Jason & Paul chat about the polarizing reactions to our Return to Oz episode, Taskmaster Live in NYC, and movies/TV shows they're currently loving. Plus, Paul answers all your corrections & omissions on Return to Oz and announces next week's new movie! PAUL & JASON'S RECS: Send Help Landman Frieren: Beyond Journey's End The Apothecary Diaries
Jason & Paul chat about the polarizing reactions to our Return to Oz episode, Taskmaster Live in NYC, and movies/TV shows they're currently loving. Plus, Paul answers all your corrections & omissions on Return to Oz and announces next week's new movie!
PAUL & JASON'S RECS:
[00:00:00] Paul Scheer: Task Master Live, could Jason be the next host? Belina shows up with a very special gift. And we find out the historical relevance of the Queen of Oz, all this and more on a brand new How Did This Get Made Last Looks. Hit the theme.
[00:00:17] Music: [Intro Song]
[00:00:34] Paul Scheer: Hello, all you pumpkin heads who call your friends Mom. I'm Paul Scheer and welcome to How Did This Get Made Last Looks where you, the listener, get to voice your issues on Return to Oz, a movie that you loved. Hold on one second. Let me tell you, we have been doing this show for a very long time and you all lost your fricking minds over us shitting on this.
[00:00:55] And I will say it again, bad movie. But anyway, let's hold that thought because this is a movie that Discord user, Dr. Guts 1003 thinks, should have had the tagline,
[00:01:05] "Deus Egg Machina."
[00:01:09] All right, Dr. Guts, get back to surgery. Big shout out to Andy Jacobs for that opening theme song. If you have an alt movie tagline, submit it to us on our discord at discord.gg/HDTGM.
[00:01:21] And if you have a Last Looks theme song, go to HDTGM.com and click submit a song on our homepage. Remember, keep 'em short. 15 to 20 seconds is best coming up on today's episode, you will be hearing all of your corrections and omissions. And by the way, there are a lot of them, if I haven't already alluded to that.
[00:01:38] Yes, we will be hearing all your little thoughts about Return to Oz and how it was so great when you were a fucking kid. Well, guess what? You're an adult now. Anyway, uh, then Jason will join me to chat about performing on Broadway, doing Task Master Live in New York, and give us some TV wrecks as well. And lastly, as always, I will reveal the movie for next week's episode.
[00:01:59] Um. Dinosaur Improv is back in Los Angeles on February 28th. Nicole Byer is sitting in with us that night. Uh, ededie Patterson will be there. It's going to be a great night. Get your tickets now. Go to Largo-LA.com or just go to our How Did This Get Made website or my website, whatever you want. Uh, and make sure that you had to Jason's Show in New York.
[00:02:20] Jason, tell him about it.
[00:02:22] Jason Mantzoukas: Alright. What's up idiots? Guess what? I will be appearing right now through February 15th on Broadway. That's right. I'm in All Out the fantastic Simon Rich show with the band Lawrence. Uh, the other great people in it are Sarah Silverman, Heidi Gardner, Craig Robinson. And guess what?
[00:02:42] How Did This Get Made listeners get an exclusive discount code. Ba ba, ba ba. Here we go. Just go to AllOutBroadway.com and use code ALLOUTPOD. A-L-L-O-U-T-P-O-D. That's all caps, to get up to 20% off tickets. Come see the show. It's an absolute blast. Eat shit.
[00:03:02] Paul Scheer: Alright, that's all the plugs we got right now, so let's get into it.
[00:03:05] Last week we talked at length about Return to Oz. We had questions and we might have even missed a few things. Here's your chance to set us straight. Fact check us, if you will. It is now time for corrections and omissions.
[00:03:16] Music: [Correction and Omissions Song]
[00:03:19] Paul Scheer: Thank you Andrew Winston, for that theme song. And now I take a deep breath. As we go to the discord, Sean McBee writes,
[00:03:27] "I noticed in the credits a special thanks to George Lucas. The reason for that is about five weeks into filming, Disney fired Walter Merch as director. George Lucas was in Japan at the time. Flew to London to vouch for Walter. Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola also flew to support Merch and he ended up being rehired within a week. But Lucas stayed there for a couple weeks to advise and make sure that Merch was set up for success."
[00:03:51] Now there's a little bit of insider information here, um, but I don't have where I got it from.
[00:03:58] So just believe me or then do the research for me. Um, I believe that a lot of the crazier ideas are courtesy of our man, George Lucas. Uh, so basically George Lucas came in, advised, said, go crazier with it, and then was like, not mine. Uh, it kind of makes sense. Um, anyway, Juzz uh, writes
[00:04:20] "TikTok, who on top of being incredibly fun to watch and that I do agree with, uh, was also a marvel of practical effects. TikTok was operated from inside by a trampolinist, Michael Sudan, who according to Director Walter Merch, in order to fit into TikTok, would put his legs down into. Tiktok's legs, and then he would bend over looking through his legs, through his thighs, and then he would cross his arms across his chest to operate tiktoks arms. Furthermore, the heat inside the suit combined with being upside down meant Michael couldn't be in there for more than. Two and a half minutes at a time."
[00:04:56] Uh, there are some great pictures of this on our discord. You could check it out. It is truly an impressive feat. I actually got to see TikTok, uh, live, um, when I visited the Lucas Archives. It was awesome.
[00:05:07] Now let's go to the phones and here's some more info. On TikTok, the robot from Liz in Wisconsin.
[00:05:15] Listener: Hi Paul, June and Jason. This is Liz and I just listened to your Return to Oz episode and thought I would share something brief that relates to another episode that you guys have done, which is that Tim Rose was the guy who operated the head of TikTok.
[00:05:32] I guess there was like two different people who ran him and uh, Tim Rose also was Admiral Akbar. And also was Howard the Duck. Just wanted to share that. Have a good day. Bye.
[00:05:46] Paul Scheer: Well look at that. Some true amazing, I would say Lucas film history or like they're all in the same, uh, Banta tracks would probably cover all of these, and that's how I knew this much about Return to Oz.
[00:05:59] Honestly, it must have been in Banta Tracks. I imagine ILM was involved or something. Anyway, I don't care that much. Um. Here's some other things we didn't mention about the show. The lead wheeler is played by Pons Mar, which was also the Inso performer for Theodore Rex. That's the dinosaur. Remember that? Jack Pumpkinhead was voiced and co performed by Brian Henson.
[00:06:19] That's Jim Henson's son, uh, who directed the Muppet Christmas Carol, and also, uh, is in charge of Puppet up here. In Los Angeles, if you've never seen Puppet Up, check out, Puppet Up. Uh, my cousin performs in Puppet Up and she is amazing. Uh, Monkey Bone and Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Sellick was a storyboard artist on this film.
[00:06:39] Well look at this. A lot of great people involved. And that's the thing. Visually there's a lot of cool stuff. It just is a mashup of horror images. Um, John from Texas, what do you got?
[00:06:49] Listener: Hey, Paul, um, didn't even finish the Wizard of Oz, the, uh, Return to Oz episode before I made this phone call because there is so much talk about how.
[00:06:59] This movie is dark because that's how the books are. But I've read these books to my children and, um, you know, they love them. We, I, we read the first four books and I gotta say, the books are way more full of whimsy and fun. And El Frank Baum is like poking fun at, uh, capitalism and industrialization and stuff like that.
[00:07:18] Each chapter almost feels like it ends with a punchline. And while some of the creatures are maybe a little creepy, like the, the jack pumpkin head. You know, they're not, I, I feel like they're not really portrayed that way in the book. They're, they're more goofy and, you know, bumbling, almost like the Scarecrow was in the original movie that y'all loved.
[00:07:34] Um, Dorothy does not come from an insane asylum. In the third book, which she goes to Oz and, and all these things, this movie happened. She's on a, a trip to Australia with her uncle, and she gets thrown overboard and sails to Oz. Then, yeah, her chicken starts talking. All, you know, a lot of that stuff does happen, but I think that the movie, it's a much, much darker tone actually than the book.
[00:07:58] I think the book is whimsical, silly and has some, you know, maybe creeper creepy concepts. But other than that, this movie is a, is a darker turn. And if I may, I just wanna say one last thing. When I was eight years old, I saw this movie on TV and I told my fam family about it and none of them believed me.
[00:08:18] They said there is no sequel to Wizard of Oz. This is before the internet. This is back in the nineties. They had me convinced that it was my fever dream that this whole movie I, they literally told me, I think you just dreamt it up, John. I think you dreamt it up. And I was gaslit for years. So, uh, I really appreciate it when I saw this on my feed that you guys covered this film.
[00:08:36] Um, thanks guys. Keep up the good work.
[00:08:38] Paul Scheer: See, I love this. I love this. Yes, the books are supposed to be whimsical, but you know what? Sometimes we're reading off our research, we're putting stuff together, we're giving people wait for it. The benefit of the doubt. But now you're taking that away. Uh, so we have to say that our original opinion stands.
[00:08:55] This movie is trash. Uh, Matthew from Atlanta, what do you got?
[00:09:00] Listener: Hi, I am part way through listening to the Return to Oz episode, and as someone who grew up reading the OZ books, I really need to push back on this idea that the movie is a super faithful adaptation of the source material. There is a lot of visual faithfulness.
[00:09:17] It's fun to see characters who look like the original book illustrations, but in terms of tone, no, no, the books are not this dark. There is peril in the books from time to time. There is weirdness. A lot of weirdness, but it's all in service of the adventure. Oz is a place you want to go to, and the villains are not like horror villains like the wheelers in the book wind up admitting to Dorothy that they can't actually hurt anyone because they have no hands.
[00:09:45] The lady with 30 heads who is separate character from Omni is sort of a villain for a little while, but she's mostly just vain and lazy. And then the Gnome King is a tyrant, and he is a trickster, but he is also like a little potbelly guy who acts like a scaredy cat around eggs, and he certainly never tries to eat anyone.
[00:10:05] And then the plot is a mishmash of the two books, plus some original ideas. Oz was never in ruins at any point in the series. I just mostly, I don't hate the movie. I like the movie actually, but I don't want people to pass on the books because they didn't like the movie because really the movie is doing something very different from the books, and I love the books.
[00:10:27] Thanks. Bye.
[00:10:29] Paul Scheer: Okay, so wait, it's visually faithful, like in the sense that, okay, so that's what I'm saying. Everyone's disagreeing. I, I get the idea. Basically they took all these characters, uh, they threw 'em into a blender. Um, and we couldn't really do what MGM did, which I totally understand, and was a, it was failed from the start.
[00:10:49] Can we just agree on that? It was failed from the start. It was not what we wanted. And yes, you might've liked it because when you're a kid, you probably wanted to see a sequel. It's your favorite fucking movie, but it wasn't truly a sequel. And guess what? Let it go. No. If you love this movie, great. You love it.
[00:11:06] I, I, I respect you. But you can also understand, uh, as a rational human being, why it's not good. Anyway, we're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be back with more of your Return to Oz phone calls. There, there's more. Stick around.
[00:11:20] Okay. Still digging through the calls here. Uh, Spencer from Chicago, what do you got?
[00:11:26] Listener: Hi Paul. This is, uh, Spencer in Chicago, first time caller, but I am the guy who sent you the, uh, Geo storm water bottle just after COVID. Uh, with regard to Return to Oz. I think, uh, as a law professor, I think they had to, uh, make the movie to look as completely different as possible from the 1939 Wizard of Oz, probably because of copyright and trademark law.
[00:11:47] The 1939 movie musical was produced by MGM Studios, which is now part of Amazon. Disney may have had the rights to use the characters from the later books in the Oz series, but they never had the rights to use the way MGM depicted those characters in the earlier musical with Judy Garland. So Disney in the eighties probably had to, uh, decide to avoid copyright and trademark issues by dressing Dorothy completely differently, uh, different kinds of wing monkeys, and presenting a whole different kind of tone and style and visuals as much as possible to avoid either having to pay MGM or get into some kind of beef in litigation over the intellectual property. So that's my best guess. I hope that helps. Thanks so much.
[00:12:29] Paul Scheer: Yes. I alluded to this earlier that they could not actually, uh, use the images from the MGM film. So this is actually really an interesting point of view.
[00:12:38] Uh, Danny, the wall on Discord actually added that
[00:12:40] "The Wizard of Oz copyright lawyers were infamously litigious and their likenesses of Dorothy, the blue gingham dress and the more familiar scarecrow would be too close for comfort. In fact, the original book never had Ruby slippers. They were silver, instead. The copyright over the ruby slippers was guarded so tightly that Disney had to pay a large feed MGM in order to use them, which could have been up to a million dollars back then. A lot of money for them damn slippers you didn't even need 'em. Honestly, didn't add that much. Um, alright, let's hear from my two favorite people in Seattle, Erin and Zoe.
[00:13:15] Listener: Hey Paul and Jason, if you're here. This is Erin. Um, my daughter Zoe, 13 years old and I watched Return to Oz. Um, it was quite disturbing and I do feel we would be remiss on How Did This Get Made family, if we didn't mention that this truly could be a Jacobs Ladder scenario.
[00:13:36] She either got the electroshock and died, or she died in that river looking for a child who wasn't there. Jason, I know this is gonna just really hit you in the wrong spot, but I think you've gotta acknowledge it. Now, Zoe has some thoughts too here.
[00:13:54] I believe whoever wrote this movie went through Electroshock therapy and I think the Moose did not want to be there in the first place. He did not wanna be alive. And they did him dirty.
[00:14:06] They did them dirty. That's from a 13-year-old. Thank you so much for everything you do. We love the podcast. Have a great day.
[00:14:13] Paul Scheer: Erin, I am going to do you a favor and not tell Jason about this. Not because, uh, I don't wanna embarrass you, but because, uh, we already recorded that section of the show and I didn't know about this.
[00:14:24] And I would tell you, uh, that if I did tell Jason he'd go "Eat a dick." But, uh, Zoe, I agree with you. This movie did the Moose dirty. Amen. That's for sure.. Uh, Dana, what do you got? Wow. Still more calls.
[00:14:40] Listener: Hi, this is Dana. I did wanna address the animals talking in Oz. So in the book series, Dorothy visits Oz more than once, and along her journey she brings Toto, of course, the chicken Belina and a kitten named Eureka.
[00:14:53] The kitten and the chicken both talk when they're in Oz and Toto doesn't. But eventually in the books, you find out that Toto can talk in Oz, but he just chooses not to. All right. Thanks for the pod. Oh, and remind June, anybody that likes Return to Oz may not be a red flag. She likes Grease 2. Give it a chance.
[00:15:12] Bye.
[00:15:13] Paul Scheer: Whoa. What a hilarious, like, uh, it's almost like Dungeon Crawler Carl, but reversed. Uh, I love that Totos, like, yeah. Yeah. I, I'm not talking. I can, I can, but I won't. Uh, now that's an attitude. Uh, Mav on Discord adds that
[00:15:27] "Toto was, uh, conning everyone seriously. He could talk all along and chooses not to, uh, so that everyone takes better care of him. It's a huge grift, and Dorothy doesn't figure it out until book eight."
[00:15:38] Whoa. I love that she figures it out. What a funny, weird, like thing to make your dog a dick. Back to the discord. Johnny Unusual writes,
[00:15:48] "Princess Osma is more interesting in the books. She's a lead character and raised as a boy named Tip with no knowledge of her lineage. At the end of the book, she discovers that she was always a female. She may be the first example of a trans character in American children's literature."
[00:16:04] Wow. And, uh, Johnny Unusual continues by saying,
[00:16:06] "I'm curious if there's any evidence to the contrary."
[00:16:09] Now, Mav again, pops in. Mav has been our real winner here.
[00:16:13] " I am an English lit professor who mostly deals with popular culture and Osma is. Often pointed to as a pioneering trans character in children's lit. It's hard to say if she's the first, but Osma is definitely seen as very important in queer studies."
[00:16:27] Wow. Now that is a now, now I'm interested. Now I'm getting some information beyond this, uh, shit show of a movie.
[00:16:35] I love this. Um, okay. And lastly, we have an email from Joe Walker who writes,
[00:16:42] "I really enjoyed your Return to Oz episode, but the film actually wasn't very faithful to the books."
[00:16:47] Okay, we got that.
[00:16:48] " Paul and Jason as comic book fans, I think you'd both appreciate the much more faithful adaptations of the first six novels that Marvel comics published in 2009 with artwork by the incredible cartoonist."
[00:16:59] Oh.
[00:17:01] "Scotty Young."
[00:17:02] That's awesome.
[00:17:02] "And they may now be out of print, but they're easy to find and well worth tracking down. They rank with Darwin Cook's Parker series as the best prose to comics adaptation ever published."
[00:17:13] Wow. I didn't even know the Parker series was in that way. I love that. Alright, thank you Joe. Uh, so many great corrections and omissions this week, but there can only be one winner. And honestly, the person who killed it. This week is Mav for bringing it all back together. So Mav, you are our winner. And you know, we have been gifting our winners with songs for a while now, but we thought it was finally time to reward you with something a little bit different. That's right. Your corrections and omissions from now on, uh, will be Brace yourself. 'cause this all the way from Kansas. We have Belina, the chicken is here to award you with your prize. That's right. A freshly laid egg Belina. The mic is yours.
[00:17:56] Chicken: Thanks for having me, Paul. I'm so cool and excited to be here. And Mav, congratulations. Time for me to squeeze out your prize. Here we go. Oh boy. Should have eaten more fiber.
[00:18:20] Ugh. Sweet relief. Mav, enjoy this beauty of an egg straight from my pooper. And Paul, don't worry, I'll forgive you for saying I was a downgrade from Toto. I know you were just yoking. Get it. Yolk. Well back to Kansas for me. Bye-bye.
[00:18:39] Paul Scheer: Well, thank you Belina for stopping by and Mav, don't worry, we've already have your address and our producer Scott will mail you that egg overnight before it spoils.
[00:18:46] Alright, remember folks, if you wanna chime in with your own thoughts about the latest episode and maybe win a real egg of your own, hit us up on the discord or call us at 6-1-9 P-A-U-L-A-S-K. Alright, coming up after the last break, Jason stops by for a chat and then we'll announce our next movie.
[00:19:04] Hey everybody, you know, um, I'm sure you've all noticed that every week we re-release old How Did This Get Made episodes back into our feed. These matinee episodes now come out every Tuesday. This week's matinee was the Jean Claude Van Damm classic Hard Target. Next week's will be the Demi Moore and Michael Douglas thriller, Disclosure.
[00:19:21] So keep on checking out all of our replays of classic episodes every Tuesday. And without any further ado, it is time to welcome Jason to Last Looks for just a little chat.
[00:19:31] Music: [Just Chat Song]
[00:19:31] Paul Scheer: Thank you, Midwest Shakes. Jason, welcome, obviously very heated this week on the show. People love Return to Oz.
[00:19:42] Jason Mantzoukas: It, it heated, you could say, a heated rivalry, uh, between us, between us and the fans, apparently.
[00:19:49] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:19:49] Jason Mantzoukas: They seem, uh, they seem upset based on what you're telling me.
[00:19:53] Paul Scheer: You know, I have a feeling that what's happening is this, you know, selective memory that we have as children, like we look back and we go, well, but I liked it as a kid. We are watching it coming in, uh, with nothing, no baggage. I find that this happens a lot. Like when I talk about Goonies, I'm like, you gotta watch it. The people are like, yeah, it was fine. I'm like, what? Fine?
[00:20:13] Jason Mantzoukas: I feel like people get butt hurt when we do a movie that they decided when they were kids was good.
[00:20:20] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:20:21] Jason Mantzoukas: And don't have any ability to look at it any differently other than it's a little bit like, um, June and Drop Dead Fred. Right. It's a little bit of like, there are movies that meant something to you at a time when things really were meaningful. You know, and I think for a lot of people of a certain age, this movie, whether it played a lot on TV or was something that was they had on VHS or DVD, I feel like this movie definitely meant something to people in a way that it didn't for any of us.
[00:20:52] Paul Scheer: No. As a matter of fact, our good friend, uh, Ed Brubaker, the great comic book writer, television show, creator.
[00:21:00] Jason Mantzoukas: Criminal coming out on Amazon Prime.
[00:21:02] Paul Scheer: Cannot wait. Uh, but basically wanted to chime in as well, just talking about how all this crazy stuff at the beginning not part of adapting the book. You know, he said that all that stuff was just kind of made up for the eighties and you know, he said that, you know, basically, nothing in like it's, it really is like a game of telephone of what the sequels versus. This wasn't a closer reading of the Frank L Baum books. And we talked about that a little bit already. But I love that Ed was able to jump in there and uh, and you know, and just kind of set the record straight. 'cause I think a few times we're like, well I assume this is what it was like, I assume. Yeah.
[00:21:39] Jason Mantzoukas: But you know, and maybe this is how I felt when you guys decided to do Con Air, which I think is a great movie.
[00:21:46] Paul Scheer: I do too. Yeah.
[00:21:47] Jason Mantzoukas: But it's, but I can also look at Con Air and be like, this is crazy. That's crazy. This is crazy.
[00:21:52] Paul Scheer: Yeah.
[00:21:52] Jason Mantzoukas: That's crazy. You know? Um, and I think that be I, and again, maybe it's just because of childhood and you don't want to see the thing you loved in childhood poked at, or prodded or
[00:22:05] Paul Scheer: Right.
[00:22:05] Jason Mantzoukas: Or looked at in a different way by adults, you know what I mean? We are looking at this as an adult viewing. This was, I I mean, had you ever seen it? I don't remember.
[00:22:14] Paul Scheer: No.
[00:22:14] Jason Mantzoukas: I don't think any of us had ever seen it before. So.
[00:22:17] Paul Scheer: Yeah.
[00:22:17] Jason Mantzoukas: It's interesting.
[00:22:18] Paul Scheer: Stop being butt hurt is what we're saying.
[00:22:20] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:22:20] Paul Scheer: You know what? We look at things.
[00:22:21] Jason Mantzoukas: This is the show.
[00:22:22] Paul Scheer: Yeah, that's it. Stop your complaining.
[00:22:25] Jason Mantzoukas: Everybody loves every movie we do. You know, like, I feel like.
[00:22:29] Paul Scheer: Right.
[00:22:30] Jason Mantzoukas: Didn't this happen with Space Jam? Weren't there a ton of people who were like Space Jam's incredible.
[00:22:36] Paul Scheer: Yes, yes.
[00:22:36] Jason Mantzoukas: Space Jam's. Why did you do Space Jams?
[00:22:38] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:22:38] Jason Mantzoukas: Well, space Jam is number one.
[00:22:39] Paul Scheer: In Chicago, people were angry about Space Jam.
[00:22:43] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:22:43] Paul Scheer: 'Cause they're like, well, this was my movie.
[00:22:44] Jason Mantzoukas: Exactly.
[00:22:44] Paul Scheer: But here's the other thing too. Does Space Jam have cool costumes? Absolutely. And did we all like, you know Bugs Bunny? Now here, here's the thing I've learned with my kid.
[00:22:54] Um, they like crappy stuff and I don't try to sway them out of it. Like at, at one point, uh, my son was like, I don't wanna watch the old Space Jam. I wanna watch the New Space Jam. And I could.
[00:23:05] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh boy.
[00:23:05] Paul Scheer: Honestly say, both terrible films.
[00:23:08] Jason Mantzoukas: Terrible.
[00:23:08] Paul Scheer: Uh, and, and, and, uh, but yet he felt that the sequel was so much better, this is also a child who did say to me, dad, I'm not watching anything earlier than 2000. Uh, which.
[00:23:21] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh my god.
[00:23:21] Paul Scheer: Which, you know, is kind of funny 'cause I think about this, you know, if my parents tried to show me something that was 25 years old, I'd be like, no way am I watching that. It was a black and white. But.
[00:23:32] Jason Mantzoukas: Well, but, but I will say one of the things that I think about all the time is I watched older movies all the time because they were all that was on.
[00:23:42] Paul Scheer: Oh, right, okay.
[00:23:42] Jason Mantzoukas: So, you know, you know like sometimes, sometimes you had to watch an old movie because it was pre VCR or pre DVD. It was, and you only had whatever the movie channel was playing, whatever channel 56 or channel 38, whatever was on, I watched it, you know, like I didn't grow up with my three sons as a tv, as a contemporary TV show. But it was on every day and I had to watch it.
[00:24:07] Paul Scheer: Oh. Uh, watching, watching Happy Days was not a choice. It was just what it was at the five o'clock slot. And I was gonna watch that because Different Strokes is on after it, and that's the show I really liked.
[00:24:19] Jason Mantzoukas: Exactly.
[00:24:19] Paul Scheer: And that was it. Um, by the way, you're on Broadway. How's it going?
[00:24:24] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, it's so fun. I'm having a blast. I've never done a show like this before. Eight shows a week. Crazy. Um, The Band Lawrence, that's part of it, is incredible. Uh, really great. Um.
[00:24:36] Paul Scheer: I love them.
[00:24:36] Jason Mantzoukas: Uh, Sarah, I'm, I'm doing it with Sarah Silverman and Craig Robinson and Heidi Gardner. They're all murderers. Everybody's so funny. It's a, it's a blast.
[00:24:45] Paul Scheer: Let me ask you this question, 'cause I think you and I talk about this a lot, but now you get to see it in a different way, which is, audiences are different. Like, and you could be doing the same show or an equal show like so, and you are doing something that is not improvised. It's, it's, uh, Simon Rich, brilliant writer. Uh, but are, do you feel that energy where sometimes you're like, oh, this crowd is just not into it?
[00:25:05] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, for sure. Yeah. It's, I don't, I wouldn't say they're not into it.
[00:25:08] Paul Scheer: Right.
[00:25:08] Jason Mantzoukas: I think the difference is some crowds are raucous.
[00:25:12] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:25:13] Jason Mantzoukas: You know, exclaiming and, yeah. Shouting and loving punchlines or loving songs or whatever. And some crowds are just polite and are laughing.
[00:25:22] Paul Scheer: Got it.
[00:25:23] Jason Mantzoukas: At laughing at the jokes, but are not like going crazy there. So the difference is like, I don't think there's, there hasn't been one that was like, oh, I don't feel, I don't think they liked it.
[00:25:33] Paul Scheer: Right.
[00:25:33] Jason Mantzoukas: There's just been either, polite crowd that is enjoying it or raucous kind of mostly weekend raucous crowds that are fun.
[00:25:41] Paul Scheer: Is there one day that you would say like, I don't like the Wednesday afternoon crowd. Like is like, is now, 'cause you've done it enough, is there one where you can kind of say?
[00:25:51] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah, well we don't do the only do the matinee we do are both also the weekends. So like on the weekend, I do four shows in 24 hours, which is.
[00:26:00] Paul Scheer: Wow.
[00:26:01] Jason Mantzoukas: Not nothing. It's a lot.
[00:26:02] Paul Scheer: Yeah.
[00:26:03] Jason Mantzoukas: But those crowds are very ready to rock because I, I think both because the show is geared towards, I think people that would be fans of our podcast.
[00:26:13] Paul Scheer: Right.
[00:26:14] Jason Mantzoukas: People that would be fans of Dinosaur or Comedy Bang Bang.
[00:26:17] Paul Scheer: Right.
[00:26:17] Jason Mantzoukas: I feel like it's attracting a younger, comedy forward group of fans, and a lot of fans of Lawrence The Band are there.
[00:26:28] Paul Scheer: Well, yes. They have a huge following and.
[00:26:30] Jason Mantzoukas: Huge following, so it's not a lot of, what I was nervous of going into it was that it would be a lot of like Broadway, gray hairs. No offense, right?
[00:26:38] Paul Scheer: Yes. No.
[00:26:39] Jason Mantzoukas: Of course.
[00:26:39] Paul Scheer: That's what Broadway runs on.
[00:26:41] Jason Mantzoukas: From one gray hair to a lot of others. But yeah, predominantly Broadway shows when I go see them are a lot of older people. And while those are certainly, there's certainly that population here. It's a lot of young comedy savvy people. Got it. So I think they're having a blast. You know, it seems that after the show, a lot of people have come up to talk to me about Taskmaster or about How Did This Get Made or Comedy Bang Bang, all the stuff that is comedy stuff that we know.
[00:27:09] Paul Scheer: Well now I will say, uh, again, and we can talk about other things as well, but I do need to address something that people have brought up, which is, you are not in your uniform in this show. Now, this is a show. Obviously. There, there are. Well, I mean, you, you are, you know, you are.
[00:27:22] Jason Mantzoukas: People are, people are concerned?
[00:27:23] Paul Scheer: Yes. People, people are concerned that you, you know, obviously funny, you're playing a character. You, but like, was that a debate? Did you have to be like, Hey, I. Uh, you know, you look great.
[00:27:31] Jason Mantzoukas: It was not a, it was not a debate at all. You know, like everybody has a very cohesive look. Yes. It is all like autumnal colors that match and go with the kind of set that's there. I'm wearing a beautiful drake's brown corduroy suit. It's gorgeous. It's comfortable.
[00:27:48] Paul Scheer: Good looking.
[00:27:49] Jason Mantzoukas: Um, I am wearing an Oxford shirt, except it's not white. It's blue.
[00:27:53] Paul Scheer: Yep.
[00:27:53] Jason Mantzoukas: Totally. It's a great shirt. Uh, no, I love, I love my, uh.
[00:27:57] Paul Scheer: And a, and a tie and a tie.
[00:27:58] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh yeah. And a, a yes and a beautiful knit tie.
[00:28:01] Paul Scheer: Because I am looking over, I'm looking over at Craig Robinson, no tie. And I was like, look like Craig, you know, Craig is, you know, I, uh, just wanted to know how much everybody, yeah.
[00:28:09] Jason Mantzoukas: How much had everybody got to choose?
[00:28:10] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:28:10] Jason Mantzoukas: Everybody got to choose. Like, I had options of stuff. Got it. But it was all inside of, I would say these kind of, uh, corduroy, tweeds wool, like a lot of. Like wintery, autumnal colors and textures.
[00:28:24] Paul Scheer: Okay. You're not gonna change up your look. That's, that's the fear that many people are worried. Are they missing out?
[00:28:29] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, that's so funny.
[00:28:30] Paul Scheer: I know that you're gonna be changing the look.
[00:28:32] Jason Mantzoukas: These nerds, it took them so long to figure out that I wore the same thing every day and now they're upset when I, when I don't continue it.
[00:28:38] Paul Scheer: No, you must be under duress. People assume.
[00:28:40] Jason Mantzoukas: Is he okay?
[00:28:42] Paul Scheer: I knew you were okay because I got to see some clips of you at the Taskmaster Live show in New York where you come in and just took over that stage and it was such a joy for me to be watching it on Instagram. Uh, you just kind of bounding out there. Middle fingers blazing.
[00:28:59] Jason Mantzoukas: I did my show and then my show ended and they were doing Taskmaster Live three blocks away. So I quick changed, ran over there, and then ran out onto their stage to be the special guest for the, because they were doing live tasks.
[00:29:16] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:29:16] Jason Mantzoukas: You know, that was the setup. And so I was the special guest for the last task of the show.
[00:29:22] Paul Scheer: I love it.
[00:29:23] Jason Mantzoukas: And it was a blast. It was so fun, so funny. So great to see those guys. Great to like mix it up. Um, it was.
[00:29:31] Paul Scheer: Who did, did good because, uh, Lisa Gilroy was competing in, uh, one saw this.
[00:29:34] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, she's so funny.
[00:29:35] Paul Scheer: Yeah, it looked like a great crew. I mean, those shows looked so fun.
[00:29:40] Jason Mantzoukas: She brought the funniest thing. So for their prize task, they each had to bring the worst article of clothing.
[00:29:47] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:29:47] Jason Mantzoukas: And she brought a pair of hot pants that on the butt, said Greg's little slut.
[00:29:55] Paul Scheer: Love this.
[00:29:56] Jason Mantzoukas: That is from some like, from like, from like an Atlantic City boardwalk type of store. I don't know where, I don't know, maybe. I'm sure she got it in LA somewhere, but yeah. Um, it felt like the kind of thing you would get in a, in a t-shirt shop that the cast of Jersey Shore works at.
[00:30:12] Paul Scheer: Oh, I love it. Yes.
[00:30:12] Jason Mantzoukas: And it was so funny. And then Alex put them on and paraded around in them. It was hilarious. Lisa Gilroy crushed that show.
[00:30:21] Paul Scheer: I love it. I love it. Well, this is, uh, I hope they come out west, uh, and I'm glad that they are.
[00:30:26] Jason Mantzoukas: I think this tour was a success. Yeah. So I think they are heart heartened by how well this did. So yeah, I think they will do more of this.
[00:30:32] Paul Scheer: There's a little rumbling online that, you know, what they're trying to do, and I think this is a smart move, is to, if they're ever to launch another American version of it that.
[00:30:42] People can be unfamiliar enough with them that they could then.
[00:30:45] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes.
[00:30:45] Paul Scheer: Both be, they could just basically do it here and maybe it's a six episode, you know, maybe, I don't know how many episode run is.
[00:30:52] Jason Mantzoukas: I, I, I, I think in all likelihood that I, you know, I think they've said they would like to do it again here, and I think they would like to be the hosts. I think that's the, that's their intent. That's their hope.
[00:31:02] Paul Scheer: It'd be the only thing to do. Uh, you know, it'd be great.
[00:31:05] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, it'd be so fun. I mean, the only other version of it would be to let me be the host. But you know.
[00:31:08] Paul Scheer: I mean, look, I like and I told you, I, I, if, if that happens, I will jump in and
[00:31:13] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh yeah.
[00:31:13] Paul Scheer: I'll be your Alex if you need it.
[00:31:15] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh yeah.
[00:31:15] Paul Scheer: I mean, you know, I don't, you know, but I, I think that you as the host is.
[00:31:18] Jason Mantzoukas: I would love it.
[00:31:19] Paul Scheer: I mean, I've also seen that on Reddit as well. People are like, Jason is going be the American host. Oh, there, there's a lot of conversation. There's a lot of conversation. I didn't wanna bring that up unless.
[00:31:27] Jason Mantzoukas: I hope, hope, I hope that, I hope that happens.
[00:31:29] Paul Scheer: But people were nervous when you switched. The outfits that, that might not happen anymore. They were nervous that, you know.
[00:31:36] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh man, how funny.
[00:31:38] Paul Scheer: Um, uh, so much has happened and I gotta say, because this episode is airing relatively close to when it came out, I wanna recommend to everyone right now. Go see Sam Raimi's Send Help.
[00:31:50] It is phenomenal. It is great.
[00:31:53] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah, I haven't seen it.
[00:31:54] Paul Scheer: Rachel McAdams, I won't say a goddamn thing about it, but if you like Sam Raimi, if you like Evil Dead. It is Sam Raimi doing comedy horror thriller, and Dylan O'Brien is fucking great. The whole movie is great. It just like.
[00:32:09] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, I'm excited. I can't wait.
[00:32:11] Paul Scheer: I sat in that theater going, and I don't wanna build it up too much, and I won't say anything about it, but in the sense of, I sat in that theater going, I don't know what's gonna happen next. And I, you know, you, you and I both have, we've watched a shit load of movies.
[00:32:22] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.
[00:32:22] Paul Scheer: We've written things, we've done these things. You kind of know like, okay, I know where it's going. Yes. I had no idea.
[00:32:28] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, that's awesome. The idea that you can still, that we can still be surprised is.
[00:32:32] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:32:32] Jason Mantzoukas: What is such a joy, you know, uh, in, in the movies. So that's great.
[00:32:37] Paul Scheer: It was really fun. So if you, it, this is, uh, the second weekend it's out. Uh, so go check this thing out. It is fun and I saw it with June and you know, June is a scary, a scaredy cat and absolutely loved, loved it, so you can, if you're not, you know, if you're a scary cat, don't feel like, oh, I can't handle it. You can handle it.
[00:32:55] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah. It's not like a straight horror movie. It's like.
[00:32:58] Paul Scheer: No. I mean, even the.
[00:32:59] Jason Mantzoukas: It's Sam Raimi.
[00:32:59] Paul Scheer: Yeah. It's a Sam Raimi. It's like, it's fun. Yeah, exactly. It's silly. It's, it's, and she is, yeah, she's awesome. Uh, obviously I. We have a lot to break down, a lot to get to, but because I wanted to catch up with you just 'cause you've been in New York, uh, maybe just one thing that you like, and then next week we'll do a, a full, a full catch up of what we've been up to.
[00:33:16] Jason Mantzoukas: I'm trying to think, you know, like I'm, I'm doing this show every night I come home, I'm wiped out and so my appetite for things now. Uh, we're talking, we're work post, post Landman, season two Oh, which which was my, which was the priority of my 2026, which was absolutely incredible.
[00:33:34] Paul Scheer: I am, and, and people don't get this. This is not only a show that Jason and I like. It is a show that America loves. It is the number one streaming show. I believe that it was number one, Stranger Things came out, was number one for a week, and then Landman, boom. Right, right back on top.
[00:33:50] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:33:51] Paul Scheer: Yes.
[00:33:51] Jason Mantzoukas: Incredible.
[00:33:51] Paul Scheer: So Landman is, and look, have I met many people who've watched it? No. So that's even more interesting to me.
[00:33:57] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh. And I've met a, a lot of people who are like, why are, why would I watch Landman? And I'm like, and I'm like, because it's the greatest show on television.
[00:34:04] Paul Scheer: By the way. And, and I, I don't like Yellowstone.
[00:34:07] Jason Mantzoukas: Sure.
[00:34:08] Paul Scheer: I don't dislike it. I just, it's not my, it's not my fully, my cup of tea Landman is 100% my cup of tea. And I think if you like the sensibility of our show, there is things that, I mean, look, I will say the one thing that got a lot of attention, and it's not a spoiler in any way. Uh, there he is an episode where Billy Bob Thornton's erect penis, uh, does make an appearance in the cold open of an episode because he has taken too much Cialis, uh, the night before.
[00:34:33] Now, here's my question and I'll, I'll say it without too much more context in this. Do you think he fucked the omelet or was that just a metaphor? Because I think he actually did fuck the omelet and thats why she's so mad.
[00:34:42] Jason Mantzoukas: I think he's, I think he did. Yeah, I think he did. And that's why she's so mad. Yes.
[00:34:45] Paul Scheer: Yeah. I mean, at least put his dick in the omelet. Okay. So if that, that doesn't make you.
[00:34:48] Jason Mantzoukas: If that hasn't peaked you. Holy cow. Genuinely get involved with Landman a, a true psychotic like MAGA fever, dream tone poem of nonsense, like incredible stuff.
[00:35:06] Paul Scheer: But also having fun and like, I feel like.
[00:35:08] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh yeah.
[00:35:08] Paul Scheer: What I love about this show is everyone is bringing a little bit of themselves to it.
[00:35:13] Jason Mantzoukas: Big time.
[00:35:13] Paul Scheer: And really enjoying it.
[00:35:15] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes.
[00:35:15] Paul Scheer: Andy Garcia, it's like, everyone's like, here's what we're doing and, and then there's like that freedom of like, well, maybe my character would do it like this. And you're like, yeah. Yes, absolutely.
[00:35:24] Jason Mantzoukas: Also has as a component of it, something that is, I would say, part of some of our favorite things in the movies we do, which is everybody's chewing the scenery in every scene.
[00:35:35] Paul Scheer: Yes, yes.
[00:35:36] Jason Mantzoukas: Like Billy Bob is at like Nicholas cage level, just going for it. Everybody's monologuing all the time, in a way that feels like they would be at home, in Face Off or in any of the movies that we love that have that kind of scenery, chewing vibe.
[00:35:53] Paul Scheer: I love it. I love it.
[00:35:54] Jason Mantzoukas: It's so good. So, um, I'll shout out a couple of other things if you don't mind.
[00:35:57] Paul Scheer: Yeah, please.
[00:35:58] Jason Mantzoukas: Uh, so like I said, like I come home and I am wiped out. So all I'm doing is watching anime, like I have now become fully anime pilled, uh, my absolute number. I can already tell you my favorite show of the year is going to be. Frieren season two.
[00:36:14] Paul Scheer: Okay. Wow.
[00:36:14] Jason Mantzoukas: Which is just.
[00:36:14] Paul Scheer: What any of this stuff means. Yeah.
[00:36:16] Jason Mantzoukas: Frieren season one I've talked about before on the podcast was my favorite show that came out last year.
[00:36:21] Paul Scheer: Okay. Got it.
[00:36:21] Jason Mantzoukas: It's absolutely one of the most incredible TV shows. Full Stop. Of anything I've ever seen. Um, and it is a beautiful story. Uh, it's based on a manga that frankly I haven't read, but the series is unreal. Season two has just started airing. There's only been three episodes so far, and it's absolutely fantastic. I cried so hard at the episode about, uh, the Hero of the South. Um, absolutely fantastic. Um, and when I was talking about how much I loved Frieren to, um, uh, host of, uh, Song Exploder Rishikesh Hiway, uh, recommended the Apothecary Diaries, which is another.
[00:37:01] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:37:01] Jason Mantzoukas: Two season anime. That is also fantastic. I just have finished watching both seasons of that, and that is unbelievable. Uh, Apothecary Diaries, just a beautiful story about if feudal China and an a, a girl gets kidnapped and is forced to work inside of the palace, but she's an apothecary. She can make medicines.
[00:37:25] Basically, the way that Rishi sold it to me was he's ba, he's like, it's basically what if house, the Dr. House?
[00:37:34] Paul Scheer: Yeah.
[00:37:34] Jason Mantzoukas: It's like a case of the week medical mystery in like feudal China with a teenage girl as House and that's.
[00:37:42] Paul Scheer: Oh wow.
[00:37:43] Jason Mantzoukas: It's like a procedural that way. So she. She's a detective. She's always trying to figure out who's trying to poison who, 'cause there's, so it's all palace intrigue.
[00:37:51] Paul Scheer: Oooh, I love this.
[00:37:52] Jason Mantzoukas: It's all people are trying to kill this person because they're pregnant. They're trying to kill that baby so that the order of succession will be changed so that the, the, the next emperor will be this kid instead of that kid. And she's always on the case and it. Awesome.
[00:38:06] Paul Scheer: Okay. Well, I gotta get, I gotta get into anime. That's a very big hole in my.
[00:38:09] Jason Mantzoukas: Those two shows I would say are unreal level, uh, anime.
[00:38:15] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:38:15] Jason Mantzoukas: You know, and that, and that's also based on like, I looked up lists.
[00:38:18] Paul Scheer: Okay.
[00:38:18] Jason Mantzoukas: You know, genuinely I'm not any kind of expert. Just I looked up lists and they were like, the best of anime are these. Yeah.
[00:38:25] Paul Scheer: Yeah. No, I love that.
[00:38:26] Jason Mantzoukas: These two are always on there.
[00:38:27] Paul Scheer: That's good to know. I love this anime recommendations. We will be talking again very soon to go through a bigger list.
[00:38:35] Alright, Jason's gone and it's almost the end of the show, which means it is finally time to announce our next movie. Next week we'll be going on a date that's over two years in the making.
[00:38:43] That's right. This Valentine's Day you can snuggle up with your boo to watch the 1987 rom-com fantasy Date with an Angel starring Michael Knight, and Drop Dead Fred's, Phoebe Kates. We actually recorded this episode in Minneapolis over two years ago, but after that show, uh, Date with an Angel was removed from every single streaming service and VOD platform until now, yes.
[00:39:07] Date with an Angel is finally available to watch again exclusively on Tubi. So thank God for Tubi. Here is a breakdown of the plot.
[00:39:15] "An aspiring composer discovers a broken wing, beautiful angel in a swimming pool. When everyone finds out, he must deal with his jealous fiance, his future father-in-law, and his friends who have a business plan."
[00:39:25] Rotten Tomatoes gives his film a 13%, uh, score on the tomato meter. And Roger Ebert wrote in his review,
[00:39:30] "This movie ought to be shot. It wastes not only the idea of the angel, but also the human presence of Kates, a bright and quick actress who is required to play a simpering bimbo."
[00:39:40] Well, we really use bimbo a lot, uh, back in the day Anyway, let's take a listen to the trailer.
[00:39:47] Trailer Audio: Jim's engagement to Patty.
[00:39:48] It is over between us.
[00:39:50] Is out the window. His relationship with his boss.
[00:39:54] I'm going to enlighten you, young man.
[00:39:56] Is going to the dogs.
[00:39:59] And his best friends are about to uncover his big secret.
[00:40:08] Justin Angel.
[00:40:09] Date with an Angel.
[00:40:10] Rated PG starts Friday, November 20th at theaters everywhere.
[00:40:14] Paul Scheer: Now I already told you that Date with an Angel is only available to watch on Tubi. But as always, you should check out your digital media services like Hoopla, Canopy, and Libby, which are offered free by your local public library.
[00:40:23] Uh, even though Date with an Angel isn't on those services. They are still great resources for, uh, movies, TV's, books, audio books. Maybe you wanna get that Parker series by Darwin Cook or um, or perhaps the Wizard of Oz series. Whatever you wanna do. Go check it out for free. That is it, that's the end of the show.
[00:40:39] Listen to us on Apple Podcast or Spotify. Remember that you gotta rate and review us. Rate and review us. Rate and review us. It's easy. Also, make sure you are following us. Yes, keep that follow button pressed and you have automatic downloads turned on. It helps to show. Because it's free. Helps us out a lot.
[00:40:53] Anyway, visit us on social media @HDTGM, and a big thank you to our producer Scott Sonne, and Molly Reynolds, our engineer, Casey Holford, our social media manager, Zoe Applebaum. And of course, we'll forever be thankful to the one and only. Avaryl Halley. And we will see you next week when we finally go on our long awaited Date with an Angel.