Podcasts about Willie Tyler

Send us a textComic ventriloquist Willie Tyler, and his pal, Lester; do a TV interview from back in 1984. Lester gets in lots of jokes, and Willie shares how he also does music in his shows...and why.Great interview and short comedy entertainment from this Evening News Interview.Willie Tyler, a renowned ventriloquist known for his captivating performances with his beloved figure, Lester, holds a deep admiration for the art of ventriloquism, despite its challenges and the limited number of successful practitioners. His enduring career, marked by numerous TV appearances and performances at clubs like Laughs Unlimited, underscores the skill and artistry required in this unique form of entertainment, with Lester's expressive eyes being a particularly captivating feature. R. Scott Edwards, a respected TV News Host from the 1980s, shares Tyler's appreciation for ventriloquism, having regularly featured Tyler and Lester on his shows, and fondly recalls their engaging dynamic that treated Lester as a separate, charismatic entity. Both Tyler and Edwards reflect positively on the era, emphasizing their support for fellow performers and the nostalgic charm of ventriloquism's comedic banter.(00:01:31) Willie Tyler's Engaging Ventriloquist Interview(00:05:09) Dynamic Banter: Ventriloquism Unveiled(00:05:09) "Ventriloquial Figures: Professional Terminology and Etiquette"Support the showHosted by: R. Scott EdwardsPlease Write a Review: in-depth walk through for leaving a review.On Your Apple & Android Phones, Visit New APP: Standup Comedy Podcast Network and website .comInterested in Standup Comedy? Check out my books on Amazon..."20 Questions Answered about Being a Standup Comic""Be a Standup Comic...or just look like one"

GGACP celebrates the birthday of legendary ventriloquist Willie Tyler (b. September 8th) by presenting this ENCORE of an entertaining conversation with Willie and his longtime partner, Lester, from 2018. In this episode, Willie (and Lester) discuss the history of the “Chitlin Circuit,” ventriloquism-themed horror movies, the mob's influence in Vegas and the golden age of “the Motown Sound.” Also: Steve Rossi teams with Slappy White, George Kirby channels Pearl Bailey, Edgar Bergen offers sage advice and Willie opens for Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. PLUS: Jules Podell! Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop! Don Rickles takes a front seat! Lester meets George Jefferson! And the many talents of Paul Winchell!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brown was born in New Haven, Connecticut where his show business interest began with magic. He later became interested in the art of ventriloquism and thus combined it with standup comedy. He was inspired by legendary ventriloquist Willie Tyler and Lester from the Motown Revue along with Jay Johnson who played the team of Chuck and Bob on the hit tv sitcom “Soap”.  Brown entered college at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. After graduating he relocated to the Washington, D.C. area where he really honed his skills by working at local comedy clubs like The Comedy Connection of Greenbelt, Garvin's, The Comedy Café, and The Improv. He would work along side of Dave Chappelle, Wanda Sykes, and Chris Thomas to name a few. Willie hosted a local tv show called “The Comedy Jam” which was a follow up to “The Soul of Comedy” Willie Brown and Woody now perform largely at churches, theaters, colleges, comedy clubs, and corporate events. Brown and his sidekick have headlined many comedy clubs throughout the country and abroad. They've performed numerous times overseas at U.S. military bases in Korea, Japan, Germany, and Bosnia. They have also performed in England, Amsterdam, South Africa, and the Caribbean. Brown has toured with Cedric The Entertainer, and worked with Steve Harvey, Jamie Foxx, and Mike Epps. He's opened for a number of well known music artists including Boys To Men, Frankie Beverly & Maze, Chaka Khan, James Brown, Gladys Knight, Al Green, The Whispers and more. Willie Brown and Woody can be seen regularly at the World Famous Comedy Store, or the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, California.

This is a fun filled podcast show featuring many of the standup comedy acts that performed for my 1985 Fox TV Special :"Live at Laughs Unlimited". It was hosted by the world famous ventriloquist Willie Tyler & Lester, and includes comedy from Dave Coulier (Full House/Fuller House), the comedy team of O'Brian & Valdez (Valdez being only blind comic working Nationally at the time), Bob Worley (from Ice House Comedy Club in South Pasadena), and from the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour...Comic Pat Paulsen (who had run for President of the US a couple times!)...all together for a fun 32 mins of standup comedy...Please Enjoy, Rate, & Share!Support the showStandup Comedy Podcast Network.co www.StandupComedyPodcastNetwork.comFree APP on all Apple & Android phones....check it out, podcast, jokes, blogs, and More!For short-form standup comedy sets, listen to: "Comedy Appeteasers" , available on all platforms.New YouTube site: https://www.youtube.com/@standupcomedyyourhostandmc/videosVideos of comics live on stage from back in the day.Please Write a Review: in-depth walk-through for leaving a review.Interested in Standup Comedy? Check out my books on Amazon..."20 Questions Answered about Being a Standup Comic""Be a Standup Comic...or just look like one"

The art of ventriloquism can be traced back to Ancient Egypt. No need to go back that far because one of the pioneers for modern day ventriloquism, Willie Tyler and Lester, join Tavis in studio.

We continue our miniseries on the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, with a look at the films released in 1988. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we finally continue with the next part of our look back at the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, specifically looking at 1988.   But before we get there, I must issue another mea culpa. In our episode on the 1987 movies from Miramax, I mentioned that a Kiefer Sutherland movie called Crazy Moon never played in another theatre after its disastrous one week Oscar qualifying run in Los Angeles in December 1987.   I was wrong.   While doing research on this episode, I found one New York City playdate for the film, in early February 1988. It grossed a very dismal $3200 at the 545 seat Festival Theatre during its first weekend, and would be gone after seven days.   Sorry for the misinformation.   1988 would be a watershed year for the company, as one of the movies they acquired for distribution would change the course of documentary filmmaking as we knew it, and another would give a much beloved actor his first Academy Award nomination while giving the company its first Oscar win.   But before we get to those two movies, there's a whole bunch of others to talk about first.   Of the twelve movies Miramax would release in 1988, only four were from America. The rest would be a from a mixture of mostly Anglo-Saxon countries like the UK, Canada, France and Sweden, although there would be one Spanish film in there.   Their first release of the new year, Le Grand Chemin, told the story of a timid nine-year-old boy from Paris who spends one summer vacation in a small town in Brittany. His mother has lodged the boy with her friend and her friend's husband while Mom has another baby. The boy makes friends with a slightly older girl next door, and learns about life from her.   Richard Bohringer, who plays the friend's husband, and Anémone, who plays the pregnant mother, both won Cesars, the French equivalent to the Oscars, in their respective lead categories, and the film would be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 1987 by the National Board of Review. Miramax, who had picked up the film at Cannes several months earlier, waited until January 22nd, 1988, to release it in America, first at the Paris Theatre in midtown Manhattan, where it would gross a very impressive $41k in its first three days. In its second week, it would drop less than 25% of its opening weekend audience, bringing in another $31k. But shortly after that, the expected Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film did not come, and business on the film slowed to a trickle. But it kept chugging on, and by the time the film finished its run in early June, it had grossed $541k.   A week later, on January 29th, Miramax would open another French film, Light Years. An animated science fiction film written and directed by René Laloux, best known for directing the 1973 animated head trip film Fantastic Planet, Light Years was the story of an evil force from a thousand years in the future who begins to destroy an idyllic paradise where the citizens are in perfect harmony with nature.   In its first three days at two screens in Los Angeles and five screens in the San Francisco Bay Area, Light Years would gross a decent $48,665. Miramax would print a self-congratulating ad in that week's Variety touting the film's success, and thanking Isaac Asimov, who helped to write the English translation, and many of the actors who lent their vocal talents to the new dub, including Glenn Close, Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Grey, Christopher Plummer, and Penn and Teller. Yes, Teller speaks. The ad was a message to both the theatre operators and the major players in the industry. Miramax was here. Get used to it.   But that ad may have been a bit premature.   While the film would do well in major markets during its initial week in theatres, audience interest would drop outside of its opening week in big cities, and be practically non-existent in college towns and other smaller cities. Its final box office total would be just over $370k.   March 18th saw the release of a truly unique film.    Imagine a film directed by Robert Altman and Bruce Beresford and Jean-Luc Godard and Derek Jarman and Franc Roddam and Nicolas Roeg and Ken Russell and Charles Sturridge and Julien Temple. Imagine a film that starred Beverly D'Angelo, Bridget Fonda in her first movie, Julie Hagerty, Buck Henry, Elizabeth Hurley and John Hurt and Theresa Russell and Tilda Swinton. Imagine a film that brought together ten of the most eclectic filmmakers in the world doing four to fourteen minute short films featuring the arias of some of the most famous and beloved operas ever written, often taken out of their original context and placed into strange new places. Like, for example, the aria for Verdi's Rigoletto set at the kitschy Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, where a movie producer is cheating on his wife while she is in a nearby room with a hunky man who is not her husband. Imagine that there's almost no dialogue in the film. Just the arias to set the moments.   That is Aria.   If you are unfamiliar with opera in general, and these arias specifically, that's not a problem. When I saw the film at the Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz in June 1988, I knew some Wagner, some Puccini, and some Verdi, through other movies that used the music as punctuation for a scene. I think the first time I had heard Nessun Dorma was in The Killing Fields. Vesti La Giubba in The Untouchables. But this would be the first time I would hear these arias as they were meant to be performed, even if they were out of context within their original stories. Certainly, Wagner didn't intend the aria from Tristan und Isolde to be used to highlight a suicide pact between a young couple killing themselves in a Las Vegas hotel bathroom.   Aria definitely split critics when it premiered at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, when it competed for the festival's main prize, the Palme D'Or. Roger Ebert would call it the first MTV opera and felt the filmmakers were poking fun at their own styles, while Leonard Maltin felt most of the endeavor was a waste of time. In the review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin would also make a reference to MTV but not in a positive way, and would note the two best parts of the film were the photo montage that is seen over the end credits, and the clever licensing of Chuck Jones's classic Bugs Bunny cartoon What's Opera, Doc, to play with the film, at least during its New York run. In the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper chose one of its music critics to review the film. They too would compare the film to MTV, but also to Fantasia, neither reference meant to be positive.   It's easy to see what might have attracted Harvey Weinstein to acquire the film.   Nudity.   And lots of it.   Including from a 21 year old Hurley, and a 22 year old Fonda.   Open at the 420 seat Ridgemont Theatre in Seattle on March 18th, 1988, Aria would gross a respectable $10,600. It would be the second highest grossing theatre in the city, only behind The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which grossed $16,600 in its fifth week at the 850 seat Cinerama Theatre, which was and still is the single best theatre in Seattle. It would continue to do well in Seattle, but it would not open until April 15th in Los Angeles and May 20th in New York City.   But despite some decent notices and the presence of some big name directors, Aria would stiff at the box office, grossing just $1.03m after seven months in theatres.   As we discussed on our previous episode, there was a Dennis Hopper movie called Riders on the Storm that supposedly opened in November 1987, but didn't. It did open in theatres in May of 1988, and now we're here to talk about it.   Riders on the Storm would open in eleven theatres in the New York City area on May 7th, including three theatres in Manhattan. Since Miramax did not screen the film for critics before release, never a good sign, the first reviews wouldn't show up until the following day, since the critics would actually have to go see the film with a regular audience. Vincent Canby's review for the New York Times would arrive first, and surprisingly, he didn't completely hate the film. But audiences didn't care. In its first weekend in New York City, Riders on the Storm would gross an anemic $25k. The following Friday, Miramax would open the film at two theatres in Baltimore, four theatres in Fort Worth TX (but surprisingly none in Dallas), one theatre in Los Angeles and one theatre in Springfield OH, while continuing on only one screen in New York. No reported grosses from Fort Worth, LA or Springfield, but the New York theatre reported ticket sales of $3k for the weekend, a 57% drop from its previous week, while the two in Baltimore combined for $5k.   There would be more single playdates for a few months. Tampa the same week as New York. Atlanta, Charlotte, Des Moines and Memphis in late May. Cincinnati in late June. Boston, Calgary, Ottawa and Philadelphia in early July. Greenville SC in late August. Evansville IL, Ithaca NY and San Francisco in early September. Chicago in late September. It just kept popping up in random places for months, always a one week playdate before heading off to the next location. And in all that time, Miramax never reported grosses. What little numbers we do have is from the theatres that Variety was tracking, and those numbers totaled up to less than $30k.   Another mostly lost and forgotten Miramax release from 1988 is Caribe, a Canadian production that shot in Belize about an amateur illegal arms trader to Central American terrorists who must go on the run after a deal goes down bad, because who wants to see a Canadian movie about an amateur illegal arms trader to Canadian terrorists who must go on the run in the Canadian tundra after a deal goes down bad?   Kara Glover would play Helen, the arms dealer, and John Savage as Jeff, a British intelligence agent who helps Helen.   Caribe would first open in Detroit on May 20th, 1988. Can you guess what I'm going to say next?   Yep.   No reported grosses, no theatres playing the film tracked by Variety.   The following week, Caribe opens in the San Francisco Bay Area, at the 300 seat United Artists Theatre in San Francisco, and three theatres in the South Bay. While Miramax once again did not report grosses, the combined gross for the four theatres, according to Variety, was a weak $3,700. Compare that to Aria, which was playing at the Opera Plaza Cinemas in its third week in San Francisco, in an auditorium 40% smaller than the United Artist, grossing $5,300 on its own.   On June 3rd, Caribe would open at the AMC Fountain Square 14 in Nashville. One show only on Friday and Saturday at 11:45pm. Miramax did not report grosses. Probably because people we going to see Willie Tyler and Lester at Zanie's down the street.   And again, it kept cycling around the country, one or two new playdates in each city it played in. Philadelphia in mid-June. Indianapolis in mid-July. Jersey City in late August. Always for one week, grosses never reported.   Miramax's first Swedish release of the year was called Mio, but this was truly an international production. The $4m film was co-produced by Swedish, Norwegian and Russian production companies, directed by a Russian, adapted from a Swedish book by an American screenwriter, scored by one of the members of ABBA, and starring actors from England, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.   Mio tells the story of a boy from Stockholm who travels to an otherworldly fantasy realm and frees the land from an evil knight's oppression. What makes this movie memorable today is that Mio's best friend is played by none other than Christian Bale, in his very first film.   The movie was shot in Moscow, Stockholm, the Crimea, Scotland, and outside Pripyat in the Northern part of what is now Ukraine, between March and July 1986. In fact, the cast and crew were shooting outside Pripyat on April 26th, when they got the call they needed to evacuate the area. It would be hours later when they would discover there had been a reactor core meltdown at the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. They would have to scramble to shoot in other locations away from Ukraine for a month, and when they were finally allowed to return, the area they were shooting in deemed to have not been adversely affected by the worst nuclear power plant accident in human history,, Geiger counters would be placed all over the sets, and every meal served by craft services would need to be read to make sure it wasn't contaminated.   After premiering at the Moscow Film Festival in July 1987 and the Norwegian Film Festival in August, Mio would open in Sweden on October 16th, 1987. The local critics would tear the film apart. They hated that the filmmakers had Anglicized the movie with British actors like Christopher Lee, Susannah York, Christian Bale and Nicholas Pickard, an eleven year old boy also making his film debut. They also hated how the filmmakers adapted the novel by the legendary Astrid Lindgren, whose Pippi Longstocking novels made her and her works world famous. Overall, they hated pretty much everything about it outside of Christopher Lee's performance and the production's design in the fantasy world.   Miramax most likely picked it up trying to emulate the success of The Neverending Story, which had opened to great success in most of the world in 1984. So it might seem kinda odd that when they would open the now titled The Land of Faraway in theatres, they wouldn't go wide but instead open it on one screen in Atlanta GA on June 10th, 1988. And, once again, Miramax did not report grosses, and Variety did not track Atlanta theatres that week. Two weeks later, they would open the film in Miami. How many theatres? Can't tell you. Miramax did not report grosses, and Variety was not tracking any of the theatres in Miami playing the film. But hey, Bull Durham did pretty good in Miami that week.   The film would next open in theatres in Los Angeles. This time, Miramax bought a quarter page ad in the Los Angeles Times on opening day to let people know the film existed. So we know it was playing on 18 screens that weekend. And, once again, Miramax did not report grosses for the film. But on the two screens it played on that Variety was tracking, the combined gross was just $2,500.   There'd be other playdates. Kansas City and Minneapolis in mid-September. Vancouver, BC in early October. Palm Beach FL in mid October. Calgary AB and Fort Lauderdale in late October. Phoenix in mid November. And never once did Miramax report any grosses for it.   One week after Mio, Miramax would release a comedy called Going Undercover.   Now, if you listened to our March 2021 episode on Some Kind of Wonderful, you may remember be mentioning Lea Thompson taking the role of Amanda Jones in that film, a role she had turned down twice before, the week after Howard the Duck opened, because she was afraid she'd never get cast in a movie again. And while Some Kind of Wonderful wasn't as big a film as you'd expect from a John Hughes production, Thompson did indeed continue to work, and is still working to this day.   So if you were looking at a newspaper ad in several cities in June 1988 and saw her latest movie and wonder why she went back to making weird little movies.   She hadn't.   This was a movie she had made just before Back to the Future, in August and September 1984.   Originally titled Yellow Pages, the film starred film legend Jean Simmons as Maxine, a rich woman who has hired Chris Lemmon's private investigator Henry Brilliant to protect her stepdaughter Marigold during her trip to Copenhagen.   The director, James Clarke, had written the script specifically for Lemmon, tailoring his role to mimic various roles played by his famous father, Jack Lemmon, over the decades, and for Simmons. But Thompson was just one of a number of young actresses they looked at before making their casting choice.   Half of the $6m budget would come from a first-time British film producer, while the other half from a group of Danish investors wanting to lure more Hollywood productions to their area.   The shoot would be plagued by a number of problems. The shoot in Los Angeles coincided with the final days of the 1984 Summer Olympics, which would cut out using some of the best and most regularly used locations in the city, and a long-lasting heat wave that would make outdoor shoots unbearable for cast and crew. When they arrived in Copenhagen at the end of August, Denmark was going through an unusually heavy storm front that hung around for weeks.   Clarke would spend several months editing the film, longer than usual for a smaller production like this, but he in part was waiting to see how Back to the Future would do at the box office. If the film was a hit, and his leading actress was a major part of that, it could make it easier to sell his film to a distributor.   Or that was line of thinking.   Of course, Back to the Future was a hit, and Thompson received much praise for her comedic work on the film.   But that didn't make it any easier to sell his film.   The producer would set the first screenings for the film at the February 1986 American Film Market in Santa Monica, which caters not only to foreign distributors looking to acquire American movies for their markets, but helps independent filmmakers get their movies seen by American distributors.   As these screenings were for buyers by invitation only, there would be no reviews from the screenings, but one could guess that no one would hear about the film again until Miramax bought the American distribution rights to it in March 1988 tells us that maybe those screenings didn't go so well.   The film would get retitled Going Undercover, and would open in single screen playdates in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, St. Louis and Tampa on June 17th. And as I've said too many times already, no reported grosses from Miramax, and only one theatre playing the film was being tracked by Variety, with Going Undercover earning $3,000 during its one week at the Century City 14 in Los Angeles.   In the June 22nd, 1988 issue of Variety, there was an article about Miramax securing a $25m line of credit in order to start producing their own films. Going Undercover is mentioned in the article about being one of Miramax's releases, without noting it had just been released that week or how well it did or did not do.   The Thin Blue Line would be Miramax's first non-music based documentary, and one that would truly change how documentaries were made.   Errol Morris had already made two bizarre but entertaining documentaries in the late 70s and early 80s. Gates of Heaven was shot in 1977, about a man who operated a failing pet cemetery in Northern California's Napa Valley. When Morris told his famous German filmmaking supporter Werner Herzog about the film, Herzog vowed to eat one of the shoes he was wearing that day if Morris could actually complete the film and have it shown in a public theatre. In April 1979, just before the documentary had its world premiere at UC Theatre in Berkeley, where Morris had studied philosophy, Herzog would spend the morning at Chez Pannise, the creators of the California Cuisine cooking style, boiling his shoes for five hours in garlic, herbs and stock. This event itself would be commemorated in a documentary short called, naturally, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, by Les Blank, which is a must watch on its own.   Because of the success of Gates of Heaven, Morris was able to quickly find financing for his next film, Nub City, which was originally supposed to be about the number of Vernon, Florida's citizens who have “accidentally” cut off their limbs, in order to collect the insurance money. But after several of those citizens threatened to kill Morris, and one of them tried to run down his cinematographer with their truck, Morris would rework the documentary, dropping the limb angle, no pun intended, and focus on the numerous eccentric people in the town. It would premiere at the 1981 New York Film Festival, and become a hit, for a documentary, when it was released in theatres in 1982.   But it would take Morris another six years after completing Vernon, Florida, to make another film. Part of it was having trouble lining up full funding to work on his next proposed movie, about James Grigson, a Texas forensic psychiatrist whose was nicknamed Doctor Death for being an expert witness for the prosecution in death penalty cases in Texas. Morris had gotten seed money for the documentary from PBS and the Endowment for Public Arts, but there was little else coming in while he worked on the film. In fact, Morris would get a PI license in New York and work cases for two years, using every penny he earned that wasn't going towards living expenses to keep the film afloat.   One of Morris's major problems for the film was that Grigson would not sit on camera for an interview, but would meet with Morris face to face to talk about the cases. During that meeting, the good doctor suggested to the filmmaker that he should research the killers he helped put away. And during that research, Morris would come across the case of one Randall Dale Adams, who was convicted of killing Dallas police officer Robert Wood in 1976, even though another man, David Harris, was the police's initial suspect. For two years, Morris would fly back and forth between New York City and Texas, talking to and filming interviews with Adams and more than two hundred other people connected to the shooting and the trial. Morris had become convinced Adams was indeed innocent, and dropped the idea about Dr. Grigson to solely focus on the Robert Wood murder.   After showing the producers of PBS's American Playhouse some of the footage he had put together of the new direction of the film, they kicked in more funds so that Morris could shoot some re-enactment sequences outside New York City, as well as commission composer Phillip Glass to create a score for the film once it was completed. Documentaries at that time did not regularly use re-enactments, but Morris felt it was important to show how different personal accounts of the same moment can be misinterpreted or misremembered or outright manipulated to suppress the truth.   After the film completed its post-production in March 1988, The Thin Blue Line would have its world premiere at the San Francisco Film Festival on March 18th, and word quickly spread Morris had something truly unique and special on his hands. The critic for Variety would note in the very first paragraph of his write up that the film employed “strikingly original formal devices to pull together diverse interviews, film clips, photo collages, and” and this is where it broke ground, “recreations of the crime from many points of view.”   Miramax would put together a full court press in order to get the rights to the film, which was announced during the opening days of the 1988 Cannes Film Festival in early May. An early hint on how the company was going to sell the film was by calling it a “non-fiction feature” instead of a documentary.   Miramax would send Morris out on a cross-country press tour in the weeks leading up to the film's August 26th opening date, but Morris, like many documentary filmmakers, was not used to being in the spotlight themselves, and was not as articulate about talking up his movies as the more seasoned directors and actors who've been on the promotion circuit for a while. After one interview, Harvey Weinstein would send Errol Morris a note.   “Heard your NPR interview and you were boring.”   Harvey would offer up several suggestions to help the filmmaker, including hyping the movie up as a real life mystery thriller rather than a documentary, and using shorter and clearer sentences when answering a question.   It was a clear gamble to release The Thin Blue Line in the final week of summer, and the film would need a lot of good will to stand out.   And it would get it.   The New York Times was so enthralled with the film, it would not only run a review from Janet Maslin, who would heap great praise on the film, but would also run a lengthy interview with Errol Morris right next to the review. The quarter page ad in the New York Times, several pages back, would tout positive quotes from Roger Ebert, J. Hoberman, who had left The Village Voice for the then-new Premiere Magazine, Peter Travers, writing for People Magazine instead of Rolling Stone, and critics from the San Francisco Chronicle and, interestingly enough, the Dallas Morning News. The top of the ad was tagged with an intriguing tease: solving this mystery is going to be murder, with a second tag line underneath the key art and title, which called the film “a new kind of movie mystery.” Of the 15 New York area-based film critics for local newspapers, television and national magazines, 14 of them gave favorable reviews, while 1, Stephen Schiff of Vanity Fair, was ambivalent about it. Not one critic gave it a bad review.   New York audiences were hooked.   Opening in the 240 seat main house at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, the movie grossed $30,945 its first three days. In its second weekend, the gross at the Lincoln Plaza would jump to $31k, and adding another $27,500 from its two theatre opening in Los Angeles and $15,800 from a single DC theatre that week. Third week in New York was a still good $21k, but the second week in Los Angeles fell to $10,500 and DC to $10k. And that's how it rolled out for several months, mostly single screen bookings in major cities not called Los Angeles or New York City, racking up some of the best reviews Miramax would receive to date, but never breaking out much outside the major cities. When it looked like Santa Cruz wasn't going to play the film, I drove to San Francisco to see it, just as my friends and I had for the opening day of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ in mid-August. That's 75 miles each way, plus parking in San Francisco, just to see a movie. That's when you know you no longer just like movies but have developed a serious case of cinephilea. So when The Nickelodeon did open the film in late November, I did something I had never done with any documentary before.   I went and saw it again.   Second time around, I was still pissed off at the outrageous injustice heaped upon Randall Dale Adams for nothing more than being with and trusting the wrong person at the wrong time. But, thankfully, things would turn around for Adams in the coming weeks. On December 1st, it was reported that David Harris had recanted his testimony at Adams' trial, admitting he was alone when Officer Wood stopped his car. And on March 1st, 1989, after more than 15,000 people had signed the film's petition to revisit the decision, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Adams's conviction “based largely” on facts presented in the film.   The film would also find itself in several more controversies.   Despite being named The Best Documentary of the Year by a number of critics groups, the Documentary Branch of the  Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences would not nominate the film, due in large part to the numerous reenactments presented throughout the film. Filmmaker Michael Apted, a member of the Directors Branch of the Academy, noted that the failure to acknowledge The Thin Blue Line was “one of the most outrageous things in the modern history of the Academy,” while Roger Ebert added the slight was “the worst non-nomination of the year.” Despite the lack of a nomination, Errol Morris would attend the Oscars ceremony in March 1989, as a protest for his film being snubbed.   Morris would also, several months after Adams' release, find himself being sued by Adams, but not because of how he was portrayed in the film. During the making of the film, Morris had Adams sign a contract giving Morris the exclusive right to tell Adams's story, and Adams wanted, essentially, the right to tell his own story now that he was a free man. Morris and Adams would settle out of court, and Adams would regain his life rights.   Once the movie was played out in theatres, it had grossed $1.2m, which on the surface sounds like not a whole lot of money. Adjusted for inflation, that would only be $3.08m. But even unadjusted for inflation, it's still one of the 100 highest grossing documentaries of the past forty years. And it is one of just a handful of documentaries to become a part of the National Film Registry, for being a culturally, historically or aesthetically significant film.”   Adams would live a quiet life after his release, working as an anti-death penalty advocate and marrying the sister of one of the death row inmates he was helping to exonerate. He would pass away from a brain tumor in October 2010 at a courthouse in Ohio not half an hour from where he was born and still lived, but he would so disappear from the spotlight after the movie was released that his passing wasn't even reported until June 2011.   Errol Morris would become one of the most celebrated documentarians of his generation, finally getting nominated for, and winning, an Oscar in 2003, for The Fog of War, about the life and times of Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon's Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War era. The Fog of War would also be added to the National Film Registry in 2019. Morris would become only the third documentarian, after D.A. Pennebaker and Les Blank, to have two films on the Registry.   In 1973, the senseless killings of five members of the Alday family in Donalsonville GA made international headlines. Four years later, Canadian documentarian Tex Fuller made an award-winning documentary about the case, called Murder One. For years, Fuller shopped around a screenplay telling the same story, but it would take nearly a decade for it to finally be sold, in part because Fuller was insistent that he also be the director. A small Canadian production company would fund the $1m CAD production, which would star Henry Thomas of E.T. fame as the fifteen year old narrator of the story, Billy Isaacs.   The shoot began in early October 1987 outside Toronto, but after a week of shooting, Fuller was fired, and was replaced by Graeme Campbell, a young and energetic filmmaker for whom Murder One would be his fourth movie directing gig of the year. Details are sketchy as to why Fuller was fired, but Thomas and his mother Carolyn would voice concerns with the producers about the new direction the film was taking under its new director.   The film would premiere in Canada in May 1988. When the film did well up North, Miramax took notice and purchased the American distribution rights.   Murder One would first open in America on two screens in Los Angeles on September 9th, 1988. Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times noted that while the film itself wasn't very good, that it still sprung from the disturbing insight about the crazy reasons people cross of what should be impassable moral lines.   “No movie studio could have invented it!,” screamed the tagline on the poster and newspaper key art. “No writer could have imagined it! Because what happened that night became the most controversial in American history.”   That would draw limited interest from filmgoers in Tinseltown. The two theatres would gross a combined $7k in its first three days. Not great but far better than several other recent Miramax releases in the area.   Two weeks later, on September 23rd, Miramax would book Murder One into 20 theatres in the New York City metro region, as well as in Akron, Atlanta, Charlotte, Indianpolis, Nashville, and Tampa-St. Petersburg. In New York, the film would actually get some good reviews from the Times and the Post as well as Peter Travers of People Magazine, but once again, Miramax would not report grosses for the film. Variety would note the combined gross for the film in New York City was only $25k.   In early October, the film would fall out of Variety's internal list of the 50 Top Grossing Films within the twenty markets they regularly tracked, with a final gross of just $87k. One market that Miramax deliberately did not book the film was anywhere near southwest Georgia, where the murders took place. The closest theatre that did play the film was more than 200 miles away.   Miramax would finish 1988 with two releases.   The first was Dakota, which would mark star Lou Diamond Phillips first time as a producer. He would star as a troubled teenager who takes a job on a Texas horse ranch to help pay of his debts, who becomes a sorta big brother to the ranch owner's young son, who has recently lost a leg to cancer, as he also falls for the rancher's daughter.   When the $1.1m budgeted film began production in Texas in June 1987, Phillips had already made La Bamba and Stand and Deliver, but neither had yet to be released into theatres. By the time filming ended five weeks later, La Bamba had just opened, and Phillips was on his way to becoming a star.   The main producers wanted director Fred Holmes to get the film through post-production as quickly as possible, to get it into theatres in the early part of 1988 to capitalize on the newfound success of their young star.    But that wouldn't happen.   Holmes wouldn't have the film ready until the end of February 1988, which was deemed acceptable because of the impending release of Stand and Deliver. In fact, the producers would schedule their first distributor screening of the film on March 14th, the Monday after Stand and Delivered opened, in the hopes that good box office for the film and good notices for Phillips would translate to higher distributor interest in their film, which sorta worked. None of the major studios would show for the screening, but a number of Indies would, including Miramax. Phillips would not attend the screening, as he was on location in New Mexico shooting Young Guns.   I can't find any reason why Miramax waited nearly nine months after they acquired Dakota to get it into theatres. It certainly wasn't Oscar bait, and screen availability would be scarce during the busy holiday movie season, which would see a number of popular, high profile releases like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ernest Saves Christmas, The Naked Gun, Rain Man, Scrooged, Tequila Sunrise, Twins and Working Girl. Which might explain why, when Miramax released the film into 18 theatres in the New York City area on December 2nd, they could only get three screens in all of Manhattan, the best being the nice but hardly first-rate Embassy 4 at Broadway and 47th. Or of the 22 screens in Los Angeles opening the film the same day, the best would be the tiny Westwood 4 next to UCLA or the Paramount in Hollywood, whose best days were back in the Eisenhower administration.   And, yet again, Miramax did not report grosses, and none of the theatres playing the film was tracked by Variety that week. The film would be gone after just one week. The Paramount, which would open Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on the 14th, opted to instead play a double feature of Clara's Heart, with Whoopi Goldberg and Neil Patrick Harris, and the River Phoenix drama Running on Empty, even though neither film had been much of a hit.   Miramax's last film of the year would be the one that changed everything for them.   Pelle the Conquerer.   Adapted from a 1910 Danish book and directed by Billie August, whose previous film Twist and Shout had been released by Miramax in 1986, Pelle the Conquerer would be the first Danish or Swedish movie to star Max von Sydow in almost 15 years, having spent most of the 70s and 80s in Hollywood and London starring in a number of major movies including The Exorcist, Three Days of the Condor, Flash Gordon,Conan the Barbarian, Never Say Never Again, and David Lynch's Dune. But because von Sydow would be making his return to his native cinema, August was able to secure $4.5m to make the film, one of the highest budgeted Scandinavian films to be made to date.   In the late 1850s, an elderly emigrant Lasse and his son Pelle leave their home in Sweden after the death of the boy's mother, wanting to build a new life on the Danish island of Bornholm. Lasse finds it difficult to find work, given his age and his son's youth. The pair are forced to work at a large farm, where they are generally mistreated by the managers for being foreigners. The father falls into depression and alcoholism, the young boy befriends one of the bastard children of the farm owner as well as another Swedish farm worker, who dreams of conquering the world.   For the title character of Pelle, Billie August saw more than 3,000 Swedish boys before deciding to cast 11 year old Pelle Hvenegaard, who, like many boys in Sweden, had been named for the character he was now going to play on screen.   After six months of filming in the summer and fall of 1986, Billie August would finish editing Pelle the Conquerer in time for it to make its intended Christmas Day 1987 release date in Denmark and Sweden, where the film would be one of the biggest releases in either country for the entire decade. It would make its debut outside Scandinavia at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1988, where it had been invited to compete for the Palme D'Or. It would compete against a number of talented filmmakers who had come with some of the best films they would ever make, including Clint Eastwood with Bird, Claire Denis' Chocolat, István Szabó's Hanussen, Vincent Ward's The Navigator, and A Short Film About Killing, an expanded movie version of the fifth episode in Krzysztof Kieślowski's masterful miniseries Dekalog. Pelle would conquer them all, taking home the top prize from one of cinema's most revered film festivals.   Reviews for the film out of Cannes were almost universally excellent. Vincent Canby, the lead film critic for the New York Times for nearly twenty years by this point, wouldn't file his review until the end of the festival, in which he pointed out that a number of people at the festival were scandalized von Sydow had not also won the award for Best Actor.   Having previously worked with the company on his previous film's American release, August felt that Miramax would have what it took to make the film a success in the States.   Their first moves would be to schedule the film for a late December release, while securing a slot at that September's New York Film Festival. And once again, the critical consensus was highly positive, with only a small sampling of distractors.   The film would open first on two screens at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, December 21st, following by exclusive engagements in nine other cities including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC, on the 23rd. But the opening week numbers weren't very good, just $46k from ten screens. And you can't really blame the film's two hour and forty-five minute running time. Little Dorrit, the two-part, four hour adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, had been out nine weeks at this point and was still making nearly 50% more per screen.   But after the new year, when more and more awards were hurled the film's way, including the National Board of Review naming it one of the best foreign films of the year and the Golden Globes awarding it their Best Foreign Language trophy, ticket sales would pick up.   Well, for a foreign film.   The week after the Motion Picture Academy awarded Pelle their award for Best Foreign Language Film, business for the film would pick up 35%, and a third of its $2m American gross would come after that win.   One of the things that surprised me while doing the research for this episode was learning that Max von Sydow had never been nominated for an Oscar until he was nominated for Best Actor for Pelle the Conquerer. You look at his credits over the years, and it's just mind blowing. The Seventh Seal. Wild Strawberries. The Virgin Spring. The Greatest Story Ever Told. The Emigrants. The Exorcist. The Three Days of the Condor. Surely there was one performance amongst those that deserved recognition.   I hate to keep going back to A24, but there's something about a company's first Oscar win that sends that company into the next level. A24 didn't really become A24 until 2016, when three of their movies won Oscars, including Brie Larson for Best Actress in Room. And Miramax didn't really become the Miramax we knew and once loved until its win for Pelle.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 117, the fifth and final part of our miniseries on Miramax Films, is released.     Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

We continue our miniseries on the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, with a look at the films released in 1988. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we finally continue with the next part of our look back at the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, specifically looking at 1988.   But before we get there, I must issue another mea culpa. In our episode on the 1987 movies from Miramax, I mentioned that a Kiefer Sutherland movie called Crazy Moon never played in another theatre after its disastrous one week Oscar qualifying run in Los Angeles in December 1987.   I was wrong.   While doing research on this episode, I found one New York City playdate for the film, in early February 1988. It grossed a very dismal $3200 at the 545 seat Festival Theatre during its first weekend, and would be gone after seven days.   Sorry for the misinformation.   1988 would be a watershed year for the company, as one of the movies they acquired for distribution would change the course of documentary filmmaking as we knew it, and another would give a much beloved actor his first Academy Award nomination while giving the company its first Oscar win.   But before we get to those two movies, there's a whole bunch of others to talk about first.   Of the twelve movies Miramax would release in 1988, only four were from America. The rest would be a from a mixture of mostly Anglo-Saxon countries like the UK, Canada, France and Sweden, although there would be one Spanish film in there.   Their first release of the new year, Le Grand Chemin, told the story of a timid nine-year-old boy from Paris who spends one summer vacation in a small town in Brittany. His mother has lodged the boy with her friend and her friend's husband while Mom has another baby. The boy makes friends with a slightly older girl next door, and learns about life from her.   Richard Bohringer, who plays the friend's husband, and Anémone, who plays the pregnant mother, both won Cesars, the French equivalent to the Oscars, in their respective lead categories, and the film would be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 1987 by the National Board of Review. Miramax, who had picked up the film at Cannes several months earlier, waited until January 22nd, 1988, to release it in America, first at the Paris Theatre in midtown Manhattan, where it would gross a very impressive $41k in its first three days. In its second week, it would drop less than 25% of its opening weekend audience, bringing in another $31k. But shortly after that, the expected Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film did not come, and business on the film slowed to a trickle. But it kept chugging on, and by the time the film finished its run in early June, it had grossed $541k.   A week later, on January 29th, Miramax would open another French film, Light Years. An animated science fiction film written and directed by René Laloux, best known for directing the 1973 animated head trip film Fantastic Planet, Light Years was the story of an evil force from a thousand years in the future who begins to destroy an idyllic paradise where the citizens are in perfect harmony with nature.   In its first three days at two screens in Los Angeles and five screens in the San Francisco Bay Area, Light Years would gross a decent $48,665. Miramax would print a self-congratulating ad in that week's Variety touting the film's success, and thanking Isaac Asimov, who helped to write the English translation, and many of the actors who lent their vocal talents to the new dub, including Glenn Close, Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Grey, Christopher Plummer, and Penn and Teller. Yes, Teller speaks. The ad was a message to both the theatre operators and the major players in the industry. Miramax was here. Get used to it.   But that ad may have been a bit premature.   While the film would do well in major markets during its initial week in theatres, audience interest would drop outside of its opening week in big cities, and be practically non-existent in college towns and other smaller cities. Its final box office total would be just over $370k.   March 18th saw the release of a truly unique film.    Imagine a film directed by Robert Altman and Bruce Beresford and Jean-Luc Godard and Derek Jarman and Franc Roddam and Nicolas Roeg and Ken Russell and Charles Sturridge and Julien Temple. Imagine a film that starred Beverly D'Angelo, Bridget Fonda in her first movie, Julie Hagerty, Buck Henry, Elizabeth Hurley and John Hurt and Theresa Russell and Tilda Swinton. Imagine a film that brought together ten of the most eclectic filmmakers in the world doing four to fourteen minute short films featuring the arias of some of the most famous and beloved operas ever written, often taken out of their original context and placed into strange new places. Like, for example, the aria for Verdi's Rigoletto set at the kitschy Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, where a movie producer is cheating on his wife while she is in a nearby room with a hunky man who is not her husband. Imagine that there's almost no dialogue in the film. Just the arias to set the moments.   That is Aria.   If you are unfamiliar with opera in general, and these arias specifically, that's not a problem. When I saw the film at the Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz in June 1988, I knew some Wagner, some Puccini, and some Verdi, through other movies that used the music as punctuation for a scene. I think the first time I had heard Nessun Dorma was in The Killing Fields. Vesti La Giubba in The Untouchables. But this would be the first time I would hear these arias as they were meant to be performed, even if they were out of context within their original stories. Certainly, Wagner didn't intend the aria from Tristan und Isolde to be used to highlight a suicide pact between a young couple killing themselves in a Las Vegas hotel bathroom.   Aria definitely split critics when it premiered at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, when it competed for the festival's main prize, the Palme D'Or. Roger Ebert would call it the first MTV opera and felt the filmmakers were poking fun at their own styles, while Leonard Maltin felt most of the endeavor was a waste of time. In the review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin would also make a reference to MTV but not in a positive way, and would note the two best parts of the film were the photo montage that is seen over the end credits, and the clever licensing of Chuck Jones's classic Bugs Bunny cartoon What's Opera, Doc, to play with the film, at least during its New York run. In the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper chose one of its music critics to review the film. They too would compare the film to MTV, but also to Fantasia, neither reference meant to be positive.   It's easy to see what might have attracted Harvey Weinstein to acquire the film.   Nudity.   And lots of it.   Including from a 21 year old Hurley, and a 22 year old Fonda.   Open at the 420 seat Ridgemont Theatre in Seattle on March 18th, 1988, Aria would gross a respectable $10,600. It would be the second highest grossing theatre in the city, only behind The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which grossed $16,600 in its fifth week at the 850 seat Cinerama Theatre, which was and still is the single best theatre in Seattle. It would continue to do well in Seattle, but it would not open until April 15th in Los Angeles and May 20th in New York City.   But despite some decent notices and the presence of some big name directors, Aria would stiff at the box office, grossing just $1.03m after seven months in theatres.   As we discussed on our previous episode, there was a Dennis Hopper movie called Riders on the Storm that supposedly opened in November 1987, but didn't. It did open in theatres in May of 1988, and now we're here to talk about it.   Riders on the Storm would open in eleven theatres in the New York City area on May 7th, including three theatres in Manhattan. Since Miramax did not screen the film for critics before release, never a good sign, the first reviews wouldn't show up until the following day, since the critics would actually have to go see the film with a regular audience. Vincent Canby's review for the New York Times would arrive first, and surprisingly, he didn't completely hate the film. But audiences didn't care. In its first weekend in New York City, Riders on the Storm would gross an anemic $25k. The following Friday, Miramax would open the film at two theatres in Baltimore, four theatres in Fort Worth TX (but surprisingly none in Dallas), one theatre in Los Angeles and one theatre in Springfield OH, while continuing on only one screen in New York. No reported grosses from Fort Worth, LA or Springfield, but the New York theatre reported ticket sales of $3k for the weekend, a 57% drop from its previous week, while the two in Baltimore combined for $5k.   There would be more single playdates for a few months. Tampa the same week as New York. Atlanta, Charlotte, Des Moines and Memphis in late May. Cincinnati in late June. Boston, Calgary, Ottawa and Philadelphia in early July. Greenville SC in late August. Evansville IL, Ithaca NY and San Francisco in early September. Chicago in late September. It just kept popping up in random places for months, always a one week playdate before heading off to the next location. And in all that time, Miramax never reported grosses. What little numbers we do have is from the theatres that Variety was tracking, and those numbers totaled up to less than $30k.   Another mostly lost and forgotten Miramax release from 1988 is Caribe, a Canadian production that shot in Belize about an amateur illegal arms trader to Central American terrorists who must go on the run after a deal goes down bad, because who wants to see a Canadian movie about an amateur illegal arms trader to Canadian terrorists who must go on the run in the Canadian tundra after a deal goes down bad?   Kara Glover would play Helen, the arms dealer, and John Savage as Jeff, a British intelligence agent who helps Helen.   Caribe would first open in Detroit on May 20th, 1988. Can you guess what I'm going to say next?   Yep.   No reported grosses, no theatres playing the film tracked by Variety.   The following week, Caribe opens in the San Francisco Bay Area, at the 300 seat United Artists Theatre in San Francisco, and three theatres in the South Bay. While Miramax once again did not report grosses, the combined gross for the four theatres, according to Variety, was a weak $3,700. Compare that to Aria, which was playing at the Opera Plaza Cinemas in its third week in San Francisco, in an auditorium 40% smaller than the United Artist, grossing $5,300 on its own.   On June 3rd, Caribe would open at the AMC Fountain Square 14 in Nashville. One show only on Friday and Saturday at 11:45pm. Miramax did not report grosses. Probably because people we going to see Willie Tyler and Lester at Zanie's down the street.   And again, it kept cycling around the country, one or two new playdates in each city it played in. Philadelphia in mid-June. Indianapolis in mid-July. Jersey City in late August. Always for one week, grosses never reported.   Miramax's first Swedish release of the year was called Mio, but this was truly an international production. The $4m film was co-produced by Swedish, Norwegian and Russian production companies, directed by a Russian, adapted from a Swedish book by an American screenwriter, scored by one of the members of ABBA, and starring actors from England, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.   Mio tells the story of a boy from Stockholm who travels to an otherworldly fantasy realm and frees the land from an evil knight's oppression. What makes this movie memorable today is that Mio's best friend is played by none other than Christian Bale, in his very first film.   The movie was shot in Moscow, Stockholm, the Crimea, Scotland, and outside Pripyat in the Northern part of what is now Ukraine, between March and July 1986. In fact, the cast and crew were shooting outside Pripyat on April 26th, when they got the call they needed to evacuate the area. It would be hours later when they would discover there had been a reactor core meltdown at the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. They would have to scramble to shoot in other locations away from Ukraine for a month, and when they were finally allowed to return, the area they were shooting in deemed to have not been adversely affected by the worst nuclear power plant accident in human history,, Geiger counters would be placed all over the sets, and every meal served by craft services would need to be read to make sure it wasn't contaminated.   After premiering at the Moscow Film Festival in July 1987 and the Norwegian Film Festival in August, Mio would open in Sweden on October 16th, 1987. The local critics would tear the film apart. They hated that the filmmakers had Anglicized the movie with British actors like Christopher Lee, Susannah York, Christian Bale and Nicholas Pickard, an eleven year old boy also making his film debut. They also hated how the filmmakers adapted the novel by the legendary Astrid Lindgren, whose Pippi Longstocking novels made her and her works world famous. Overall, they hated pretty much everything about it outside of Christopher Lee's performance and the production's design in the fantasy world.   Miramax most likely picked it up trying to emulate the success of The Neverending Story, which had opened to great success in most of the world in 1984. So it might seem kinda odd that when they would open the now titled The Land of Faraway in theatres, they wouldn't go wide but instead open it on one screen in Atlanta GA on June 10th, 1988. And, once again, Miramax did not report grosses, and Variety did not track Atlanta theatres that week. Two weeks later, they would open the film in Miami. How many theatres? Can't tell you. Miramax did not report grosses, and Variety was not tracking any of the theatres in Miami playing the film. But hey, Bull Durham did pretty good in Miami that week.   The film would next open in theatres in Los Angeles. This time, Miramax bought a quarter page ad in the Los Angeles Times on opening day to let people know the film existed. So we know it was playing on 18 screens that weekend. And, once again, Miramax did not report grosses for the film. But on the two screens it played on that Variety was tracking, the combined gross was just $2,500.   There'd be other playdates. Kansas City and Minneapolis in mid-September. Vancouver, BC in early October. Palm Beach FL in mid October. Calgary AB and Fort Lauderdale in late October. Phoenix in mid November. And never once did Miramax report any grosses for it.   One week after Mio, Miramax would release a comedy called Going Undercover.   Now, if you listened to our March 2021 episode on Some Kind of Wonderful, you may remember be mentioning Lea Thompson taking the role of Amanda Jones in that film, a role she had turned down twice before, the week after Howard the Duck opened, because she was afraid she'd never get cast in a movie again. And while Some Kind of Wonderful wasn't as big a film as you'd expect from a John Hughes production, Thompson did indeed continue to work, and is still working to this day.   So if you were looking at a newspaper ad in several cities in June 1988 and saw her latest movie and wonder why she went back to making weird little movies.   She hadn't.   This was a movie she had made just before Back to the Future, in August and September 1984.   Originally titled Yellow Pages, the film starred film legend Jean Simmons as Maxine, a rich woman who has hired Chris Lemmon's private investigator Henry Brilliant to protect her stepdaughter Marigold during her trip to Copenhagen.   The director, James Clarke, had written the script specifically for Lemmon, tailoring his role to mimic various roles played by his famous father, Jack Lemmon, over the decades, and for Simmons. But Thompson was just one of a number of young actresses they looked at before making their casting choice.   Half of the $6m budget would come from a first-time British film producer, while the other half from a group of Danish investors wanting to lure more Hollywood productions to their area.   The shoot would be plagued by a number of problems. The shoot in Los Angeles coincided with the final days of the 1984 Summer Olympics, which would cut out using some of the best and most regularly used locations in the city, and a long-lasting heat wave that would make outdoor shoots unbearable for cast and crew. When they arrived in Copenhagen at the end of August, Denmark was going through an unusually heavy storm front that hung around for weeks.   Clarke would spend several months editing the film, longer than usual for a smaller production like this, but he in part was waiting to see how Back to the Future would do at the box office. If the film was a hit, and his leading actress was a major part of that, it could make it easier to sell his film to a distributor.   Or that was line of thinking.   Of course, Back to the Future was a hit, and Thompson received much praise for her comedic work on the film.   But that didn't make it any easier to sell his film.   The producer would set the first screenings for the film at the February 1986 American Film Market in Santa Monica, which caters not only to foreign distributors looking to acquire American movies for their markets, but helps independent filmmakers get their movies seen by American distributors.   As these screenings were for buyers by invitation only, there would be no reviews from the screenings, but one could guess that no one would hear about the film again until Miramax bought the American distribution rights to it in March 1988 tells us that maybe those screenings didn't go so well.   The film would get retitled Going Undercover, and would open in single screen playdates in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, St. Louis and Tampa on June 17th. And as I've said too many times already, no reported grosses from Miramax, and only one theatre playing the film was being tracked by Variety, with Going Undercover earning $3,000 during its one week at the Century City 14 in Los Angeles.   In the June 22nd, 1988 issue of Variety, there was an article about Miramax securing a $25m line of credit in order to start producing their own films. Going Undercover is mentioned in the article about being one of Miramax's releases, without noting it had just been released that week or how well it did or did not do.   The Thin Blue Line would be Miramax's first non-music based documentary, and one that would truly change how documentaries were made.   Errol Morris had already made two bizarre but entertaining documentaries in the late 70s and early 80s. Gates of Heaven was shot in 1977, about a man who operated a failing pet cemetery in Northern California's Napa Valley. When Morris told his famous German filmmaking supporter Werner Herzog about the film, Herzog vowed to eat one of the shoes he was wearing that day if Morris could actually complete the film and have it shown in a public theatre. In April 1979, just before the documentary had its world premiere at UC Theatre in Berkeley, where Morris had studied philosophy, Herzog would spend the morning at Chez Pannise, the creators of the California Cuisine cooking style, boiling his shoes for five hours in garlic, herbs and stock. This event itself would be commemorated in a documentary short called, naturally, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, by Les Blank, which is a must watch on its own.   Because of the success of Gates of Heaven, Morris was able to quickly find financing for his next film, Nub City, which was originally supposed to be about the number of Vernon, Florida's citizens who have “accidentally” cut off their limbs, in order to collect the insurance money. But after several of those citizens threatened to kill Morris, and one of them tried to run down his cinematographer with their truck, Morris would rework the documentary, dropping the limb angle, no pun intended, and focus on the numerous eccentric people in the town. It would premiere at the 1981 New York Film Festival, and become a hit, for a documentary, when it was released in theatres in 1982.   But it would take Morris another six years after completing Vernon, Florida, to make another film. Part of it was having trouble lining up full funding to work on his next proposed movie, about James Grigson, a Texas forensic psychiatrist whose was nicknamed Doctor Death for being an expert witness for the prosecution in death penalty cases in Texas. Morris had gotten seed money for the documentary from PBS and the Endowment for Public Arts, but there was little else coming in while he worked on the film. In fact, Morris would get a PI license in New York and work cases for two years, using every penny he earned that wasn't going towards living expenses to keep the film afloat.   One of Morris's major problems for the film was that Grigson would not sit on camera for an interview, but would meet with Morris face to face to talk about the cases. During that meeting, the good doctor suggested to the filmmaker that he should research the killers he helped put away. And during that research, Morris would come across the case of one Randall Dale Adams, who was convicted of killing Dallas police officer Robert Wood in 1976, even though another man, David Harris, was the police's initial suspect. For two years, Morris would fly back and forth between New York City and Texas, talking to and filming interviews with Adams and more than two hundred other people connected to the shooting and the trial. Morris had become convinced Adams was indeed innocent, and dropped the idea about Dr. Grigson to solely focus on the Robert Wood murder.   After showing the producers of PBS's American Playhouse some of the footage he had put together of the new direction of the film, they kicked in more funds so that Morris could shoot some re-enactment sequences outside New York City, as well as commission composer Phillip Glass to create a score for the film once it was completed. Documentaries at that time did not regularly use re-enactments, but Morris felt it was important to show how different personal accounts of the same moment can be misinterpreted or misremembered or outright manipulated to suppress the truth.   After the film completed its post-production in March 1988, The Thin Blue Line would have its world premiere at the San Francisco Film Festival on March 18th, and word quickly spread Morris had something truly unique and special on his hands. The critic for Variety would note in the very first paragraph of his write up that the film employed “strikingly original formal devices to pull together diverse interviews, film clips, photo collages, and” and this is where it broke ground, “recreations of the crime from many points of view.”   Miramax would put together a full court press in order to get the rights to the film, which was announced during the opening days of the 1988 Cannes Film Festival in early May. An early hint on how the company was going to sell the film was by calling it a “non-fiction feature” instead of a documentary.   Miramax would send Morris out on a cross-country press tour in the weeks leading up to the film's August 26th opening date, but Morris, like many documentary filmmakers, was not used to being in the spotlight themselves, and was not as articulate about talking up his movies as the more seasoned directors and actors who've been on the promotion circuit for a while. After one interview, Harvey Weinstein would send Errol Morris a note.   “Heard your NPR interview and you were boring.”   Harvey would offer up several suggestions to help the filmmaker, including hyping the movie up as a real life mystery thriller rather than a documentary, and using shorter and clearer sentences when answering a question.   It was a clear gamble to release The Thin Blue Line in the final week of summer, and the film would need a lot of good will to stand out.   And it would get it.   The New York Times was so enthralled with the film, it would not only run a review from Janet Maslin, who would heap great praise on the film, but would also run a lengthy interview with Errol Morris right next to the review. The quarter page ad in the New York Times, several pages back, would tout positive quotes from Roger Ebert, J. Hoberman, who had left The Village Voice for the then-new Premiere Magazine, Peter Travers, writing for People Magazine instead of Rolling Stone, and critics from the San Francisco Chronicle and, interestingly enough, the Dallas Morning News. The top of the ad was tagged with an intriguing tease: solving this mystery is going to be murder, with a second tag line underneath the key art and title, which called the film “a new kind of movie mystery.” Of the 15 New York area-based film critics for local newspapers, television and national magazines, 14 of them gave favorable reviews, while 1, Stephen Schiff of Vanity Fair, was ambivalent about it. Not one critic gave it a bad review.   New York audiences were hooked.   Opening in the 240 seat main house at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, the movie grossed $30,945 its first three days. In its second weekend, the gross at the Lincoln Plaza would jump to $31k, and adding another $27,500 from its two theatre opening in Los Angeles and $15,800 from a single DC theatre that week. Third week in New York was a still good $21k, but the second week in Los Angeles fell to $10,500 and DC to $10k. And that's how it rolled out for several months, mostly single screen bookings in major cities not called Los Angeles or New York City, racking up some of the best reviews Miramax would receive to date, but never breaking out much outside the major cities. When it looked like Santa Cruz wasn't going to play the film, I drove to San Francisco to see it, just as my friends and I had for the opening day of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ in mid-August. That's 75 miles each way, plus parking in San Francisco, just to see a movie. That's when you know you no longer just like movies but have developed a serious case of cinephilea. So when The Nickelodeon did open the film in late November, I did something I had never done with any documentary before.   I went and saw it again.   Second time around, I was still pissed off at the outrageous injustice heaped upon Randall Dale Adams for nothing more than being with and trusting the wrong person at the wrong time. But, thankfully, things would turn around for Adams in the coming weeks. On December 1st, it was reported that David Harris had recanted his testimony at Adams' trial, admitting he was alone when Officer Wood stopped his car. And on March 1st, 1989, after more than 15,000 people had signed the film's petition to revisit the decision, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Adams's conviction “based largely” on facts presented in the film.   The film would also find itself in several more controversies.   Despite being named The Best Documentary of the Year by a number of critics groups, the Documentary Branch of the  Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences would not nominate the film, due in large part to the numerous reenactments presented throughout the film. Filmmaker Michael Apted, a member of the Directors Branch of the Academy, noted that the failure to acknowledge The Thin Blue Line was “one of the most outrageous things in the modern history of the Academy,” while Roger Ebert added the slight was “the worst non-nomination of the year.” Despite the lack of a nomination, Errol Morris would attend the Oscars ceremony in March 1989, as a protest for his film being snubbed.   Morris would also, several months after Adams' release, find himself being sued by Adams, but not because of how he was portrayed in the film. During the making of the film, Morris had Adams sign a contract giving Morris the exclusive right to tell Adams's story, and Adams wanted, essentially, the right to tell his own story now that he was a free man. Morris and Adams would settle out of court, and Adams would regain his life rights.   Once the movie was played out in theatres, it had grossed $1.2m, which on the surface sounds like not a whole lot of money. Adjusted for inflation, that would only be $3.08m. But even unadjusted for inflation, it's still one of the 100 highest grossing documentaries of the past forty years. And it is one of just a handful of documentaries to become a part of the National Film Registry, for being a culturally, historically or aesthetically significant film.”   Adams would live a quiet life after his release, working as an anti-death penalty advocate and marrying the sister of one of the death row inmates he was helping to exonerate. He would pass away from a brain tumor in October 2010 at a courthouse in Ohio not half an hour from where he was born and still lived, but he would so disappear from the spotlight after the movie was released that his passing wasn't even reported until June 2011.   Errol Morris would become one of the most celebrated documentarians of his generation, finally getting nominated for, and winning, an Oscar in 2003, for The Fog of War, about the life and times of Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon's Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War era. The Fog of War would also be added to the National Film Registry in 2019. Morris would become only the third documentarian, after D.A. Pennebaker and Les Blank, to have two films on the Registry.   In 1973, the senseless killings of five members of the Alday family in Donalsonville GA made international headlines. Four years later, Canadian documentarian Tex Fuller made an award-winning documentary about the case, called Murder One. For years, Fuller shopped around a screenplay telling the same story, but it would take nearly a decade for it to finally be sold, in part because Fuller was insistent that he also be the director. A small Canadian production company would fund the $1m CAD production, which would star Henry Thomas of E.T. fame as the fifteen year old narrator of the story, Billy Isaacs.   The shoot began in early October 1987 outside Toronto, but after a week of shooting, Fuller was fired, and was replaced by Graeme Campbell, a young and energetic filmmaker for whom Murder One would be his fourth movie directing gig of the year. Details are sketchy as to why Fuller was fired, but Thomas and his mother Carolyn would voice concerns with the producers about the new direction the film was taking under its new director.   The film would premiere in Canada in May 1988. When the film did well up North, Miramax took notice and purchased the American distribution rights.   Murder One would first open in America on two screens in Los Angeles on September 9th, 1988. Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times noted that while the film itself wasn't very good, that it still sprung from the disturbing insight about the crazy reasons people cross of what should be impassable moral lines.   “No movie studio could have invented it!,” screamed the tagline on the poster and newspaper key art. “No writer could have imagined it! Because what happened that night became the most controversial in American history.”   That would draw limited interest from filmgoers in Tinseltown. The two theatres would gross a combined $7k in its first three days. Not great but far better than several other recent Miramax releases in the area.   Two weeks later, on September 23rd, Miramax would book Murder One into 20 theatres in the New York City metro region, as well as in Akron, Atlanta, Charlotte, Indianpolis, Nashville, and Tampa-St. Petersburg. In New York, the film would actually get some good reviews from the Times and the Post as well as Peter Travers of People Magazine, but once again, Miramax would not report grosses for the film. Variety would note the combined gross for the film in New York City was only $25k.   In early October, the film would fall out of Variety's internal list of the 50 Top Grossing Films within the twenty markets they regularly tracked, with a final gross of just $87k. One market that Miramax deliberately did not book the film was anywhere near southwest Georgia, where the murders took place. The closest theatre that did play the film was more than 200 miles away.   Miramax would finish 1988 with two releases.   The first was Dakota, which would mark star Lou Diamond Phillips first time as a producer. He would star as a troubled teenager who takes a job on a Texas horse ranch to help pay of his debts, who becomes a sorta big brother to the ranch owner's young son, who has recently lost a leg to cancer, as he also falls for the rancher's daughter.   When the $1.1m budgeted film began production in Texas in June 1987, Phillips had already made La Bamba and Stand and Deliver, but neither had yet to be released into theatres. By the time filming ended five weeks later, La Bamba had just opened, and Phillips was on his way to becoming a star.   The main producers wanted director Fred Holmes to get the film through post-production as quickly as possible, to get it into theatres in the early part of 1988 to capitalize on the newfound success of their young star.    But that wouldn't happen.   Holmes wouldn't have the film ready until the end of February 1988, which was deemed acceptable because of the impending release of Stand and Deliver. In fact, the producers would schedule their first distributor screening of the film on March 14th, the Monday after Stand and Delivered opened, in the hopes that good box office for the film and good notices for Phillips would translate to higher distributor interest in their film, which sorta worked. None of the major studios would show for the screening, but a number of Indies would, including Miramax. Phillips would not attend the screening, as he was on location in New Mexico shooting Young Guns.   I can't find any reason why Miramax waited nearly nine months after they acquired Dakota to get it into theatres. It certainly wasn't Oscar bait, and screen availability would be scarce during the busy holiday movie season, which would see a number of popular, high profile releases like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ernest Saves Christmas, The Naked Gun, Rain Man, Scrooged, Tequila Sunrise, Twins and Working Girl. Which might explain why, when Miramax released the film into 18 theatres in the New York City area on December 2nd, they could only get three screens in all of Manhattan, the best being the nice but hardly first-rate Embassy 4 at Broadway and 47th. Or of the 22 screens in Los Angeles opening the film the same day, the best would be the tiny Westwood 4 next to UCLA or the Paramount in Hollywood, whose best days were back in the Eisenhower administration.   And, yet again, Miramax did not report grosses, and none of the theatres playing the film was tracked by Variety that week. The film would be gone after just one week. The Paramount, which would open Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on the 14th, opted to instead play a double feature of Clara's Heart, with Whoopi Goldberg and Neil Patrick Harris, and the River Phoenix drama Running on Empty, even though neither film had been much of a hit.   Miramax's last film of the year would be the one that changed everything for them.   Pelle the Conquerer.   Adapted from a 1910 Danish book and directed by Billie August, whose previous film Twist and Shout had been released by Miramax in 1986, Pelle the Conquerer would be the first Danish or Swedish movie to star Max von Sydow in almost 15 years, having spent most of the 70s and 80s in Hollywood and London starring in a number of major movies including The Exorcist, Three Days of the Condor, Flash Gordon,Conan the Barbarian, Never Say Never Again, and David Lynch's Dune. But because von Sydow would be making his return to his native cinema, August was able to secure $4.5m to make the film, one of the highest budgeted Scandinavian films to be made to date.   In the late 1850s, an elderly emigrant Lasse and his son Pelle leave their home in Sweden after the death of the boy's mother, wanting to build a new life on the Danish island of Bornholm. Lasse finds it difficult to find work, given his age and his son's youth. The pair are forced to work at a large farm, where they are generally mistreated by the managers for being foreigners. The father falls into depression and alcoholism, the young boy befriends one of the bastard children of the farm owner as well as another Swedish farm worker, who dreams of conquering the world.   For the title character of Pelle, Billie August saw more than 3,000 Swedish boys before deciding to cast 11 year old Pelle Hvenegaard, who, like many boys in Sweden, had been named for the character he was now going to play on screen.   After six months of filming in the summer and fall of 1986, Billie August would finish editing Pelle the Conquerer in time for it to make its intended Christmas Day 1987 release date in Denmark and Sweden, where the film would be one of the biggest releases in either country for the entire decade. It would make its debut outside Scandinavia at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1988, where it had been invited to compete for the Palme D'Or. It would compete against a number of talented filmmakers who had come with some of the best films they would ever make, including Clint Eastwood with Bird, Claire Denis' Chocolat, István Szabó's Hanussen, Vincent Ward's The Navigator, and A Short Film About Killing, an expanded movie version of the fifth episode in Krzysztof Kieślowski's masterful miniseries Dekalog. Pelle would conquer them all, taking home the top prize from one of cinema's most revered film festivals.   Reviews for the film out of Cannes were almost universally excellent. Vincent Canby, the lead film critic for the New York Times for nearly twenty years by this point, wouldn't file his review until the end of the festival, in which he pointed out that a number of people at the festival were scandalized von Sydow had not also won the award for Best Actor.   Having previously worked with the company on his previous film's American release, August felt that Miramax would have what it took to make the film a success in the States.   Their first moves would be to schedule the film for a late December release, while securing a slot at that September's New York Film Festival. And once again, the critical consensus was highly positive, with only a small sampling of distractors.   The film would open first on two screens at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, December 21st, following by exclusive engagements in nine other cities including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC, on the 23rd. But the opening week numbers weren't very good, just $46k from ten screens. And you can't really blame the film's two hour and forty-five minute running time. Little Dorrit, the two-part, four hour adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, had been out nine weeks at this point and was still making nearly 50% more per screen.   But after the new year, when more and more awards were hurled the film's way, including the National Board of Review naming it one of the best foreign films of the year and the Golden Globes awarding it their Best Foreign Language trophy, ticket sales would pick up.   Well, for a foreign film.   The week after the Motion Picture Academy awarded Pelle their award for Best Foreign Language Film, business for the film would pick up 35%, and a third of its $2m American gross would come after that win.   One of the things that surprised me while doing the research for this episode was learning that Max von Sydow had never been nominated for an Oscar until he was nominated for Best Actor for Pelle the Conquerer. You look at his credits over the years, and it's just mind blowing. The Seventh Seal. Wild Strawberries. The Virgin Spring. The Greatest Story Ever Told. The Emigrants. The Exorcist. The Three Days of the Condor. Surely there was one performance amongst those that deserved recognition.   I hate to keep going back to A24, but there's something about a company's first Oscar win that sends that company into the next level. A24 didn't really become A24 until 2016, when three of their movies won Oscars, including Brie Larson for Best Actress in Room. And Miramax didn't really become the Miramax we knew and once loved until its win for Pelle.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 117, the fifth and final part of our miniseries on Miramax Films, is released.     Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

Today on the Rarefied Heir Podcast encore edition, we are talking to Cory Tyler, son of ventriloquist Willie Tyler & Lester. Taking to Cory was a great thrill as his dad was one of those celebrities you saw constantly when we were growing up - from successful runs on stage, to network television, on cable TV and even one place we did not know about - vinyl. Yes there is a fairly tough to find comedy album released when his dad was signed to Motown Records. In fact, we talk to Cory about this as we discuss the famed Motown Revue tours of the 1960s his dad was a part of during civil rights, that was famous not only for the performers but for the social progress they made at that time. We also talk to Cory about having an inanimate family member, a long lost favorite coffee shop he and his father frequented, his years growing up in the San Fernando Valley that sounds familiar to host Josh Mills and his parents unique living arrangement hat while certainly not the norm, worked well for Cory and his brother. Talking to Cory was easy, fun and educational. We learned a lot. So where does one get a passion for ventriloquism in America post WWII that spans through to today? You'll just have to listen to this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast and find out. Everyone has a story. 

The College Football Experience (@TCEonSGPN) on the Sports Gambling Podcast Network continues their 133 college football team preview series for 2023 with the Louisville Cardinals 2023 season preview. Pick Dundee aka (@TheColbyD), Patty C (@PattyC831) & NC Nick (@NC__NicK) break down the 2023 Louisville Cardinals schedule game by game and key in on the Louisville Cardinals coaching hire and transfer portal to the offense, defense and special teams. Can Jeff Brohm and the Louisville Cardinals get to the ACC Championship in year one of the Brohm era? Plus, Michael Barker aka (@CFBcampustour) hops on to talk about the his experiences to The Shaq to catch Louisville football games.Did the Louisville Cardinals win the transfer portal when they landed former Purdue & Cal quarterback Jack Plummer? Will Brian Brohm have this Louisville offense as a top 50 offense in America in 2023? Is Jawhar Jordan a running back to lookout for in the ACC in the coming year? Will the wide receiving core be elite with the additions of Jamari Thrash, Jadon Thompson, Jimmy Calloway, Kevin Coleman and the return of Chris Bell? Is tight end Jamari Johnson a name to watch out for in the Louisville offense? Did Louisville do a great job of loading up on the offensive line in the transfer portal with additions like Bryan Hudson, Willie Tyler and Eric Miller?How will the Louisville Cardinals defense do after a stellar year last season but a new defensive coordinator in Ron English? Will the defensive line be solid with the return of Ashton Gillotte and Desmond Tell and the transfer portal addition of Stephen Herron from Stanford? Is the biggest unknown on the Louisville Cardinals defense the linebacking core? Will the secondary be elite with the return of Jarvis Brownlee and Josh Minkins and the additions of MJ Griffin, Storm Duck, Quincy Riley, Devin Neal and Cam'Ron Kelly? We talk it all and more on this 2023 Louisville Cardinals season preview edition of The College Football Experience.=====================================================Discuss with fellow degens on Discord - https://sg.pn/discordSGPN Merch Store - https://sg.pn/storeDownload The Free SGPN App - https://sgpn.appCheck out SGPN.TVSupport us by supporting our partnersCirca Sports - Enter their contests for a chance to win your share of $14 Million - https://www.circasports.com/Underdog Fantasy code SGPN - 100% Deposit Match up to $100 - https://sg.pn/underdogFollow The College Experience & SGPN On Social MediaTwitter - https://twitter.com/TCEonSGPNTwitter - http://www.twitter.com/gamblingpodcastInstagram - http://www.instagram.com/sportsgamblingpodcastTikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@gamblingpodcastFacebook - http://www.facebook.com/sportsgamblingpodcastYoutube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheCollegeExperienceFollow The Hosts On Social MediaColby Dant - http://www.twitter.com/thecolbydPatty C - https://twitter.com/PattyC831NC Nick - https://twitter.com/NC__NicKWatch the Sports Gambling PodcastYouTube - https://www.sg.pn/YouTubeTwitch - https://www.sg.pn/TwitchRead & Discuss - Join the conversationWebsite - https://www.sportsgamblingpodcast.comSlack - https://sg.pn/slackReddit - https://www.sg.pn/reddit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The College Football Experience (@TCEonSGPN) on the Sports Gambling Podcast Network continues their 133 college football team preview series for 2023 with the Louisville Cardinals 2023 season preview. Pick Dundee aka (@TheColbyD), Patty C (@PattyC831) & NC Nick (@NC__NicK) break down the 2023 Louisville Cardinals schedule game by game and key in on the Louisville Cardinals coaching hire and transfer portal to the offense, defense and special teams. Can Jeff Brohm and the Louisville Cardinals get to the ACC Championship in year one of the Brohm era? Plus, Michael Barker aka (@CFBcampustour) hops on to talk about the his experiences to The Shaq to catch Louisville football games. Did the Louisville Cardinals win the transfer portal when they landed former Purdue & Cal quarterback Jack Plummer? Will Brian Brohm have this Louisville offense as a top 50 offense in America in 2023? Is Jawhar Jordan a running back to lookout for in the ACC in the coming year? Will the wide receiving core be elite with the additions of Jamari Thrash, Jadon Thompson, Jimmy Calloway, Kevin Coleman and the return of Chris Bell? Is tight end Jamari Johnson a name to watch out for in the Louisville offense? Did Louisville do a great job of loading up on the offensive line in the transfer portal with additions like Bryan Hudson, Willie Tyler and Eric Miller? How will the Louisville Cardinals defense do after a stellar year last season but a new defensive coordinator in Ron English? Will the defensive line be solid with the return of Ashton Gillotte and Desmond Tell and the transfer portal addition of Stephen Herron from Stanford? Is the biggest unknown on the Louisville Cardinals defense the linebacking core? Will the secondary be elite with the return of Jarvis Brownlee and Josh Minkins and the additions of MJ Griffin, Storm Duck, Quincy Riley, Devin Neal and Cam'Ron Kelly? We talk it all and more on this 2023 Louisville Cardinals season preview edition of The College Football Experience. ===================================================== Discuss with fellow degens on Discord - https://sg.pn/discord SGPN Merch Store - https://sg.pn/store Download The Free SGPN App - https://sgpn.app Check out SGPN.TV Support us by supporting our partners Circa Sports - Enter their contests for a chance to win your share of $14 Million - https://www.circasports.com/ Underdog Fantasy code SGPN - 100% Deposit Match up to $100 - https://sg.pn/underdog Follow The College Experience & SGPN On Social Media Twitter - https://twitter.com/TCEonSGPN Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/gamblingpodcast Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/sportsgamblingpodcast TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@gamblingpodcast Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/sportsgamblingpodcast Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheCollegeExperience Follow The Hosts On Social Media Colby Dant - http://www.twitter.com/thecolbyd Patty C - https://twitter.com/PattyC831 NC Nick - https://twitter.com/NC__NicK Watch the Sports Gambling Podcast YouTube - https://www.sg.pn/YouTube Twitch - https://www.sg.pn/Twitch Read & Discuss - Join the conversation Website - https://www.sportsgamblingpodcast.com Slack - https://sg.pn/slack Reddit - https://www.sg.pn/reddit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The College Football Experience (@TCEonSGPN) on the Sports Gambling Podcast Network continues their 133 college football team preview series for 2023 with the Louisville Cardinals 2023 season preview. Pick Dundee aka (@TheColbyD), Patty C (@PattyC831) & NC Nick (@NC__NicK) break down the 2023 Louisville Cardinals schedule game by game and key in on the Louisville Cardinals coaching hire and transfer portal to the offense, defense and special teams. Can Jeff Brohm and the Louisville Cardinals get to the ACC Championship in year one of the Brohm era? Plus, Michael Barker aka (@CFBcampustour) hops on to talk about the his experiences to The Shaq to catch Louisville football games. Did the Louisville Cardinals win the transfer portal when they landed former Purdue & Cal quarterback Jack Plummer? Will Brian Brohm have this Louisville offense as a top 50 offense in America in 2023? Is Jawhar Jordan a running back to lookout for in the ACC in the coming year? Will the wide receiving core be elite with the additions of Jamari Thrash, Jadon Thompson, Jimmy Calloway, Kevin Coleman and the return of Chris Bell? Is tight end Jamari Johnson a name to watch out for in the Louisville offense? Did Louisville do a great job of loading up on the offensive line in the transfer portal with additions like Bryan Hudson, Willie Tyler and Eric Miller? How will the Louisville Cardinals defense do after a stellar year last season but a new defensive coordinator in Ron English? Will the defensive line be solid with the return of Ashton Gillotte and Desmond Tell and the transfer portal addition of Stephen Herron from Stanford? Is the biggest unknown on the Louisville Cardinals defense the linebacking core? Will the secondary be elite with the return of Jarvis Brownlee and Josh Minkins and the additions of MJ Griffin, Storm Duck, Quincy Riley, Devin Neal and Cam'Ron Kelly? We talk it all and more on this 2023 Louisville Cardinals season preview edition of The College Football Experience. ===================================================== Discuss with fellow degens on Discord - https://sg.pn/discord SGPN Merch Store - https://sg.pn/store Download The Free SGPN App - https://sgpn.app Check out SGPN.TV Support us by supporting our partners Circa Sports - Enter their contests for a chance to win your share of $14 Million - https://www.circasports.com/ Underdog Fantasy code SGPN - 100% Deposit Match up to $100 - https://sg.pn/underdog Follow The College Experience & SGPN On Social Media Twitter - https://twitter.com/TCEonSGPN Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/gamblingpodcast Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/sportsgamblingpodcast TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@gamblingpodcast Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/sportsgamblingpodcast Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheCollegeExperience Follow The Hosts On Social Media Colby Dant - http://www.twitter.com/thecolbyd Patty C - https://twitter.com/PattyC831 NC Nick - https://twitter.com/NC__NicK Watch the Sports Gambling Podcast YouTube - https://www.sg.pn/YouTube Twitch - https://www.sg.pn/Twitch Read & Discuss - Join the conversation Website - https://www.sportsgamblingpodcast.com Slack - https://sg.pn/slack Reddit - https://www.sg.pn/reddit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Comic ventriloquist Willie Tyler, and his pal, Lester; do a TV interview from back in 1984. Lester gets in lots of jokes, and Willie shares how he also does music in his shows...and why.Great interview and short comedy entertainment from this Evening News Interview.Hosted by: R. Scott EdwardsExplanation of a new APP available on Apple & Android phones: Standup Comedy Podcast NetworkSupport the showWrite a Review: in-depth walkthrough for leaving a review.

What's up, dudes?  I pity the fool who misses this episode all about the toughest man in the world! Yes, Bradley Lyndon from Million Monkey Theater joins me to talk all about the team up between Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis in this wacky 1984 special!  Mr. T stars as Benny, a Salvation Army-style Santa  who meets a young latch-key kid, played by Emmanuel Lewis of TV's Webster, who seems to have lost his Christmas spirit. Mr. T sets out to change Billy's mind, taking him around the city to all the touristy must see spots! First up is FAO Schwartz, where    David Copperfield gives him an ‘80s cigarette smoke filled magic lesson. There's even an Olympic figure skater routine at Rockefeller Center! The duo then proceed to Radio City Music Hall, where Maureen McGovern serenades them with Christmas songs. In typical kid fashion, Webster falls asleep watching a rehearsal and consequently imagines himself as one of the toy soldiers in the Rockettes' Christmas Show. Oh yeah, he also meets Willie Tyler and his dummy Lester. Naturally, in the big holiday  finale, he's moved to realize the true meaning of Christmas, before being reunited with his workaholic parents.This one's got it all! ‘80s icons? Check. Former variety show stars? Yup. The true meaning of Christmas? As only Mr. T could tell it! So grab your gold chains, pack your trick quarter and cigarettes, and take an incredibly expensive carriage ride to this episode!Million Monkey TheaterFB: @MillionMonkeyTheaterIG: @millionmonkeytheaterCheck us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Totally Rad Christmas Mall & Arcade, Teepublic.com, or TotallyRadChristmas.com! Later, dudes!

http://www.UnderThePuppet.com -  Andy Breckman is television and film writer who created the Emmy Award Winning television series Monk.  Ken Freedman is the station manager of WFMU, an independent free form radio station in New Jersey.  For over 30 years, Andy and Ken have hosted Seven Second Delay, a stunt radio program that airs every Wednesday on WFMU.  I sit down and talk to these two non-puppeteers on this episode of Under The Puppet. Download the free Under The Puppet app for iOS & Android! IOS - https://apple.co/2WZ4uZg ANDROID - https://bit.ly/2RwcFev Also, this month you can win signed WFMU stickers and a hardcover copy of Bill Baird's Art of the Puppet!  Listen to find out how to enter. Transcript of this interview is available to the Saturday Morning Media Patreon Patrons! Connect with Andy & Ken: Website - http://www.wfmu.org/7sd/ IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0106563/ Discussed on the show: Andy is a Puppet - https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/36286 Red Pepper - https://youtu.be/yJwiZjH8a1Y Muppet Babies - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muppet_Babies_(1984_TV_series) Paul Lewis - https://saturdaymorningmedia.com/2023/03/utp-81/ Mallory Lewis - https://saturdaymorningmedia.com/2022/11/utp-77/ Phillip Huber - https://saturdaymorningmedia.com/2018/06/utp-17/ Willie Tyler - https://saturdaymorningmedia.com/2021/01/utp-55/ Connect with the Show: http://www.instagram.com/underthepuppet https://www.facebook.com/underthepuppet http://www.twitter.com/underthepuppet Connect with Grant: http://www.MrGrant.comhttp://www.twitter.com/toasterboy https://instagram.com/throwingtoasters/ Art by Parker Jacobs Music by Dan Ring Edited by Stephen Staver Help us make more shows like this one.  Become a patron of Saturday Morning Media and get cool rewards!  Visit www.patreon.com/saturdaymorningmedia for info! ©2023 Saturday Morning Media - http://www.saturdaymorningmedia.com  

Mike and Richie break down LT Willie Tyler entering the portal and what it means for Rutgers moving forward. They also touch on some MBB scheduling rumors (mainly next year's MSG game).

For this weeks "Bonus" Show I found a 1985 interview of Willie Tyler & Lester done to promote an appearance at my club Laughs Unlimited. The anchors, Mike & Carol, ask Willie & Lester some questions, and it was fun and interesting to listen to. Willie played my club several times and is one of the early interviews on my podcast...be sure to search it out and listen. I got a chance to interview "Lester" w/o Willie being in the room....Ha!Hosted by: R. Scott EdwardsSupport the showwww.StandupComedyPodcastNetwork.comhttps://www.facebook.com/scottscomedystuffWrite a Review: in-depth walkthrough for leaving a review.

Welcome to this Very Special BONUS edition of Eyes & Teeth where I swap a podcast episode with a mutual Comedy & Variety interviewer and this one is very exciting for me as today you can hear an interview with The Legendary Ventriloquist Willie Tyler.Willie's early career saw him Hosting Motown shows across America and when I say that I mean MOTOWN!!! Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Jackson 5, The Four Tops and on comes Willie Tyler and his very funny and vocally gifted partner Lester.I interviewed Willie for my upcoming book Ventriloquest and he was a delight. He literally is a Superstar and in this episode you will hear his chat with the very brilliant Scott Edwards.R. Scott Edwards:Started his first company at age 17, and at 24—in 1980—opened Laughs Unlimited, just the 12th full time comedy club in the entire United States. Scott was fortunate to fall in with comedy greats like Bob Saget, Dave Coulier, Garry Shandling, and many others who helped him develop an extremely successful chain of comedy clubs in Northern California. In turn, he helped develop talents like Paula Poundstone, Brian Posehn, and Dana Carvey, and enjoyed working with icons like Graham Chapman of Monty Python and Tommy Chong.Scott knows comedy performance and production, having produced three TV series, a number of large concerts, and thousands of live comedy stage shows. Now Scott is sharing what he's learned through his books, interactive online courses, podcast, and video archive. Listen and enjoy the experiences and stories about talent from all the greats, from Ellen and Yakov Smirnoff to Paul Reiser and Seinfeld—and even the amazing Robin Williams!Scott's people got in touch with my people and here is the result, episode swapping and I am delighted to swap with a talent that knows his comedy and is also fun to listen too.Welcome to Eyes & Teeth Willie Tyler & Lester when they met R Scott Edwards on Stand up Comedy – your host & MC. 

Thank you for joining us to this episode of Pref & Ref, in this episode we will be speaking With Scott Edwards and below is a little more about Scott. Enjoy this episode. Scott Edwards has been on the fringe of show business for over 40+ years, working with the Famous...and not so Famous. Since 1980, he has been producing Live Stage Shows, Concerts, & TV with acts like Jay Leno, Bob Saget, Will Shriner, Dana Carvey, Willie Tyler & Lester, and many more! In addition, he has started over 10 companies and as an entrepreneur has owned everything from a small construction company & portable DJ business to a chain of comedy clubs and an insurance agency....oh, and also owned a submarine and a beach shack in Hawaii. https://www.facebook.com/scottscomedystuff https://www.linkedin.com/in/sactotalent Welcome to our discussion based Podcast, where we talk about a wide range of ever changing topics that match our guests and Co-hosts. We are doing this as a labor of love always remembering to accept a different viewpoint to ours. If you have ideas, topics, comments and or thoughts please reach out to our email Pref.Refpodcast@gmail.com. We have lots of things planned for you all please stay tuned for more. Outro credits to: "Tokyo Music Walker - Way Home" is under a Creative Commons (cc-by) license Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://bit.ly/tokyo-walker-way-home T.Nakata

Richie and Mike discuss the commitment of the 4th transfer OL commit of the last week in former ULM OL Willie Tyler, including how the commitment came together, what Rutgers is getting in Willie Tyler as a player and what it means for Rutgers in the transfer portal the rest of the way. In the 2nd half of the pod, the man of the hour himself (Willie Tyler) joins us on the pod to discuss his commitment to Rutgers football!

Benny, played by Mr. T, is a street corner Santa who takes charitable donations in NYC, meets Billy, a kid who has lost his Christmas spirit. Benny decides to introduce him to his friends David Copperfield, Maureen McGovern and Willie Tyler and Lester. Will Benny help Billy get back his Christmas joy? The American Boyschoir and Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner make special appearances. TV Tango http://www.tvtango.com/listings?filters%5Bdate%5D%5Bmonth%5D=12&filters%5Bdate%5D%5Bday%5D=16&filters%5Bdate%5D%5Byear%5D=1984&commit.x=23&commit.y=12 IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4305318/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507171/?ref_=tt_cl_t_6 https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001558/?ref_=tt_cl_t_8 https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0569581/?ref_=tt_cl_t_7 Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_McGovern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_Babilonia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gardner_(figure_skater) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Boychoir_School https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Tyler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rockettes --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast is yet another first for us. Our guest today is Cory Tyler, son of ventriloquist Willie Tyler of, you guessed it, Willie Tyler and Lester. Omnipresent in the 1970s and 80s, Willie Tyler is a comedian who appeared in movies, commercials, television, showrooms and comedy clubs across the country from 1964 to present. It's funny how you see an entertainer and think you know about them because well, all you did was turn on the television. But scratching just below the surface, we learned that Willie and Lester were MCs on the legendary Motown Revue live shows crisscrossing the country during civil rights and likely led to audience integration simply by performing on stage for a mixed audience. Or that he appeared in the recent  ?uestlove Hulu documentary Summer of Soul that was unseen for 50 years until it resurfaced to great acclaim this year.  And most amazingly, we learn Lester has basically been his only partner since he started performing professionally. No Mortimer Snerd for Willie Tyler. It's only Lester. We talk to Cory about growing up in the San Fernando Valley, his own career as a dancer in the Michael Jackson film Moonwalker, his Star Warstoy commercials by Kenner, acting on hit shows like A Different World and his latest venture www.championfinances.com helping clients learn financial literacy. Cory and met when he tried to help girlfriend Jazmin Erving with her audio on episode #40 and it was a pleasure talking to him for this episode. It's a fun and fascinating conversation about the upcoming Willie Tyler and Lester documentary “Hello Dummy, Transcendental Meditation, Orange Julius, stage moms, mindfulness and more. Take a listen, to the Rarified Heir Podcast.   

Please join us Right Now, September 06 at 11:00AM PST as Ventriloquist, Actor Willie Tyler & Lester, Blue 13 Dance Company Artistic Director Achinta McDaniel & Singer, Actress Shelley Fisher joins host Ron Brewington on "The Actor's Choice."

John and Dan discuss the pre-TNIAAM Syracuse games they wish TNIAAM was around for. Also, discussing the good and bad of an expanded College Football Playoff field, Willie Tyler decommitting from Orange football, and MLAX's new assistant hire. Also beer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Texas transfer Willie Tyler has decommitted from Syracuse. The guys tell you why it's not a big deal. Plus, the guys dive into the biggest burning questions surrounding the Orange's offensive line. Also, the College Football Playoff is on the brink of expansion. But that might not change anything for SU fans.Tyler Aki and Tim Leonard discuss it all and more on the Monday edition of the Locked on Syracuse Podcast.Follow the show on Twitter @LO_Syracuse and follow the guys @Tim_Leonard4 and @TylerAki_.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.StatHeroStatHero, the FIRST Ever Daily Fantasy Sportsbook that gives the PLAYER the ADVANTAGE. Go to StatHero.com/LockedOn for 300% back on your first play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Texas transfer Willie Tyler has decommitted from Syracuse. The guys tell you why it's not a big deal. Plus, the guys dive into the biggest burning questions surrounding the Orange's offensive line. Also, the College Football Playoff is on the brink of expansion. But that might not change anything for SU fans. Tyler Aki and Tim Leonard discuss it all and more on the Monday edition of the Locked on Syracuse Podcast. Follow the show on Twitter @LO_Syracuse and follow the guys @Tim_Leonard4 and @TylerAki_. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order. BetOnline AG There is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Rock Auto Amazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. StatHero StatHero, the FIRST Ever Daily Fantasy Sportsbook that gives the PLAYER the ADVANTAGE. Go to StatHero.com/LockedOn for 300% back on your first play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On This Talking Junk Episode, We Will Be Sitting With R. Scott Edwards Former Comedy Club Owner/ Stand Up Comedian... We Picked His Brain About How He Owned a chain of comedy clubs for over 21 years, produced TV, Stage, and Concert Comedy events with the Best, including; but not limited to Leno, Carvey, Seinfeld, Willie Tyler & Lester, Poundstone, Saget, Like Always This Is An Episode You Don't Wanna Miss But If You Miss It Live You Can Always Catch It Every Friday Night , Follow The Link And Subscribe To One Of Our Pages https://linktr.ee/TalkingJunkNetwork Like What You Hear? Support This Podcast By Becoming A Monthly Contributor On Anchor.fm --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/talking-junk/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/talking-junk/support

Marek Dolezaj announced he's pursuing professional aspirations for the upcoming season. The guys reminisce on how much he meant to Syracuse and their favorite on and off the court stories of Dolezaj. How did he turn into one of the biggest fan favorites in program history? Plus, the Orange added an offensive lineman through the transfer portal. Texas transfer Willie Tyler announced he will play for SU this season. How critical is his addition to the line for 2021?Tyler Aki and Tim Leonard discuss it all and more on the Friday edition of the Locked on Syracuse Podcast.Follow the show on Twitter @LO_Syracuse and follow the guys @Tim_Leonard4 and @TylerAki_.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brent calls up Mike McAllister from Syracuse on SI to discuss the newest member of Syracuse Football, Texas transfer Willie Tyler, and how he'll fit in on the Orange offensive line. Then, an update on who's in and who's out on the Men's Basketball team, including a player who left Brent thinking “that's a bummer” at the end of the season.

Marek Dolezaj announced he's pursuing professional aspirations for the upcoming season. The guys reminisce on how much he meant to Syracuse and their favorite on and off the court stories of Dolezaj. How did he turn into one of the biggest fan favorites in program history? Plus, the Orange added an offensive lineman through the transfer portal. Texas transfer Willie Tyler announced he will play for SU this season. How critical is his addition to the line for 2021? Tyler Aki and Tim Leonard discuss it all and more on the Friday edition of the Locked on Syracuse Podcast. Follow the show on Twitter @LO_Syracuse and follow the guys @Tim_Leonard4 and @TylerAki_. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order. BetOnline AG There is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Rock Auto Amazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brent calls up Mike McAllister from Syracuse on SI to discuss the newest member of Syracuse Football, Texas transfer Willie Tyler, and how he'll fit in on the Orange offensive line. Then, an update on who's in and who's out on the Men's Basketball team, including a player who left Brent thinking "that's a bummer" at the end of the season.

Dan, Rob, and Slat discuss the upcoming "Greatest TV Game Show" tournament hosted in the Facebook group "Pop Culture Tournaments". Special guests Willie Tyler and Lester stopped by to talk about their frequent appearances on the classic game shows "Match Game" and "Hollywood Squares". You'll also hear about a game show pilot they shot, BB King's drummer falling off of a stage, "Family Feud", and a few of Lester's famous cousins! We also review the results of our previous tournament, the "Greatest Marvel Superhero". The results were heavily influenced, as expected, by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You can join in the voting for the "Greatest TV Game Show" and all of our tournaments covering all facets of pop culture at www.facebook.com/groups/popculturetournaments Willie Tyler and Lester are on Cameo! Get a personal message from them here: https://www.cameo.com/willieandlester Check out the documentary in production about Willie and Lester! Find it here: https://www.hello-dummy.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pop-culture-tournaments/message

Here's a fun one, a great interview with Willie Tyler, one of the Nations Best Ventriloquist. Later in the show Lester drops by and answers a few questions...comedy history being interviewed! Hear about his start with Motown in Detroit, being a regular on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in, and finally a regular at Laughs...Great comic, good singer, amazing ventriloquist, and Nice Guy...Willie Tyler and his Pal Lester!

http://www.UnderThePuppet.com - Willie Tyler is a ventriloquist who, along with his partner Lester, has been making a living in show business since the 1960s when he was hired as the MC for Motown’s Motorcity Review.  He joined the cast of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in in 1972 and has appeared in countless tv shows, commercials and films since.  He’s opened for such heavy hitters as Sammy Davis Jr, Ann-Margaret, Gladys Knight & the Pips and Frank Sinatra.  Willie Tyler is a legend and he is my guest on this episode of Under The Puppet. Also, this month you can win a one of a kind Under The Puppet Special edition Doweling Puppet handmade by David Stephens of All Hands Productions.  Listen to the episode to find out how to enter! Transcript of this interview is available to the Saturday Morning Media Patreon Patrons! CONNECT WITH WILLIE: WEBSITE: http://willieandlester.com DOCUMENTARY: https://www.hello-dummy.com IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0878939 YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_wvWMHPP_VYvDmUqNRkSaQ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/willietylerandlester INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/willieandlester DISCUSSED ON THE SHOW: Paul Winchell - TV Show Maher School of Ventriloquism - Fred Maher Motortown Revue Apollo Theater Stevie Wonder Copacabana The Temptations Four Tops The Mike Douglas Show The Merv Griffin Show Eddie Rabbit Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In Lola Falana Bob Einsten Albert Brooks Sammy Davis Jr. Harrah’s Lake Tahoe Vent Haven W.S. Berger Edgar Bergen TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes Sherri Lewis Ron Lucas Hello Dummy Documentary The Jeffersons CLIPS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE: WHAT GOES AROUND: https://youtu.be/i1MRoz9zUwk DRIVE-IN: https://youtu.be/yYobty1TMJE SPY: https://youtu.be/wtWqOyzAD3M HEAR NEW EPISODES EARLY! GET BONUS CONTENT! DOWNLOAD THE FREE UNDER THE PUPPET APP! IOS - https://apple.co/2WZ4uZg ANDROID - https://bit.ly/2RwcFev CONNECT WITH THE SHOW http://www.instagram.com/underthepuppet http://www.twitter.com/underthepuppet http://www.facebook.com/underthepuppet CONNECT WITH GRANT http://www.MrGrant.comhttp://www.twitter.com/toasterboy https://instagram.com/throwingtoasters/ Art by Parker Jacobs Music by Dan Ring Edited by Stephen Staver Help us make more shows like this one.  Become a patron of Saturday Morning Media and get cool rewards!  Visit www.patreon.com/saturdaymorningmedia for info! ©2020 Saturday Morning Media - http://www.saturdaymorningmedia.com

This weeks show is perfect for right before Christmas, it stars Jay Leno in concert from 1985, where he talks with the audience and describes his memories of Christmas as a child. Before his long set, we have warming things up, the comedy team of O'Brian & Valdez, a unique team because Valdez is blind. This is a live set from my 1985 Fox TV Special....it even has Willie Tyler and Lester doing the intro! Together these two acts, from two types of production (TV & Live Concert), create a wonderful show.

The inimitable and legendary Willie Tyler regales Bill and Jason with stories from the furthest reaches of showbiz, and Lester makes a brief appearance to show up everyone that ever said ventriloquism wouldn't work on podcasts. What do they know? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

WILLIE BROWN & Woody Bio You don’t know how funny Willie Brown and Woody are until you see them live. They’re not just your average comedian/ventriloquist team. Brown takes a different approach to the age old craft by making it fresh, new, and hip for today’s more savvy comedy audiences. It’s not just about seeing him not moving his lips, and hearing Woody speak. “It’s about the jokes”, says Brown. After watching this act for a few moments you forget that Willie is there and it seems as if Woody transcends into a standup comedian on his own. Willie does the set up and Woody gives the punch! Willie Brown is a nationally known ventriloquist who has appeared several times on BET Comic View, HBO DEF Comedy Jam, Loco Comedy Jam, Phaturdays, The Jenny Jones Show, and most recently in a recurring role on the Showtime Network series “Barbershop”. From topics such as the family, church, how to deal with the homeless, to current events, Willie Brown and Woody bring it home. Brown was born in New Haven, Connecticut where his show business interest began with magic. He later became interested in the art of ventriloquism and thus combined it with standup comedy. His early motivation was to fool his friends. “If I could fool my friends then it was on”, says Brown. He was inspired by legendary ventriloquist Willie Tyler and Lester from the Motown Revue along with Jay Johnson who played the team of Chuck and Bob on the hit tv sitcom “Soap”. Brown credits Tyler as being a mentor and a friend. “He use to talk to me for hours in the back of the World Famous Comedy Store giving me history about the great comedians who passed through the doors, and some of the big music acts that he would tour with like Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and The Supremes, and the Temptations. I loved it. I would just sit there and take it all in”, says Brown.

Willie Tyler, Eleanor & the Dummy Lester Not Rick by The World Famous Comedy Store

Willie Tyler, Eleanor & the Dummy Lester Not Rick by The World Famous Comedy Store

A brief look at where we’ve been and were were going as we continue exploring the history of standup. Featuring moments with James Adomian, Cameron Esposito, Pete Holmes, Nick Kroll, Emily V. Gordon, Dana Gould, Paula Poundstone, Lily Tomlin, and Willie Tyler (but not Lester). Follow us on Twitter at @histofstandup, @federman, and @andrewsteven. The History of Standup is produced by The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An iconic New York City theater and a collection of black venues provided opportunities for comedians and entertainers during racial segregation, the civil rights movement, and continues through today. Featuring interviews with Tom Dressen, Kliph Nesteroff, and Willie Tyler. Follow us on Twitter at @histofstandup, @federman, and @andrewsteven. This episode was sponsored by Oso Delicious Hot Sauce. The History of Standup is produced by The Podglomerate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew & I discuss and/or mention in passing: Karen Carpenter, The Ayds Diet Plan, Real People, That’s Incredible, Hello Larry, Diff’rent Strokes, Elvira Mistress of the Dark, Skip Stephenson, Cathy Lee Crosby, Fran Tarkenton, Love Sidney, Tony Randall, Teachers Only, Jean Smart, Lynn Redgrave, Tim Reid, WKRP in Cincinnati, Joel Brooks, Norman Fell, Filthy Rich, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Designing Women, MTV, Fred Silverman, Mary Tyler Moore, Grant Tinker, The Cosby Show, Golden Girls, Family Ties, Dallas, Dynasty, Luke & Laura, General Hospital, SNL, Charles Rocket, Joe Piscopo, Eddie Murphy, Gail Matthius, Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Dream On, Family Ties, Little House On The Prairie, The Katzenjammer Kids, Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Oreos, Fig Newtons, Ritz Crackers, 2-XL by Mego, Teddy Ruxpin, Willie Tyler & Lester, Gone With The Wind, Modern Family, Wine, Eve Arden, Ronald Reagan, John Hinckley, Valerie Bertinelli, Eddie Van Halen.

Mike and EJ discuss 2019 commitments Willie Tyler and Parker Braun. They also recap The Opening Dallas and answer questions in the mailbag.

The Texas Longhorns basketball team’s road woes continued, giving up a double-digit lead against the Baylor Bears before losing by 19 to the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Sandwiched between those disappointing losses was a 20-point win over the Iowa State Cyclones. Texas needs to figure out how to close out the regular season with a win against the TCU Horned Frogs to finish above .500 (2:49) While basketball faltered, the Texas baseball team came away with a series sweep over No. 2 LSU Tigers, thanks to a walkoff home run from Austin Todd. Can Texas build on the momentum and knock off another top team on the road as they travel to Palo Alto to take on the Stanford Cardinal? (8:21) On the gridiron, Texas picked up not one, but two major commitments from offensive lineman, as guard Parker Braun and tackle Willie Tyler pledged to the Longhorns. What impact does this have on the 2019 offense and how can Texas capitalize on the momentum moving forward? (19:05) Kyle and Gerald close the show out by honoring one of the best traditions in all of college sports, Big Bertha, as they Bang the Drum (44:48). Kyle nerds out about baseball mysticism, while Gerald celebrates a recruit’s major accomplishment. Connect with the show on Twitter and Facebook. Intro and Outro: Earth, Wind, Fire (Ryan Little / CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gilbert and Frank welcome a favorite performer (sorry...performers!), legendary ventriloquist Willie Tyler and his longtime partner, Lester, for an entertaining conversation about the history of the "Chitlin Circuit," ventriloquism-themed horror movies, the mob's influence in Vegas and and the golden age of "the Motown Sound." Also: Steve Rossi teams with Slappy White, George Kirby channels Pearl Bailey, Edgar Bergen offers sage advice and Willie opens for Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. PLUS: Jules Podell! Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop! Don Rickles takes a front seat! Lester meets George Jefferson! And the many talents of Paul Winchell!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tyler has had guest roles in The Parent 'Hood, Pacific Blue, What's Happening Now!!, The White Shadow and The Jeffersons, as well as serving as host of the popular Saturday morning children's anthology series The ABC Weekend Special throughout the early 1980s.He appeared as himself in the 2004 BET Comedy Awards, Frank McKlusky, C.I., For Da Love of Money, In the House, the 4th Annual Black Gold Awards, Lou Rawls Parade of Stars, Powerhouse,

The Legendary Wid sits in to talk about John's obsession with shark skin suits and puppets, Willie Tyler and Lester, and born-again Christian comic Bob Nelson. It's all that matters on the only talk show that matters.

The team that set the standard for the Hollywood athlete/icon now has it’s own national television series. After much speculation, the Rams have become the 11th NFL team to star on HBO’s Hard Knocks. Joshua Neuman is joined by The Hollywood Reporter’s Eriq Gardner to explore what this moment means for Rams fans and put the news into a larger historical context that includes a cavalcade of showbiz stars including: Norman Fell, Linda Carter, “J.J.” Jimmie Walker, Judy Landers, Joan Rivers, Willie Tyler & Lester, Chuck Connors, and the recently deceased, Ken Howard.

Join me as I interview the hottest comedy duo since Willie Tyler and Lester Andy And Mandy!! Follow them on Twitter and Instagram @melanieleanne and @AndreaCarlisle1 as well on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheAndyandMandySHOW. Follow me on Twitter/Instagram @EarlSkakel and on Facebook under Earl Skakel.

Matt Bailey hosts “An Evening with Willie Tyler” LIVE at the Kidabra-Axtell KAX Conference in Oxnard, California. This Live Interview Event highlights the Motown legend's career and provides viewers with an up close and personal look at Willie Tyler (and Lester!) Click Here for the FILMED VERSION of the Live Event! [ayssocial_buttons id=”1″]   The post Episode 62-An Evening With Willie Tyler appeared first on Talk For Two.

Matt Bailey hosts “An Evening with Willie Tyler” LIVE at the Kidabra-Axtell KAX Conference in Oxnard, California. This Live Interview Event highlights the Motown legend’s career and provides viewers with an up close and personal look at Willie Tyler (and Lester!) Click Here for the FILMED VERSION of the Live Event! [ayssocial_buttons id=”1″]   The post Episode 62-An Evening With Willie Tyler appeared first on Talk For Two.

Matt Bailey hosts "An Evening with Willie Tyler" LIVE at the Kidabra-Axtell KAX Conference in Oxnard, California. This Live Interview Event highlights the Motown legend's career and provides viewers with an up close and personal look at Willie Tyler (and Lester!) Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ic8LMXNbI