#133 Crossing The Streams is Climbing The Family Tree (Bonus Ep21) – Great TV binge watching suggestions!

CTS Announcer 0:01

Looking for your next TV show or movie to binge? Well buckle up, grab the remote and settle into your couch for this special edition of crossing the streams. We're here to help you tune in and get the most out of those 50 monthly streaming channels you're currently paying for. So without any further ado, here's your host of crossing the streams. Jeff Dwoskin

Jeff Dwoskin 0:29

Hey, oh, it's Jeff Dwoskin Welcome to a bonus episode of Classic conversations featuring crossing the streams it's such a radically different format at episode we have an entirely different intro for it so you don't get shocked to the bones like what is going on? Well, you know when the bonus is common because it's a crossing the streams intro what is crossing the streams? It's our weekly live show we do every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time we answer the universal question what should I be binge watching? I just watch this show. What should I watch? Next? All your questions are answered with crossing the streams. What is the bonus episode their ears are tuned into at this moment. The bonus episode, which is part of classic conversations podcast feed brings you three segments from the live show but a variety of different shows. Today's for example comes from Episode 6668 and 67. It's a little coincidental that they're all kind of bunched up that way. Normally, they're a little more spread out. But we're going to talk to you today about Klitschko family tree and jeanja has a Kanye trilogy are covering all those three today. What you're going to be hearing our segments from the live show just pulled right from the live shows that we kind of take you right into it. You can head over to YouTube search the Jeff Dwoskin show you can watch the full episodes are an hour long each. And we have over 70 episodes live each one with four or five great suggestions sometimes warnings for Yeah, but without further ado, I want to introduce our first show for Yeah, it's from Episode 66 It's called Klitschko. Bob Phillips is going to take us through it it's a boxing documentary and it's also very relevant to events of today. All right, take it away Bob. All right. Speaking of fantastic yeah go Klitschko Wow boxing in this like by normally Sal is a romantic something romantic something horrible something that like he goes yeah if you guys ever white No, none of us will ever watch that so and but this is his first boxing line.

Bob Phillips 2:51

Like the animated version of You've got mail.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:56

Bob is a boxer Bob used to box and so he's toxic kid. Okay, I go ahead.

Bob Phillips 3:03

I promise you by that intro you will be glad you listen to this little dissertation on this particular documentary because it is extraordinarily timely. Let's back up all the way to let's say 1996, Vitaly or visually depending on how you pronounce his name, I saved the collie and Vladimir Klitschko brothers visually the the older of the two captured the heavyweight crown before his brother Vladimir, there is a long and winding road that I went with don't have time to get into and I don't think I would even if I did I'm wanting to summarize it by saying these two men are unbelievable. First of all, were unbelievably skilled and successful boxers in the say, late 90s to mid 2000s. The Klitschko era, they actually had an era they call it I think it was from like, I don't know 2000 to 2015 when Vladimir finally lost to Tyson fury. Let's start all the way back and again, there's a payoff to this I want you to I want you to Well, I don't want to say pay attention, but it will be of interest. This starts in Kazakhstan, where visually and and Vladimir are born to parents one of whom is a major general in the Soviet Air Force. Think in Kazakhstan it's a Stan you know there's not a lot of money there's not a lot of opportunities so they move I'm not gonna tell you where but they move several times and they become successful amateur boxers or Olympic competitors until they are held back no longer and actually become heavyweight champs in their own right. It's Holly I'm gonna say Vitaly for this for this particular night. He is heavyweight champ first. Now the natural question is that they're both heavyweights. They're both 240 pounds. They look like Greek gods. They're both like six, five and six, six. Did they ever fight each other? No, because their mother said absolutely not. Their mother said you can't and they weren't going to be there. It's a beautiful story. They're lovely people outside of the boxing ring. And they've had many successes. Not just as boxers they each like I said, the each head that held the heavyweight crown Vladimir was voted the ninth best boxer of all time. As kind of sounds funny coming off the top of their minds best boxer, but when you think of who's ahead of him, you know, Muhammad Ali Sugar Ray Leonard, a Sugar Ray Robinson and then Vladimir Klitschko coming in at night. It's an amazing thing. He had the gross misfortune of coming after Mike Tyson. All right, while Tyson you know, had gone to jail and then came out and his career was waning. And so the heavyweight division lacked a lot of pop back then. So and it wasn't really it wasn't really filled with a couple of guys from Kazakhstan.

Bob Phillips 6:07

It didn't have quite the you know, the the star power but anyway, flat America today worth $90 million. Wow. Probably $30 million. They each lived in LA one of them. I want to say Vladimir, I don't know who what she's famous for. But I see her name Hayden planetary, is that the name? Yeah, I've seen the cheerleader save the world that okay, married her had a kid with her. Both lived in LA made lots of money. Both good guys. And Vladimir is a adjunct professor at a university in Switzerland. Each of them speak four languages. These are each of them are expert chess players. And the thing that I love about them the most is that they both love each other. They've never stopped being brothers there were there for each of their fights and never stopped cheerleading for each other. They, for example, I mean, they have so many records and you probably don't even know this because of the time in which they did it. Vladimir has the most heavyweight title wins in boxing history. He has won 23 title fights. It's it just never happens anymore. It just doesn't happen. He had to heavyweight title reigns, Fatale, not quite as successful, but equally good in terms of making money. Now you say to yourself, Okay, what the hell is he talking about? Why was he saying that this story is germane to today and that is because Vitaly Klitschko is now and has been the mayor of Kyiv. In Ukraine, this is where both of them live. This is where both of them came back to because although they were born in Kazakhstan, they moved to Ukraine and were raised there and became Olympic champions and pro champions. Eventually, if you're going to be a success in boxing, you have to move to the United States you have to be in and around Las Vegas, Los Angeles, that kind of thing. And they did and this is where they became world champions and made their money. Now I am so I have such admiration for both of them. Because with that kind of money and that kind of power. And the kind of you know, world renowned they have, they can be anyplace in the world, but where they are now where they both are, is somewhere in Keith and they are on the actual hitlist of Vladimir Putin. He wants them he wants I mean, you know how he wants all these people dead right? These two have spoken out so forcefully against him just today? I think it was Vladimir was asked you know, he was a reporter said Do you think that the Russians are being truthful about not targeting civilian targets and he was standing in front of a theater that had been bombed and he said bullshit look at this this is what's happening. So these two guys I mean, what guts what courage, they're not on a yacht somewhere in the Greek Isles, they're in their their adoptive country, you know, they're fighting for it. So the clutch goes watch this documentary. This is actually a 2011 It doesn't have obviously doesn't have any of today's references in it, but it shows you the kind of people they are and where they got their start and how you know, their love for each other and their family and all the obstacles they overcame brought them to where they are now. So cool.

Bryan Green 9:27

Yeah. I always thought sausage goes we're we're the we're going to be an opportunity. You know, we all enjoyed heavyweight boxing, right it was a thing for a long time where it was like it was must see TV and you had to watch Tyson and Holyfield and all these big personalities in these big names fight and I always thought that watching the clips goes that this would these two would be superstars in that right and you know, they were to some degree but not like the holy fields or or Mike Tyson or some of the you know, butter bean or whatever these other or guys who are being fed for butter bean and I'm fascinated by their story because when it comes down to it I think they were just nice guys right they were nice guys who they were new out of box and so I don't think they got the end you know the world was turning MMA at the time too so I think it was

Bob Phillips 10:20

That's a good point. Yeah, it was it's a strange that it's described as a low in the heavyweight you know, history. It was when you realize what what they both did particularly Vladimir to win 23 heavyweight title, title fights, I don't mean bouts, he defended his title or fought in others 23 times. That's just an amazing number.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:47

I love how passionate Bob is about boxing documentaries. He does a lot of them on the show. And each one is as insightful as the next this one Klitschko Of course. Very relevant with everything going on in Ukraine. Great job, Bob. Our next discussion is on genius a Kanye trilogy with guests Esther Nevarez and Jeff horse. Take it away astern Jeff. Speaking of genius, let's do a Kanye trilogy.

Esther Nevarez 11:21

All right. Yes. So this was on Netflix. I don't know. Did anybody see this? No, no. Oh, wow. Well, Justin Yeah. And and feel free to chime in as well. But it is filmed. It's a documentary. It is filmed. Like 22 years ago, I think 21 years but he's been filming his life since then. Since 22 years ago. There's he has a friend His name is Cody and his friend did stand up comedy and his friend stopped doing stand up comedy on a regular basis did it a little bit on top of a stand up you do it every night pretty much the people who are really trying he stopped doing stand up to film Kanye his life when Kanye didn't even have a deal yet. He was a producer, but he didn't have anything so he's filmed I mean, producing he knew people but he's filming this and Cody's just there his whole life with his mom with it for 22 He's during the filming of it there are times when when he gets famous part of the story is how he treated Cudi when he got when he big time to him a bit and then they didn't talk for a while. But this friends it would be like in the voice over is terrible. I hate the voice over Jeff enjoys. This guy talks like kind yay, had didn't know what was gonna happen to him when he walked into this room. Like, why did he sounds like

Jeff Horste 12:49

he adds like extra syllables to words that somehow but then when he

Esther Nevarez 12:53

talks like let me just show him talking. Normally he sounds normal. But when he's doing the voiceover I don't know what got into him, but it's ridiculous. And he there will be times when he's like, I hadn't talked to Kanye in six years. But when I heard Kanye was going to be in New York. I knew I had to go and film him why though your last one didn't talk to you for six years and is doing things with Taylor Swift and all the things that you know like George Bush hates black people. Kanye got Cudi all right? But um yeah, he he would just be I couldn't understand. And I was also tripped out by the Kanye and stand up connection that I didn't know was so tight because like one of the guys on his first album is a stand up comic that has a show here in LA that I was like, he was like on D Ray Davis. What is it called again? The first album, college dropout. Yeah, he wasn't college dropout. I didn't miss him.

Jeff Horste 13:57

He was the Bernie Mac impression of Yeah,

Esther Nevarez 14:00

it was just interesting how the stand up coincided and I worked in recording studios in Chicago. And so one of the engineers was a guy that I used to work with and it was so interesting seeing all the recording studio stuff because the other thing was how he just glazed right over our Kelly like they just showed him in one of the because this was in what year would I remember what 22 years ago is I think was around 99 or something but it was around the time when our Kelly got in trouble for PN on the girls and all they show is Kanye watching little girls I'm sorry little girls

Ron Lippitt 14:43

little one blonde girls,

Esther Nevarez 14:45

little girls they show him like watching the news coverage of when he found out which I think is just so funny to for him to pretend like you never knew everyone in the music industry in Chicago all knew each other and all knew that our Kelly was peeing on girls but that's it. Different documentary so

Jeff Horste 15:01

common. Jamie Fox Fox aspect of it is interesting. Freedom to just kind of be funny. Yeah. Interesting.

Esther Nevarez 15:09

It showed how he started out knowing or thinking that he was talented a genius deserve what he got that or anything. Jamie didn't give him what he deserved in a timely fashion even though he's credited as like starting helping start Kanye his career when just and Kanye would rap to any one. He would just he was so just motivated. 24/7 working would walk into an office where the label he wanted to be a Rockefeller, were just a woman's answering the phone and he's like, alright, well, I got my new song for you. And he'd play it and just start rapping to this receptionist, and she's just like, I don't know what to do with this.

Jeff Horste 15:50

Do you? answer phones, I don't really know what you want me to do it.

Esther Nevarez 15:55

It was just so great to see how in the beginning his mom, it's his mom's name dawned on you, she passed away during the course of this filming, because it's filmed for 20 years, but I can't remember what year it was like 2008 or something like that when she passed away. And he was just so she was the only one that he would listen to. And you can just see where when she passed away. His mental health issues happened and it just went into a spiral of like, Oh, I just look watch it. Like I wish she wasn't going to die. Like I want to watch the documentary no support and actually die

Jeff Dwoskin 16:29

from the from

Esther Nevarez 16:30

plastic surgery, surgery. Plastic surgery. But she was so sweet. I thought she was going to be like kind of like a stage mom type woman and she was she was just really really genuinely sweet and support. She

Jeff Horste 16:45

knew his raps. That's how supportive she was. It's it's insane as a comedian thinking from that perspective of like my mom, knowing word by word, how a joke of mine goes, not just the premise of it. But no, because she would be like, are you still going to do this song and then she would just like, say the whole verse. And that's like that level of how supportive she was of his career to where she was an active part of every decision he was making when she was around.

Esther Nevarez 17:13

Yeah, made me kind of have a little sympathy for maybe. I think I'm terrible thing.

Jeff Horste 17:19

I think it's impossible to watch it and not have slightly more sympathy than you had before to at least see how we got the person that we have today to see like, nobody starts he was a good you saw him do so many random acts of kindness throughout it too.

Esther Nevarez 17:34

Yeah. And it showed like why he's with a Kardashian. Like I'm sure it's like, oh, wait, you've been filming yourself for 20 years have been filming myself?

Jeff Dwoskin 17:46

Yeah, I mean, I used to make fun of Kanye all the time. Like I'm who I'm gonna say like, you know, going back five or so years on Twitter and stuff like that. But once he started to realize it was probably some real issues going on there. Yes. You know, you're like, Oh, God, you know, it's kind of like, you know, all the makeup was people had to do with Britney Spears and all that kind of stuff.

Esther Nevarez 18:06

Yeah. Interesting to see his work ethic and how everything came about fun

Jeff Horste 18:13

of going from the strategy of being a producer and rapper was just a very interesting dynamic because nobody respected people only viewed him as a producer. They're like, Oh, no, you make beats. That's what you do. But he made beats, so he could wrap over them to just cut out the middleman and just be in control of his own career. But it took years for people to respect that he could do both things.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:36

So the one question that we always ask in, in a documentary style show, so this is three episodes. Yes. Could it have been one episode two episodes? Was it rightfully solid three episodes,

Esther Nevarez 18:48

it could have been way more episodes, because because he had so much footage for so long, even though they he didn't film constantly through some of the times when he was like a bigger name, but they could have just put together it was more about the guy who filmed like Cudi. He, when he didn't film he didn't fill in a ton of blanks their albums. They didn't even talk about that or some of his most famous albums just because gudi wasn't there for it. But there was wonder I put it together.

Ron Lippitt 19:15

I always wonder how you can edit that much footage into something that's really usable. Yeah, very boring life.

Jeff Horste 19:22

How many years did it take 22 hours of footage

Jeff Dwoskin 19:28

to get back with I was Isha.

Ron Lippitt 19:30

Jeff you're on. That's exactly what I was just gonna say. Like when you have that much footage, you can create any narrative you want about the person like you can make it say anything you want about Yeah, yeah. Exactly. 20 years of

Jeff Horste 19:43

footage. Yeah. Pick all the good or bad emotions that this person has played throughout that much. I I

Ron Lippitt 19:49

just think Kanye is a genius. I'm sorry. I know he's had his issues and all that but I find him just absolutely insanely smart. And and like everything he does in my mind isn't crazy like that he's got a logic to it that is a level above all of US president I don't know about any of it I don't

Jeff Dwoskin 20:15

think any any megalomania manipulation that he was being manipulated about I'll get I'll say the

Esther Nevarez 20:22

I definitely cried I told him I like there was a part when he was bonding with his mom and I was like I was a mess and I was like really I'm crying over cry like but I was like

Jeff Dwoskin 20:35

everything everything cries

Jeff Horste 20:37

are gonna be a record of somebody who doesn't cry all the time is that what cry all I mean not for life but television.

Esther Nevarez 20:43

I don't think I cried every sad thing Okay, by me we collectively cry more than probably most people we know but still

Jeff Dwoskin 20:52

I reminder where where do we find this? Netflix Netflix. All right, and it's a solid three episodes. Are they like 45 minutes episodes

Esther Nevarez 21:00

or? No? They're long. I do. Okay, one like three hours.

Jeff Horste 21:05

Maybe maybe the last one was but I feel like my first two were like an hour to an hour and a half. I

Esther Nevarez 21:09

thought okay. Oh yeah, I don't remember.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:11

All right. Great job. All right, so Coronavirus Jeff horse. What a great review. That's from Episode 67 of crossing the streams. Up next. Our final segment for this bonus episode comes from Episode 68. The television show is family tree. I dived into family tree when I was preparing to interview Jim paddock. You can check out the classic conversations feed and tune into the full episode with Jim paddock. We talked a little bit more about family tree in that episode go a little deeper and of course a lot of other gem Pedic stuff but in the meantime, here's our review led by myself or family tree take it away me show to discuss today is called family tree. So let me just say I did not see this when it first came out. So I just literally watched it last week. It is a Christopher Guest and Jim Pedic creation. It was originally thought of Christopher gas wanted to do something on genealogy he was getting into genealogy and his writing partner at the time he approached Jim paddock and Jim Pedic is if you think back to the Best in Show and Fred Willard and Jim paddock were the ones broadcasting he was the British guy who was kind of taking Fred well. The ignorant American Yes, he was the straight man but in turn, turned it into comic gold. The idea of this movie or the show family tree, they ended up pitching it as a television series as the concept of exploring genealogy. Like a tree you know, has many branches and didn't seem like it was something you could really effectively fit into a 90 minute movie. They work together Jim Pedic and Christopher gas to create family tree it was bought by HBO for I'm this show we talk a lot about British humor. Usually when Brian Greene's here this show is a perfect split between British humor and American humor. The way the show kind of starts is Tom Chadwick, who is brilliantly played by Chris O'Dowd is kind of like the main character. I didn't get the private chat note about not coughing into the microphone.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:35

No View button. Yeah, the so Tom Chadwick, his great antis, he is requested this like stuff, just stuff it's, you know, and one of them's like a picture of a person and kind of, you know, like, like an army kind of guy. Yeah. And so he gets starts to get real interested one because he's got nothing else to do because he just lost his job and his girlfriend just dumped him. So he decides he's going to discover his roots. And it's an eight episode show. It takes place on HBO, as I mentioned, and this is his quest to track down his genealogy. So his brother, his sister is played by Nina Conti, who Nina Conti. Her character the you know the all these characters though, have extensive backstory and any Christopher guest's production. She's had something that happened her childhood and as a pet monkey that she has in her hand that is always there and is just a member of the family and she talks it was meant to help her get her feelings out but it just never went away. So Nina Conte is professional ventriloquist in addition to an amazing actor, it's an amazing that, you know, the greatest thing about the Christopher gassings is they they find these threads and these just weird angles on things and just play it out. And it's like, I don't know how as a normal person, you know, you never would think of have certain threads like this, so she's a sister and then Jim paddock who was one of the CO creators. He's got a character called Mr. Eisner and he runs a shop where it helps them dig into the genealogy. Michael McCann plays Christo Dowd's father. Good. Tom Bennett plays he Tuesd Todd, Tom chadwicks Christo, Dowd's buddy in arms that helps kind of comes with him through this journey through the journey, they one little piece leads to another Oh, this was your grandfather, I'm not gonna give it away because it's comedy. So some of the reveal comes from that humor. It kind of just unfolds in the first four is unfolding in the UK, in the Britain where they where they live, and then he starts to connect with Ed Begley Jr, who's a Chadwick in the United States. So they invite he's invited to the Los Angeles to come meet the family there. So he comes to LA, and they start to unravel different things there. Oh, this is your mother. She was a Native American. Yeah, those are nice. They go to Indian, Indian land to learn more about that, and they run into Kevin Pollak, and then they find out something else. And so it just sort of kind of plays out. Oh, and Fred Willard, of course, is in the American side. And Christopher gas plays this really great character as well as he always does. A lot of times in the later movies he played like these really understated just amazing characters were like it's invested show it was he was much bigger part of it. All of them are directed by Christopher gas. And I loved it. Like I originally was just gonna put on a couple episodes just to kind of check it out. And things just got sucked right into it. They're like 30 minute episodes, something like that. I thought it was great, though. The sad thing about it is that they, it didn't get picked up for a second season. So it would have been so great to just kind of explore it or pick a different kind of concept, Christopher Guest concept, and kind of play it out this way as well. I enjoyed it as an eight episode series, that style of how they do it. mockumentary type stuff. This really I thought was really really good. Did you any of you ever see this? Or? Oh,

Ron Lippitt 27:18

no, I never saw I've never even heard of it. What? I'm sorry. What network Did you say it was?

Jeff Dwoskin 27:22

It's on HBO. HBO? Yeah, I heard of it. But I never want I heard of it. But I never watched it. And I

Ron Lippitt 27:28

love CRISPR casts I think that I think they the whole team is immensely talented. Just everybody who you named associated with this. I have mad respect for so I have no doubt. And as we've talked about on previous shows, British humor. I freaking love British humor. So the fact that they mix it well and they have the right team in place. I have no doubt I would love this. What When did you say the show was produced?

Jeff Dwoskin 27:51

This was from 2013. Okay, so

Ron Lippitt 27:54

it's eight, nine years old?

Jeff Dwoskin 27:57

Yeah, it's pretty old. I remember when I interviewed Ed Begley Jr. Hey, drop, he usually I dig into stuff, but it was one of those things that I ended up watching mascots, which was a movie they made after this and the same Christopher Guest and Jim Pedic wrote that movie. This was on the list and he mentioned it so it was always it was on my radar. Finally, I just you know, that became my my treadmill show. So you know, I think I'll try it. Chris O'Dowd is amazing. You I really became invested in the characters and they they do a really good job evolving the characters and kind of giving them some you know, they always do a great job of giving them real 360 lives and things that they're into and quarks and all that kind of stuff. I think that's one of the really cool unique things about all the Christopher Guest movies Eugene Levy is not in it but did they add a lot of the guys Jane Lynch isn't in it. Those are the two that I think shadow Hara eyes not in it. Yeah, those are like some of the ones that off the top of my head that you know are the regular troop, but I guess they couldn't get everyone in.

Larry Roberts 29:05

I'm not huge on British humor, but she had me at Best in Show. So that's up there and my gotta be in my top 10 If not my top five movies. I love it. So if this is up there, then I definitely need to check.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:18

Yeah, the British humor is is good. It's It's good. It's it's definitely great. And then there's some payoffs on the American side of how is Jane Lynch is she she's not in it. She's not in it. Oh, she's not in it. Oh, yeah. Jane Lynch is one of the people not and Fred Willard is hilarious as always, as always, as always, it's just too good. It's just too good. Really. It is so I loved it. They fit finishes but it's open ended at the same time so you don't feel like not having a season two that you're like, Ah, I feel like I'm fine with the way it ended. They'd but they left it so they could have Have going, but they also kind of ended it if that makes sense.

Ron Lippitt 30:02

HBO and so it's on HBO right now it was it was produced by HBO or they I

Jeff Dwoskin 30:09

believe it was made by it might have been made by Yeah. It's HBO it's HBO

Ron Lippitt 30:13

so the reason I ask is that you know, I think more than any other network out there they have this sorry history of canceling shows too early. I talked about this way early ago my very favorite show on HBO was carnival that they canceled too freakin seasons, you know, and there's a bunch of other HBO shows that they also canceled that had huge followings at the time. So I wonder, I have to believe at the time when they canceled this. A bunch people were bummed out about it.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:40

I think it was costs, but it was one of those decisions that got made and they didn't actually try to work with Christopher gas or Jim Pedic. To work through that issue. They just canceled it. It is totally worth checking out. I mentioned the fact that it ends well, because sometimes like I'll be like, oh, there wasn't a season two. I'll just skip it. I'll go on to something else. Right. But I think this survives extremely well as an eighth episode, right? I mean, you'll you'll feel very satisfied. Watching this 100 recerca that was the Jeff Dwoskin guarantee. All right. I cannot suggest family tree enough on HBO. But that was a great episode. Ha great bonus episode Klitschko family tree genius. The Kanye trilogy, you got a lot of homework. So I'm gonna let you get at it. Head on over to the couch, grab your remote cross your own streams. And we'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 31:42

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