news. Yeah, I like Bob's Burgers.
She likes Rick and Morty and Bob's Burgers. She's got

(20:30):
a good sense of humor. All right, so nine Planet
of the Apes. It's funny. Your assistant, I'll saying I
need to know the movie so I can watch it
or rewatch it. And uh she she, she said, well,
it'll probably be something like Planet of the Apes. And
then later on she said, yeah, it's a layoup directed

(20:52):
by Franklin Schaffner, who I saw also did Patent Boys
from Brazil, big director director. And I didn't know that
Rod Serling was one of the co writers. Makes perfect sense,
of course it is it is and not not only
is he one of the co writers, his his The
movie was based on a book by Pierre Boule, who
wrote Bridge on the River Quai, and the novel is

(21:15):
is Sullivan's Travels. The novel is a very intellectual exercise,
uh about just man's folly and it's it's it's it's
a very it's a think piece. The novel is a
think piece. Uh. It takes place in a modern day city.
They have planes and helicopters and cars and all that stuff. Um.

(21:36):
Rod Sterling's first draft of the script is much closer
to the novel. It's it's very much a think piece
and a political thriller. I'm adapting that script as a
graphic novel right now for Boom Comics, and that will
come out later this year. Uh So yeah, So every
day I get up and spend three hours wondering what
of Rod's Sterling's I'm gonna cut that's a job. That's

(21:59):
an awful job. Um but no, but but I was like,
yes I have When they offered it to me, I
was like, yes, no one, no one else is gonna
do this. Um. Budgetary constraints on the film. So Rod
Swelling wrote the first two drafts and then they brought
in Michael Wilson, who oddly wrote Bridge on the River Quiet.
That's probably why they brought him in. And the budget

(22:21):
prevented them from having it in a modern day city
and have it. And you know, so they boiled it
down to what you know is the movie. And what's
what's amazing is over the course of the development, it
became a different movie. It became less of a political
thriller and a thin piece and more of like an

(22:42):
an action uh an action movie. It became like a
great episode of the Twilight Zone. And uh, I think
it became a different movie, became a better movie. Um
and but those were all things that were dictated by budget.
They were all external things it that dictated it. Michael
Wilson was blacklisted, and all of that you can see

(23:09):
in the trial scene where Charlton Heston has put on trial,
um and and and and that is that scene is
what the movie is about. That scene is what the
movie is about. In his character, who is a misanthrope
who hates humanity. He's a total dick. He's a complete dick. Uh,

(23:30):
and we can get into that. Uh, he's a complete
dick and which he's not in the Sterling movie, which
he's not in the Sterling script. He's he's a very
traditional rod Sterling, mid century liberal guy. Yeah. And it
was I believe it was Heston or Shaffner or Michael
Wilson that had like, no, what if he was a dick,

(23:52):
but he had to defend humanity. He hated humanity, but
he had to defend it. And it's interesting, Yeah, gave
him a role to play, games, something to play. And Uh,
that court scene is what the movie is about. What
the Tim Burton remake didn't have was that scene. You know,
it managed to be about nothing, which is difficult. What

(24:16):
do you think about it? Uh? And and and that's
really what the movie was about. Um but yeah, I
did this comparison once. Were like, you know, the whole way.
The first twenty minutes of the movie, they're just walking
through the desert and Charleton Heston is just ragging on
these guys. He's being such an asshole to his other

(24:36):
yellow Yeah, my favorite, My favorite line is uh, because
your loved ones have been deadn't forgotten for twenty centuries.
Even if you could get back, they think it was
something that fell out of a tree. It's like, aren't
you in charge of morale? You know? Well, I feel
like Star Trek Captain Kirk. We're surrounded by clings. We
deserve to die. And then when his buddy uh in

(25:01):
a very like patriotic and kind of sea and he
basically just laughs at it. Yeah, what a jerk. Yeah,
it's kind of a dick. It was very much a dick,
and it's funny. I watched um but but again, Charleton
Heston nicest kind of world crazy right wing Yeah guy,

(25:22):
but I did Bill Mars politically correct, politically incorrect the
show before a real time, and I did it with
Charleton Heston and I was, and we disagreed on a point.
He was talking about guns. I'd recently been held up,
so I said something. I said like I didn't believe
in guns or school prayer, and then I had a
gun in my face and I believe in them both,

(25:43):
and you get a big laugh, but I and it's
sort of and I get get a big laugh at
it ended the segment and went right to commercial, and
if if, if you, if you didn't realize, if you
didn't know the text, it looked like I shot Charleton
Heston dad when I really just gotta laugh. And they
went to commercial and he leaned over to me, and
I thought it was gonna say, don't ever interrupt me again,
like I thought he was gonna be and I was
gonna ruin it for me. Yeah, he's probably intimidating him.

(26:05):
He's huge. Yeah, it was huge. He was even as old.
It was huge, six two or six. He was a
big guy. But he leaned over and he put his
hand on my arm and he went, so you're an actor,
You're things are going, You're on this, so clearly things
you're going. Well, Yeah, couldn't have been nicer sent and
sent me a photo. I told him later how much
I loved the movie, give me your address, and he

(26:27):
sent me a sign picture from the movie like three
days later. Just a really old school gentleman. I I
couldn't say enough nice things about him. And you disagree politically,
but just read politically. Yeah, you know. I even remember
watching the UH. The Michael Moore hated that I like
the liberal I am. I was thinking, oh my god,

(26:47):
you're badgering this old man who's has Alzheimer's. Yeah, it
was just I felt so gross about that whole thing.
And I will say I've done I've I've I've been
in the company of both men, and the concern ative
man is a much more pleasant human being. I believe it. Yeah,
I'll say that. But I was watching this UH with
my wife last night. Obviously seen the movie before, but um,

(27:10):
I wanted to take my notes and she she is
not into sci fi or camp classics, and UM had
a little wine together and she started just sort of
sounding off on the movie. It was very funny for
me to hear. But um, oh, yeah, there's some really
gross stuff in that movie. Well, yeah, which we'll get to,
which is great actually, and funny and awful. But the

(27:30):
thing about Stuart, the monologue about Stewart, Yeah, we might
as well. So for those of you who have not
seen the most precious cargo we brought along, Yeah, they
have crashed their their spaceship, and they have found they
have lost the one the lone female who we learned
later was going to be our Eve, basically the one

(27:53):
they sent one woman so they could repeatedly have sex
with her. And I bet she thought she was the botton. Probably,
well another way here, let's crack the seal on operation
knew even see what that's about. She probably was about this, uh,
And the line was Stewart was to be a new
Eve with a hot, eager help of course, which is

(28:14):
just so gross. It's so gross, and it's also uh,
it's the whole thing is really terrible. Yeah yeah, and
it's also it's like make sure Dodge doesn't win the toss. Yeah, absolutely, yeah,
I know that that that that whole thing is is inexplicable.

(28:35):
And I don't know where that game. It was really
weirdly out of place, even for a movie of that time.
It was. It was, but Heston came late to sensitivities.
It was. Yeah, it was. It was mad Man. It
was just a different, completely different era, but yeah, it was.
It was. It's inexplicable. But even even as a plan,

(28:57):
it doesn't work. Well, yeah, you're gonna have a race
of inbred people like every nine months. I'll oh my god.
So my wife said, uh, I'm severely on the ape
side at this point, and I said, well, that's the
whole point of the movie. And she, oh, well, mission
accomplished them, and she just sort of checked in and out.

(29:18):
But the best character in the movie is a woman.
Zero is the is the heart and soul of the movie.
She's a woman. She was great. Yeah, it's an interesting
story because, uh, she walked up to Charlton Heston at
the premiere and you didn't know who she was. I
think I read that, yeah, because she was always in makeup.
But but here's a great story. So at the end

(29:38):
of the movie, they're shooting at a point Doom in
Malibu and the apes. Everyone has shot there, who's ever
lived in Yes, exactly. Uh. The actors played the Apes
had to get there three in the morning to get
in makeup and then getting the station wagon and ape
makeup and be driven up to Malibu, and so they
added two hours to their schedule old just for the commute.

(30:02):
And Heston was the head of SAG at the time,
and he had a lot of weight. And when he
found out about that, he didn't even know. He was
just like like, coming, how are you doing, con, I'm tired?
I get her three? When did you get her three? Like?
He just you know, and he made a call and
made them, made Fox get them a helicopter so they
could sleep for another two hours, yeah, which was a

(30:24):
lot and uh yeah, he didn't have to do that. Yeah. Yeah.
And there's another story that they were shooting in the
desert and the only way the the apes because of
the makeup, they couldn't eat, you know, they would drink
milkshakes for lunch. Uh, And they didn't have any straws
and they were down in the ravine and he literally
ran because I haven't exercise today, and he ran a
mile back to base camp, got a bunch of straws,

(30:47):
and ran a mile back that great run of his
two when you see him right. Yeah. But but his
son Fraser said that every day a crew member or
somebody will come up to him and tell them a
story about how great his father was, because when he's

(31:08):
your dad, whatever is Yeah, yeah, that's great. Uh So, Um,
it was funny watching the obviously very camping now but
a couple of things that the makeup kind of holds
up a little bit. It does to be honest, and um,
even though it's campy, like that first scene where those
apes right up in their leathers on the horseback, still

(31:30):
looks awesome. It's amazing, and it's it's really amazing. And
Franklin Shaffner, who directed that movie, was again a lifetime
of obsession about this movie. I've learned a lot about. Um,
this was his big break. Uh. He had done He
got into the movie because I believe he and Charlton

(31:51):
Heston had done The Conqueror or else Sid or one
of those movies. I think it was The Conqueror, and
they were friends, and I think they're both right wing guys. Uh,
and he's he'd be good for this and and and
this was his first big break and they didn't know
he could do it. Uh, and he and what I

(32:13):
didn't know is that he based it on King Kong,
that it took half an hour or it took a
half an hour to meet King Kong or in the
Peter Jackson movie, it takes an hour and a half.
Um and and so what he did was that long
trek in the desert. They're like, why are you shooting
this stuff? What? And what he knew that the studio

(32:34):
didn't realize is that he completely had to dislocate the
viewer from you know, really reposition them in this place.
And then when the gorillas coming, it's it's done, really scary,
and then when the chimps come in, he gives you laughs.
And that way you never laugh at the makeup, because
the big fear was that people would laugh at the makeup. Uh.

(32:55):
And so it's really structured beautifully. It's really well structured.
And that seems really great. Yeah. Well the genius of
the of the makeup was just doing enough, like they
still have the real eyes. There was a lot of
their real face in there, so they could be expressive.
Well it was. There were there were satires of humans.

(33:15):
They were really apes. They were they were ape like
satires of people, right, Yeah, and the new movies are
a different animal, no pun intended. What do you think
of those? Yeah? I think well that Tim Burton, when
I did not like no, I don't like that one,
but no one does. No one does. But no, I thought,
I I love them. I think they're great. Yeah, dude,
the last one was like heavy, that's all I have.

(33:38):
Still haven't seen that one. It's amazing, it's amazing. But
it's like about an ape on a grill on a horse. Yeah, galvanizing. Yeah,
as I said, it's it's most as dressed like Tarzan
being chased by King Kong, dress like Fonzie oh Man.
That's great. Um, alright, So Charlton Heston Taylor is a
big asshole. Yeah. Um, it's kind of funny now to

(34:01):
see that. But it's it's, like I told my wife, family,
that's the whole point of the thing is he's not
the guy that you're supposed to really be rooting for
because they're flipping everything obviously with a statement on politics
and race and the class system and everything. Yeah. No,
the I don't know whose idea it was to make
him a dick, but the idea of a missing thrope

(34:22):
having to defend humanity. It was great. And there was
a very touching scene in the movie where at the
end he finds like the artificial heart valve and he's
and he clearly had a person that he loved and
he goes I'm not gonna say he's like a guy
new back home, but he had must have been. He
had a lot of the same weaknesses, and you can
see that he cared about this person. You know. It's

(34:46):
I think it's a perfect movie. It's it's not the
greatest movie ever made, but it's incredibly entertaining all the
way through, and it is like a twilight Zone. There's
just enough of a message to not be ponderous. Yeah. Yeah,
Can we talk about the attempted escape scene for a minute,
because it's one of the best scenes ever because it

(35:09):
goes on forever and it's just as far as kind
of camp classics. Uh, it's just fantastic because there are
guerrillas and apes everywhere and it and it looks through fruit. Yeah,
it's like a three Stooges three Stooges scene. I have
been to that area too, it's really Yeah, I have

(35:29):
a chunk of that city in my house now. Was
that Malibu Creek State Park? At the time, it was
the twentiest Century Fox ranch. Yeah, I've shot there. That
was mash Yes, exact mashes just over the hill. Yeah,
same thing. Uh and uh. And when you go to
the area where Ape City was the it's I was like,

(35:50):
I wonder if we can find any parts of it,
and you can't avoid it, is there anything there at all?
Tons of it because the mash Jeep is still there.
What they did with the Ape City is they plowed it.
They bulldozed in and they hauled out the big chunks
and they just left everything else. And so there's just
all over the places, concrete stuck to rebar. It's just

(36:13):
the Ape City. Yeah. I got a chunk of it
in my house. Yeah. I think I walked out of
there with like thirty pounds of it. Oh yeah, what
did what did you shoot at? Oh? I mean it's
just some stupid like beer commercial probably perfect. You know,
it's like movie history is being made and then they're
hawking course light. Yeah. Sure, that's then you go, you
go up, you drive through where a battle for the

(36:35):
Planet of the Apes is filmed, and then you get
to Planet of the Apes. Then you go over the
hill and it smash. What did you think of the
sequels to the original, I mean, I I love them
like my like you know, I love them all but
there are various qualities. I loved Conquest of the Planet
of the Ape, which was the one where they're in
the modern city and they and they're all dressed in

(36:57):
weird jumpsuits. It's just it's just it's crazy. I just
loved it. How many were there? Five? Yeah? As a kid,
I mean it was I was. It was just insane enough. Yeah,
And Beneath the Planet of the Apes is a truly
insane movie. And that was the one directly after this
where there's an at the end of the movie, and
it's one of my favorite things to do is to

(37:18):
logically get to an insane place. I mean, it's a
it's really a farce. At the end of the movie.
You have telepathic mutants fighting evolved apes, while two astronauts
in the past fight over their mute cave girl while
they're trying not to blow up the world with a
nuclear weapon, and you've gotten there logically. There's just a

(37:40):
lot going on in that movie. They really threw everything
at you. What was your entry point for the Planet
of the Apes, Like, when did you first see it.
I was familiar with it because I used to see
the commercials on television and I do not know why,
but it just utterly galvanized me. I don't I can't
tell you why. Um. I saw Escape from the Planet
of the Apes at the Drive and when in one

(38:02):
my mother said, I was six and I knew it
was I saw the TV commercials and then I saw
that it was playing, and I like, she goes you
there was no way you weren't going. Yeah, Like I
was like, stood up a weird, right, was unusual? Uh?
And then I saw Escape from the Plant of the

(38:22):
Apes at the Drive in one. I saw Battle for
the Planet of the Apes of the Drive in the
nineteen seventy three and then that SAP that was in
the summer, and then in the fall. This is when
they started they should come up on television, right, So
you saw the original Planet of the Apes. Third, yep,
I saw it on television. Interesting. Yeah, but I was
you know, I was nine, so it didn't yeah throw me. Yeah, absolutely.

(38:53):
I want to talk about poor little Lucius who was
a friend of mine. Shut up. Yeah, the guy Lou Agner. Yeah, yeah,
because I looked him up head and heard of him.
Yeah he's still around, Yeah, seventies or something, seventies. Really funny. Uh,
he's in an improv group with Fred Willard, and I
was supposed to go to his house on New Year's Day,
but I was out of town. Yeah, he's he's the

(39:15):
only principal ape still gone around and uh, couldn't be
a nicer fellow. He was. He was also on Chips.
You can see him make up. He was the he
was sort of like the uh he's a regular. Yeah,
he was the pathologist guy on Chill Okay. Yeah yeah, yeah,
so he um. One of my wife's comments lesson, he's

(39:37):
the only thing that dates the movie. Yeah, hippie ape. Yeah,
and my wife thought he had a little bit of
She's like, he's got a little Luke Skywalker and him
yeah to the sort of whiney teenager thing. Yeah. Yeah.
Well and by the way, you could it's a funny
you wife says that because it's so true if you
watch Star Wars, like you couldn't have that character be
the center of a movie anymore. Yeah. I was on

(39:58):
my way as her station sometime murders yeah, yeah, which
I didn't notice when I was six, And there's a
there's a couple of really like because oh, you should
leave us out here, sir, What kind of talk. Is
that he's really he's really sweet. It's so good. Lucius

(40:20):
is such a I mean you could just kind of
a lot of headshaking. Yeah, but he's uh he you
know obviously as he's amazing, sir. He's the one that
told me about Charlton Heston running back to get Yeah. Man,
so you just you've gotten all the good inside stories. Yeah.
And he was like, but he was like he called him,
he goes, you know, the first thing he told me,
he was called me chuck. Yeah, and uh and uh yeah.

(40:42):
Again it's like you're you're poised to not like him
if you disagree with this politics. Right, He's like, now
he's a great guy. That's a good lesson. Yeah, he's
a good lesson. Uh, never trust anyone over thirty. Yeah,
right out of laughing. Yeah, absolutely, And then the the
scene now either evil here, no, we were speaking to evil?
Was there's a sorry about that? What's that? That was

(41:08):
not in the script, and they Schaffner pitched at to
Heston or Heston pitched at the Shaffner as a joke
for the dailies. Let's just do it and it'll be
a joke for the will show it in the dailies
will just do it, be funny, and then they put
it in the first sneak just as it's like, I

(41:29):
know it's too much, but let's just put it in
and see what people think. And then the sneak was crushed,
and then shafts Okay, well I'm gonna trim that scene
and I'll take out the here now evil scene and
they're like, what are you talking. You can't take it out.
He's like, no, we can't have that in there. It's
too much. We're gonna take it out. And the studios like,
you're not taking it out. They got a huge laugh,

(41:50):
and it's yeah, it's as they say, there's no, it's inexcusable,
but there you go. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's that great, uh,
kind of sweet moment at the end with um with
Taylor and zero so damn Dugley. Yeah, when you know
she's clearly just smitten with him the whole the whole picture.
And Roddy McDowell is just like the sort of cuckold
in waiting and which is so perfect that it's Roddy mcdell.

(42:12):
But you know, I'd like to give you a goodbye
kiss and kiss you goodbye. Yeah, it was really really pretty.
It's really it's very sweet. Um. And then let's discuss
the end quickly. Uh, one of the great, like you said,
Twilight Zone endings. It would be great if he didn't
get it. My god, they have a Statue of Liberty too, No,

(42:33):
you idiot. They should have done one take like that. Yeah,
it's one of the odds. Yeah. Well, and of course
my wife I was like setting it up, like, here's
the beginning, here's the beginning, one of the most famous
last shots ever. She's like, oh, statue of Liberty. She's like,
but why is it at the beach? And they were
just at Lake Powell and Malibu and like, hey, over

(42:56):
two years of nuclear literal yeah, like things shifted, things
by moved around. But one of the one of the
great Hollywood ings ever. Oh yeah, one of the great,
one of the great surprise endings. And that was and
everybody has taken credit for it. Yeah, and it was
Rods Rollings. Okay, it was it was Rod Serlings. I
mean it's got his fingerprints. Yeah. And and it's funny
more I saw more at Abraham's speak was the associate

(43:18):
producer and uh, and he said, yes, everybody. Arthur P.
Jacobs so credit for it that it took that for
it to because statue Liberty half buried in the sand
is what you get when you write Rod Serling a
check the go. Because it was Rods. It was Rod's.
It was Rods. Now, apparently there were some alternate endings,

(43:39):
but I couldn't find what they were, do you know, yeah,
there were there were. The the alternate ending was and
this was cut. It was shot and it was cut.
The part of this was caught. It was implied that
Nova was pregnant and it was kind of was in
real life. Uh no, not in real life. II. She
was the girlfriend and later wife of Digsana who ran

(44:00):
Box all right, because one of the bits of trivia
I found was that she was pregnant with his child
during the shoot and towards the end they said she
was showing a little bit that maybe no, I think
that's premature, okay, but but she was. It was implied that,
you there was a scene with in the movie that
was shot that said that she was pregnant with Taylor's child,
and they cut it because it wouldn't because like she

(44:23):
was a cave girl and it was it was. They
thought it would imply missgenation of bestiality or something. It
was too much. It was too much for them. It
was too much for them. But the theory was that
she was uh, she was pregnant. Taylor was gonna get
shot by a gorilla sniper and killed before he saw

(44:44):
the Statue of Liberty. Nova would have ridden off alone.
Then Zaias and Zero walked down the beach and she says,
what is that? And Zaias says, it's a grave and
idol worshiped by man, and they revealed the Statue of Liberty,
and then the last shot is Nova riding off alone.
That's not bad, actually, yeah, but it was. But you
it's very satisfying to have him see it, and yeah,

(45:06):
and and and to have him you know that moment
is very satisfying. So the idea, though, is see, I
like a nice ending, Yeah, I like And let's let
me just pull something out of thin air twin peaks,
the return. I didn't see the end. There's no ending.
It's it's not it's just like knock knock, who's there,
Ted tattoo? Never mind looking those balloons. I didn't. I

(45:28):
gave up on that. Yeah, And I love David Lynch.
But I do too. I was saying, very you're not
a sellout if you conclude your story in a satisfactory way. Agree, totally.
Charles Dickens did it, you can do it. Good point. Uh,
And I think I have here that in the trivia
as well. The number uh sixty six all time movie
quote was the take your stick and paws off me,

(45:49):
you damn dirty. Yes, And that's a great line. And
in the original Sterling draft, uh, it's um, he's about
to undergo it's very different story and he's about to
undergo brain surgery. They're about to remove his frontal lobes,
and he gets his voice backed and he says, no,

(46:11):
get away from me, leave me alone. It's not as
good a line. I wouldn't be number sixty six of
all time. Yeah, yeah, take your I'm assuming he was
written by Michael Wilson. But it's a great line. It's
a great line. Yeah. Yeah, but you know what, but
but it's perfect. You know you need you need a

(46:32):
guy that big to carry that story. Uh, which and
you know what, Mark Wahlberg does not do it. You
need a guy larger than life to be the cent
to to to give that story of Fulcrum, you know,
and uh, and he nails it. Yeah, that's a good point.

(46:54):
Same with Omega Man. Not as good a movie. But
was that him as well? Yeah, okay, yeah, you know
I never saw that. It's great. Yeah, it's super cheesy,
can't be Yeah, and of course Soiling Green. Yeah, no one,
no one yelled a line better, nobody yelled a line.
But yeah, and even and and the one thing, and
even in Touch of Evil, when he's trying to be romantic,

(47:15):
he's yelling, I even kissed you and over an hour
leave her alone. It's so good. I saw. I was
just doing more research this morning, and I saw where
he turned up on a lot of lists of like, uh,
greatest bad actors that everyone loves still and I don't
know that. I don't think he's Yeah, I think he's
a bad act I don't think he's a bad actor.
I think I think he did. I think he did

(47:37):
what he did. Uh, and uh, he you know a
lot of that. He became a character. He became Charlton Heston. Yeah. Um,
and at the time though there was far less nuance
and performance. He was not he was not he was
not from the actor's studio. He predated that he was
a very traditional yeah fifty actor, and then Brando stuff

(48:01):
was after him. Really, Uh, he's he's a different kind
of actor. He's a theatrical actor. But I don't he's
always projecting to the last row. Yes, but yeah, I don't.
I I don't. I don't think he's a he's a
bad actor. I agree. Yeah, I imagine he knew which
side was his good side. Yeah, I'll tell you who
I think is a bad actor. Leonardo DiCaprio. Let's get

(48:24):
into this. I don't think he's He never when he's angry,
he shouts, when he's sad, he pouts. He never plays
the opposite intention. He's not internal at all. He's he's
a he's a face actor. Uh. I never, I'm never
wondering what he's thinking. Uh. Yeah, I don't find him

(48:47):
a good actor. Wow, I never thought about that. Ye,
Like he's a very Uh I think he's a very
first thought, Wow, maybe's your favorite actor, living actor? Yeah,
living tricky. I know that is so tough you're gonna say,
Luke Wilson. I mean, the first thing that popped in

(49:10):
my head was Sean Penn. But that's just because he's great. Yeah,
there I was. I went to Hawaii with Sean Penn once.
Did you Is he great? He's a very interesting fellow. Yeah. Um,
I was named Bill Nye out or Bill Nye and
h English. Yeah, I can watch I can watch that

(49:30):
guy read the phone book. Here's something about that guy.
I just love and and and and this is it's
the opposite of of Leonardo DiCaprio. He's so quiet and
so internal and and and and utterly fascinating. Yeah. Yeah,
utterly fascinating to me. He's just so good. And I

(49:51):
saw him on Charlie Rose once. Um, God rest his soul,
Charlie Rose. And uh. And you know who Bill Nye's
favorite actor is Steve Martin. Oh wow, and he goes,
here's Charlie. Have you even watched his hands? It's his hands,
it's a ballet and it was like only a British

(50:12):
like Rada actor would pick up. Yeah, because I can
just I'm obsessed with Steve Martin's hands. I need to
come up with a better answer for that question. I
have the Darkest Hour with Gary Oldman is uh. I
haven't seen that one yet. It's amazing. It's the best
makeup I've ever seen in the movie. Well, he's yeah,
he's of course great. But the makeup I was really into.

(50:35):
He's also phenomenal. But the weird thing about the makeup
and Darkest Hour is it doesn't look like makeup. And
I've never seen that before ever in anything very good makeup.
It's you know, it's even you know, it's really amazing.
You know, it's it's amazing not to check that out. Yeah,

(50:57):
all right. We end with a couple of segments here.
Uh uh, one called what Ebert said, this movie is
a complete disappointment. I'd always like to see through this lens.
I did Letterman with Ebert and Sisily and Ebert. Yeah,
I have a I'm gonna write a book call I've
met everybody, because I think I have. I just yeah,

(51:20):
because I started I got in the business when I
was seventeen. And yeah, and I just I just started
doing stand up when I was seventeen. I started working.
And so I was very young when I was and
I've just had a lot of I've been very fortunate,
met a lot of people. And yeah, well still show
you were pretty young. Yeah, I was in my twenties
and and uh and yeah. I did let him in

(51:41):
with Cisco and Ebert and again, like Gene, Cisco was
super nice and Roger it was a dick. Really yeah,
because Ceci I've seen that documentary and I just want
to give him a hug. Yeah, you know, and and
he when he was a dick. I was in the
makeup chair with Cisco. We were in the makeup together
and I said, you know, you guys turned me onto
one of my favorite movies and uh and he said
what was that? I said, Carnival of Souls and he went, oh,

(52:03):
And we talked about Carnival of Souls twenty minutes and
then and then I, uh, I got into the dressing
room and like I started to Sayson of the Ebert
he just walked past me like really, Brush and Jean,
I locked as a Jane and he was really yeah,
but it was we had kind of a moment, Yeah
I deal with yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's like

(52:25):
my wife, right yeah. All right. So here's what Ebert
gave it three stars actually, and um this pool quote
is uh he was talking about um. Just to put
it in context sort of other reviewers and people in
Chicago before it came out, kind of slamming the movie
ahead of time, even though there were lines around the

(52:46):
block and it was very anticipated. Yeah, and Pauline Klee
gave it a rave. Yeah. That was the thing that
really put it over the top is that Pauline Klee
said it was the best American movie of the year
she seen so far that year. I was only came
out in February. When I came out in April, okay, well,
not bad, best movie the first four months. Yeah, So
Ebert says this what they were really implying his reviewer

(53:06):
friends was that any movie named Planet of the Apes
had to be awful. This kind of snobbery may be
good for a chuckle or two, but those who practice
it missiled a lot of entertaining movies. Planet of the
Apes is one. It is not great or significant or profound.
I'm not sure I agree with that. Occasionally it is
distractingly cute, because when the Apes rewrite one cliche after
another man see man do for example, to uh to apes,

(53:29):
all men look alike. But this is part of the fun.
So was that much publicized ape makeup. It does look
real by Jingo, and after a while you really do
start thinking of those apes as individuals. Yeah, that's right.
He dug it for the most part. And there read
some other like old reviews at the time, and oh
go back and read the reviews of like Star Wars.

(53:49):
Oh really, Oh yeah, it's amazing. Ultimately it fails. Or
my favorite thing, whenever you get a bad review, it's
important to go Yeah, you read the reviews of Star
Wars or read the reviews of The Beatle was on
Ed Sullivan. There are many things musicians, not among them
that Bosley Crowder was like, you know, I don't know

(54:11):
what you would call the noise they make the beginning
of the revolution the Beatles. All right, so we uh
and finally with five questions, Um, what's the first movie
you remember seeing in the theater Bad Knobs and Broomsticks.
I remember that movie. Oh that's great Disney, Uh yeah, Apple,

(54:33):
Dumplin Gang and yeah yeah yeah, and I like I
went to see it because I liked the I thought
that the nights walking alone with nothing inside the suit
was cool and scary. Um. For some reason, those early
movies like that that I watched always take me back
to the don Knots movies like incredible mostes well goes

(54:56):
to Mr Chickens one of my favorites. Yeah, such a
great movie. He was great. I voiced him on The Simpsons. Really. Yeah.
When you hear Barney five, it's me. Can you do
it now? Yes? Lovely guys. Daughter's wonderful. His daughter's name
is Karen. Uh and uh, she's really sweet. And um

(55:16):
I met don knots at. Uh. I didn't. I didn't
meet him when he did The Simpsons, and then he
passed and I started to do whenever you see Barney five, Yeah,
when he talks to Chief Wig him on television is
the problems of the Boys in Blue. Uh. But I
had a window card of the ghost of Mr Chicken
and I said, couldn't would you please sign this? Do

(55:39):
Calm and Murder go together? That a line from the movie. Yeah,
it's one of your best. Like, sweet man, what did
you do? Other voices on The Simpsons A couple but
nothing major. Okay. Uh. First are in the Boston episode
because it's that accent. If it's not that accent, if

(56:00):
it's not genuine, is shriekingly blatantly fake. Being from the South,
I'm acquainted with that. It's I have Matt Selman, who
wrote that episode. Is also from Boston, so so he
he was the one that was made sure that all
the voices were specific. We're genuine. Did you did you

(56:21):
have an accent that you lost? Oh? Yeah, totally on
purpose or just when I had an acting teacher beat
a lot of it out of me. And then I
moved to California and the the the mix of my
New England accent and California accent people think of Canadian.
I don't know why, but it's it's it's mixed, I'll
say oot. Sometimes does it come out when you go home? Though, Yeah,

(56:43):
I'll be your home for four days. I'm like, where's
the car? First R rated movie theater or home? Um, boy,
that's a good one. I think it might have been
Life of Brian. M hm, that's a good one. Uh.
Will you want a great movie? Yeah? Just so great? Yeah?
Um will you walk out of a bad movie? Yes?

(57:04):
I have walked out of a couple of movies. You
remember I walked out of two movies in one day.
I walked out of Uh, that's great. I walked out
of the Legend of Billy Jean, and I walked out
of the I think the Man with One Red Shoe
I think that was the same day. Now I walked
out of The Cook, the Thief, his wife and her lover.
That was a good movie though. Yeah, but the minute
the guy put the dog mess in the guy's mouth
and I can't watch this. So was we're The first

(57:26):
two was Red Shoe, the backup that you went into
after you walked out. Yeah, so that was a double Yeah,
it was a double whammy. On the same day, I
was like, oh, this is awful. Did you try a third?
I left, I give up And I should have walked out.
I really should have walked out of Tim Burton's Planet
of the Apes. And I saw it with it I
I don't want to say his name on the RAI

(57:47):
I'll tell you after. But I saw with a big
director who was a friend of mine, who's like a
major movie director, and we were sitting there and it
started and he went six minutes in six seconds, and
he went, it's horrible. And then we were just like,
is it really this bad? And then it just kept
going and going and going and going. It just kept
going and and we were furious when we left. But

(58:09):
it was one of those things like now we have
to stay and just I've done. It was like reading
did when you were a kid? Did you read? And
I don't want to live this life? The Nancy Spongeon
but it was Synvicious his girlfriend, Nancy's friend, And it's
one of those things like I hate this person. Why
am I still reading about it? Like because if I
don't finish the book, it will be an unfinished thing

(58:29):
in my mind. I have to complete it and put
it away. I have to read that now. It's awful.
Don't Uh do you have any guilty pleasure movies you
can think of? Oh? Yeah, I have a I have
a have a ton um Uh, I mean all the well,
I don't know if they're guilty player, like Where the

(58:50):
Garganteous It's one of my favorite movies. I don't know,
it's not really guilty. I think it's really like I
think it's a good it's a great thing of what
it is, you know, I think it's I don't think
I know that movie. It's a you know, Godzilla movie basically, Uh,
you know, so I would say, but I don't think
it's a it's a bad movie. I'm trying to think of,
like what would be yours. I'm trying to think of like,

(59:12):
I have guilty pleasure music, like yeah, like The Doors,
Yeah yeah, yeah, I was really into them in college
and yeah yeah yeah. But he's like, yeah, I know, yeah,
I even bought the Jim Morrison poetry. Yeah sure, sure, yeah,
it's it's horrible. Yeah it's horrible. But yeah, yeah, you're right,
it's it's horrible, but you do it. There must be
a um a comedy uh that I like. It's I

(59:40):
don't know, yeah, I don't know, pretty snobby. A lot
of people don't have them. So I have a music.
I have guilty pleasure of music. Yeah yeah um. And
then finally number five, movie going one on one, Um,
what's your movie going rituals? What do you where do
you sit? What do you get at the concession stand? Oh? Um, well,
I used to get Now over fifty, I don't anymore,

(01:00:02):
but I used to just get a barrel of I
would just eat it mindlessly, eat like packing peanuts, just
bury myself in popcorn. And uh and a giant diet coke.
Neither one of those I get anymore. Um, but you know,
I I have my big movie. I was an usher
at the movie theater growing up in my hometown. And

(01:00:24):
then I worked at the drive in and I worked
out the driving where I saw the Planet of the
Apes movie Kids, same driving where I also saw Blade
Runner and in Star Trek two and all those movies,
which was the summer that I worked there. Uh. There's
a drive in Los Angeles about forty five minutes outside
of town called Mission Tiqui and it's four screens, has

(01:00:47):
been it's been around forever, but it was renovated several
years ago, and it's it's it's it's gorgeous and uh.
And my kids and I go all the time during
the summer and uh, and so that's my big Like
we just take the minivan and we we have lawn
chairs and we go to the drive in and we
and we have a blast. And we do that several

(01:01:07):
times during the summer. There's one here. So yeah, yeah,
I know because we went when when Yeah, when they
came down for the summer were my daughter was like,
let's find a drive in. Let's go to the drive in.
A Yeah, I haven't been in a while. I need
to check that out again. It's like, I'm not a
weirdo about sound quality or image quality. I don't really
care about that stuff. Um, it was. It was really. Uh,

(01:01:31):
those are the things that like I like, I said midway,
I said, put two thirds of the way back and
in the middle. Yeah, here's a close with this because
it's kind of uh, it's interesting. Last summer uh TCM
really you know they they'll do those first run they'll
they'll take an old movie and they'll put it in

(01:01:52):
the theater. And they did Plant to the Apes last
summer and before it, Ben Mankowitz interviewed Drusis and it
was me m and I went to see it here
in Atlanta. I was down here shooting and was it
at the Fox? I forget where it was, but it was, Yeah,
it was some. It was in you know, it's a

(01:02:14):
limited I to go out and find the theater by
myself sitting in a sitting in the theater with a
bunch of people watching myself on screen in Dr A's makeup,
which but knowing that people around me like, I want
to go that's me, Like they wouldn't know that it
was me. It was a very weird moment um do

(01:02:36):
you own that costume? No, it's all that's a gain
inamed Andy Schoenberg, who works it can and be effects
but I was. I was friends with Mila Nmi, who
was Vampira in the fifties and Plan nine from Outer Space,
and I remember I took her to see Plan nine
from Outer Space at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles
sawn Halloween in or and she's an old lady then,

(01:03:01):
and we sat there in the theater. It was was
full or close to full, and Vampire came on and
everybody applauded and uh, and she just went, oh, there
she is, which was really sweet. That's great. Yeah, it
was a great moment. All right, thanks a lot, Dana,
go hey man, thank you so much. This is great.
Thanks a lot of fun. Yeah, let's put our pants on.

(01:03:33):
I gotta say everyone, that was pretty awesome. Uh, Dana
gould Is is really great. What a nice guy, very warm,
friendly dude. And we had never met, but I felt like, um,
I felt like I had known him before somehow. Um,
he just has a very nice ease about him when
you talked to him. A very good guy. And his

(01:03:54):
insights on Planet of the Apes. It was exactly what
I was hoping for, which is we really nerded out
on it and he was able to indulge me. Talking
about The Simpsons a little bit, because let's face it,
when you get a writer of the Simpsons in here,
uh in in your me, then you kind of have
to do that. So I hope you guys enjoyed it,
and we will see you next week and until next time,

(01:04:17):
put those three D glasses away, because movies are better
in two D. Movie Crush is produced, edited, engineered, and
scored by Noel Brown from our podcast studio at Pond

(01:04:40):
City Market, Atlanta, Georgia,