#157 Crossing the Streams Over Broadway (Bonus Ep27) – 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 0:30

Hey, oh, it is Jeff Dwoskin your host from classic conversations bringing you this bonus episode focused in on live segments from our live show crossing the streams where we answer the universal question, Why should I be binge watching next? You just finished something you got to do something else you've come to the right place. We've got the answers of over 80 hours streaming on our YouTube channel. Check us out on YouTube. But you're in luck. You don't have to go anywhere right now to get three suggestions streamed right to your ears, Barry Black crab and bathtubs over Broadway coming atcha right now, these are live segments pulled right from our live show banter with a bunch of people talking about TV shows sort of in the style of you're hanging out with your friends at the bar or wherever you hang and they're telling you all about a show they just watched so that you can watch it too. You'll get a feel right away. Let's kick it off with Christine Blackburn, our special guest on episode 79 from story worthy and her brand new podcast my life in three songs. Christine's gonna talk all about Barry, take it away, Christine. We're gonna do Barry the HBO classic in the making and welcome to the show. Christine, this is your debut go Wow.

Ron Lippitt 1:51

Come on. Come on, bring it.

Christine Blackburn 1:53

This is exciting. And if I have to talk about a television program, and this is the one very I'm sure a lot of you guys have seen it already. They just finished and have put up on HBO the third season. I know there's going to be a fourth season so that's exciting. And you know, it's it's a drama, but it's also very funny. So I would say it's a it's a black comedy, and it's written and developed by Alec Berg and also Bill Hader started out in 2018. And basically it follows around Bill Hader, who plays a character named Barry, Barry Berkman and various from Cleveland. He's also a Afghanistan veteran who has a lot of PS PS PTSDP T. Anyway, he's stressed out and for money, he's a hitman. He's a hitman on the side. And so he has a couple of Hitman that he works with one includes the actor Steven root, who is just tremendous. I don't know if you guys remember Steven route all the way back to his office space. You know, he played the one grade and everything. Yeah, with the stapler. And he had the little scene and he you know, had to go down into the office in the basement behind you know, the the heater and be you know, anyway, great guide, he would say, I like to listen to my radio at a very low volume.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:19

They promised me a piece of cake. I received

Christine Blackburn 3:25

the character Monroe Funches for Chiz food shares. And then the other big character in it is a character named Noho. Frank know how Hank excuse me know, Hank, and he's played by Anthony Carrigan. He's the bald guy. I think he has a certain condition where there's no hair on him. Because No, I'm talking about alopecia. Alopecia. There you go. There you go.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:48

Same as at the last Academy Awards.

Christine Blackburn 3:50

Yes. Oh, that's right. That's right, of course. And anyway, he is such a wonderful actor. Oh my gosh. So between Noho Hank and the Steven route character, you know, that's those are two of the drug dealers. And so very, like I said, this guy from Cleveland, he goes out to Los Angeles to do this hit and the hit happens to be a kid who's in acting class. So now Barry is the Hitman as to join the acting class in order to infiltrate it as it were, and then kill this person. So that the whole thing that he has to kill somebody that's even not really important. He kills many, many people in this in this series, because again, he's a hitman. But the acting class that he joins is being taught by a guy named Cusumano and he slipped by Henry Winkler and what happens is, is Bill Hader very finds it in his heart that he loves acting like that's all he wants to do. He doesn't want to be a hitman anymore. He wants to put that life behind him. He just really does want to be an actor and he falls in love with a beautiful girl named Sally. Sally read and that's played by Sara Goldberg. Right. And so he, you know, gets a relationship going with her. And so this is like I said, this has been three seasons now in this last season that just wrapped up, I just finished watching it eight episodes, you know, it was just so good and so funny. Like it's so dark, the dialogue is incredibly humorous, even though they're doing these very disturbing things. It's very funny in a Breaking Bad kind of way for sure. And then this past season, there was an amazing car chase that included these motorcycles and people are talking about it. I don't know if you guys have talked, anybody heard anybody talking about bury in the car chase, I'm telling you, it was so cool. Picture a car dealership, like a like a Toyota, Toyota car dealership or whatever. You know how there's like the roof and they'll be like one roof and then it goes up a little bit. And then there's more cars up there. There's cars all along the one layer and then it goes up and there's more cars up there. And anyway, in one scene, these motorcycles are chasing him and they jump up to the roof like via maybe, you know, whatever ramps his way up. Maybe it was a garbage bin and a car. Next thing you know that motorcycle guys on one roof, and then he jumps and now he's on the other roof. It's almost like the motorcycles jumping buildings. It's so fun. Anyway, you guys have a big ending here in season three. The good news is I know that it's coming back. So you know we'll be back I'm telling you it's getting all kinds of critical acclaim it was up for 30 It was nominated for 30 Emmy Awards. So it's one of those big big shows you miss kind of like an Ozark or breaking bad

Jeff Dwoskin 6:37

I started I started it I didn't stop it because I didn't like it I just I don't know I must have got distracted and and and didn't go back or maybe something else kind of did it but I loved it when I watched it. Finally Henry Winkler wins was at an Emmy. He got the Emmy finally.

Christine Blackburn 6:53

Yeah. Oh, he's so good in it. It's very exciting. So

Jeff Dwoskin 6:57

there was no whole Hank out some trivia on this. I found I was originally meant to die in the pilot. They loved him so much that they they kept his character,

Christine Blackburn 7:07

one of those very likable guys a very likable killer, you know,

Jeff Dwoskin 7:11

and then I was I read also it said they were writing and they're like, do you think a show about a hitman can be funny and then Bill Hader is like well what if it was me? I'd so we'd love it. This is on HBO Max. There's now three full seasons in it. Let's see what we got here. Oh, Jerry got HBO Max. Josh Burberry. So there you go. And then I don't know Casey, I don't maybe left I don't know. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Christine. Know how convinced that's a pretty rocks. Rocks, about four. I mean, rewriting the theme song. I mean, it's like you're just you're on fire. Wow, I'm excited. You are on fire.

Ron Lippitt 7:57

So many people sorry, that are just epically like, like completely Barry maniacs. So there's something about this show that the people that it connects with, it really connects with and they become absolutely dedicated to the show. So I gotta

Jeff Dwoskin 8:12

get back into it because it's only like a 30 minute show, right?

Christine Blackburn 8:15

Yeah, it's not long at all. It never ends. It ends way too fast. Every time. There's also in this last season, by the way, kind of this nod to the sopranos, you know, where all of a sudden it was like when Tony was dreaming and he was up in Asbury Park and on the boardwalk, same kind of thing. Right? So now Bill Hader is kind of dreaming Barry's dreaming and next thing you know he's on this big vast beach and the whole thing goes like the black and white and he sees all these people that he's killed you know what I mean? Kind of so anyway, it's it's every episode is like a small movie. All right,

Jeff Dwoskin 8:49

we're gonna check it out. That's awesome All right, that was HBOs berry Thank you Christine. Sounds like one we should all be checking out if you're not already up next. Ron is taking us into the world of black crab take it away Ron. Black crab yeah in a talk us through black crabs yeah

Ron Lippitt 9:12

and let's let's check one of the boxes right off the bat this is on Netflix ladies and gentlemen. This is another algorithm suggested to me based on the depths and darkness of my soul. They know who I am and they know what the serving up so here we are with the black crab. I had no idea what this thing was I turned it on because I know normally we're pass Do you guys know who know me we're passes Oh yeah, fantastic actress ever pass as a Swedish actress very famous for what's your fee?

Casey Ryan Plott 9:41

Well, I mean, she recently did The Girl

Jeff Dwoskin 9:44

with the Dragon Tattoo.

Ron Lippitt 9:48

She's the original she's the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and yeah the original Lizabeth so in the original Swedish before they did that horrendous monstrosity In English, the right the original version was, was excellent. So I'm like, okay, so if nothing else is going to be in this thing, I don't know anybody else Adam berg is the writer and director of this. He's never done anything. Netflix did fun this thing and they produced it. So if Netflix is going to give this guy first time director and writer a whole bag of money and putting homeopaths in front of it, sure, I'll watch it, why not? What's what's an hour and 45 minutes between friends? Right, so I'll just give you the backdrop. It is a dystopian situation. I think in Sweden, they never really say there are forces of good and evil, you don't know which side you're on. But they refer to who it is they're facing throughout the movie as purely the enemy, which I think is very interesting and calculated and whoever side they are on and Nomi. repass is on the side of good, apparently, they are losing the war very, very badly. And the movie begins with her being conscripted into the military by losing her daughter by force. And then this then the movie begins essentially, from the moment she kind of appears on screen now as a soldier, whereas a moment ago, she was a mother losing her daughter. So you don't know what happened in between there, you just know that she's been through some shit, and that she's got to figure out how best to find and care for this daughter that is no longer with her. They're losing the war, they're all dying, soldiers, left and right are losing. And so she is pulled into a very special units that is going to change the course of Humanity. And the way is going to change the course of mantasy Humanity is she is going to deliver a package which you don't know what this package is, I'm telling you this, this movie has a lot of hidden secrets, and they don't tell you shit, they don't tell you anything. In this movie, she's gonna be delivering this package, which somehow is going to turn the tide of this war. The only problem is that where she's delivering the package is this remote island that is only available on over ice and the ice won't support cars or trucks or military vehicles, it will just report support people on ice skates. Turns out, nobody ever passes a heck of a skater I had no idea. So these six people who they've selected for this mission carry off on ice skates from the mainland, over hundreds of miles. They're skating on this ice and face every kind of calamity you can think of. And that kind of does the whole Hunger Games kind of thing where you start with six, and then it's five. And that's for like, the team gets smaller and smaller and smaller as terrible things happen is a very upbeat movie, right? And then they finally get to the island but not before they get too curious to figure out what the hell is this package they finally decide they're gonna look at even though they were told very specifically don't look at what the package is they look at what the packages and they are able to assess it as a biological weapon designed to kill everybody on earth. And that's how they're going to, that's how their side of good is going to win the war. So I will not wreck the story about what ends up happening in case any of you guys have any interest based on all this wonderful backstory that I've just shared with you. But I will just say this, it does not end in a way that's going to make you sleep well at night. And this is a dark gray movie that it takes you for a ride. It's a very cold movie based in Sweden, I'm assuming with most of the movie actually, in the snow and ice and cold. So it's one of those kinds of movies you've seen these before. And there's not a lot of warmth to it in any kind of measure. So I'll just say this, it's an exhausting ride. It's not a lot of fun.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:46

Did you enjoy it? I'm getting I'm getting

Ron Lippitt 13:51

the payoff is not as good as they wanted it to be because because because they're not telling you what you need to know. This is the thing when movies are like this, where they set it up as a lot of secrets and they don't tell you everything you have to have a payoff where things are revealed. And guess what? Nothing is really revealed in this movie other than other than what the package they were carrying, which was I guess they were counting on to be the big reveal and to kind of carry it carry them the rest of the way. Not so much boys and girls it you still don't know who the sides are you don't know what really happened you don't know how this thing really gets gets sealed up in any kind of meaningful way. But I will just say it holds your attention. The visual way this movie plays out is beautiful. It's a stellar production in terms of the way they photographed it. And I think the the way the choreography choreography was excellent and Noemi repast is fantastic. She carries the movie that's obviously why they hired her for this movie, but it's got gaps. I'm not gonna lie, it has gaps, but I will say it is a trip and it's an interesting movie. It's all I should have mentioned this on the front end. It's in Swedish. So the whole movie center So if you'd like to the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it has that same kind of vibe. Just not as good. So, but check it out. I really think it is an interesting movie. I'm glad I watched it. I thought the payoff was good enough for me to felt the time was well spent. But it is an interesting movie to watch. And because of that, I recommend it.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:18

Well, it's not the first movie to not reveal something right? castaway. You never know what's in the FedEx box. That's true. Pulp Fiction. You never know what's in the briefcase? No, it's a trope. It's a Trump.

Ron Lippitt 15:29

It is it is the filing down of the main character 654321. You know, getting debt. Like I thought that was a very tired method. Right?

Casey Ryan Plott 15:39

Well, and were the characters even interesting enough to do care as they started to die? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, there's no point to

Ron Lippitt 15:48

do care about you. They set the movie up beautifully between her and her daughter, you care about them. But then she's surrounded by all these characters that you don't care about. And they focus a lot of time trying to make you care about them when you really don't. And you're really more interested in getting back to the tail of where the heck is her daughter? And how in the heck is she going to get her back? That's it's a week. And how does that work?

Casey Ryan Plott 16:10

How does that work with a device is supposed to kill all human life?

Jeff Dwoskin 16:14

I don't feel I wouldn't care about her daughter. Fair, quick question. Fair question. Trying to get people to care about people you didn't kill him. I have to do is watch The Walking Dead. And no, that doesn't work.

Ron Lippitt 16:26

But listen, I'll just say this. It is it's interesting. It's Swedish. I think they do. The style of the movie you can tell is very European. It's a different style of movie that makes it interesting. I'll just say

Casey Ryan Plott 16:38

this many times, as you mentioned, Swedish is that an important driving factor in this is that instead of grading, they make great pop music.

Ron Lippitt 16:46

Listen, I think they make great cheap furniture. And I'm in favor of that, that the meatballs are excellent, but you never saw furniture or meatballs was

Jeff Dwoskin 16:57

a fish is a little boring, but neither of those. All right. Well, that was good. All right. So you do recommend it though?

Ron Lippitt 17:03

I do. I do recommend it. Check it out. And I'm interested in your opinion.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:09

All right, black crab, kind of a toss up. I mean, he gave the pros and the cons. So you're gonna have to decide on your own for that one of next hour. There's no deciding if you listen to episode 156 Earlier this week, you know, I love bathtubs over Broadway more than life itself. Maybe I'm getting a little dramatic. Anyway, I'm taking you through this one. Enjoy. All right, I'm excited. I'm excited to introduce you guys to this documentary. Over I'm looking forward to this. Okay. So bathtubs over Broadway is 90 minutes of goodness. So it falls into the category of it's just long enough doesn't overload itself. And just to give you an idea, when I watched this, my wife interrupted me and I snapped, you know, you know what I mean? Like, you know, like you're focused, and the person who interrupts you and doesn't know your focus. That's how much I knew what I needed to get back to this documentary. Okay, so this documentary bathtubs over Broadway, it's not too old, just few years old. 2008. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and it was one of the top Tribeca picks by dinero. himself. I just read that. It was directed by dava Weisner, she won the Tribeca films award for this and best new documentary director. It's won a ton of awards ton of awards. So what this bathtubs over Broadway is it starts with the David Letterman Show. And it's focused on Steve Young, who was a writer for the David Letterman Show for 25 years. And the documentary basically follows him. It's this is his story. And so while he was at the Letterman Show, he gets there, one of the people gets fired, he ends up in their office, there's a pile of records. And what's this? Well, maybe you'll take this over, Dave does a bit called funny records. Right? And so what the bit was, is Dave Letterman would play records that were obscure and silly, like, you know, the Shatner records or Nimoy singing and stuff like that. And they would find these different things. So Steve Young, within, you know, become part you go to record stores and try to look for records for the bit. And so while he's doing this, he uncovers this entire genre called industrial musicals. Okay. Now, an industrial musical basically, if you picture like if you go to a sales meeting, like one of those giant sales meetings, and there's presentations right, well in the 50s 60s and 70s, these were huge. What they would do is they would do full on Broadway style shows about like, just to give you an idea. Here's the names of the shows. It was called follow the road Dominion road machinery and company diesel dazzle the Detroit Diesel engine division by insurance man by this continental insurance company. And so my The bathrooms are coming this is considered the class. Just to give you an idea or just to give you an idea like my, these musicals were written, but some of these musicals were written by the people that wrote Fiddler on the Roof. These starred people people involved with these involve included Vasi Newhart Martin Short, dammed, Eloise Chita Rivera, Tony Randall Florence Henderson. So like, these were huge names, and they would go and these would be all out like, just to give you an idea that Chrysler say could spend $3 million on one of these, one of these productions, and the actual Broadway show may only have half a million dollars. Right? Okay, so what happened was he Steve Young starts going to these record stores, and the only living record, literally, of these shows, were the souvenir things that the marketing department would create, they'd create an LP, and they'd hand it to people as they left, right, thinking they would go home, and they've listened to the sky, these are all songs about, like, if it's a dishwasher and how to fix it, there might be an entire song about how to fix a dishwasher, or why their dishwashers are the best. And this is how they were teaching it through the like, the my bathroom was one of those like, I'm gonna, it's my bathroom. It's a special kind of play.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:34

So anyway, so Steve Young starts finding all of these all of these records, and then they start making fun of some of them on the show. But then he becomes obsessed with this genre called industrial music, he wrote a book about 2013 Ash called everything is coming up profits, the golden age of industrial musicals. And so that book then became the basis for this documentary. And the documentary not only talks about his kind of obsession with this collection, but it then goes deeper where he would go and find the people that were part of these that wrote these songs. Keep in mind, these were things that were like the normal people like us never were supposed to know existed, right? So he's uncovering these things, you have people that would create these things, and then that was their life, their legacy, right? And then it was just nobody knew it existed. So he would go and he would find the people that were starring in this and occasionally they would have a full video of the production or like, you know, full record and stuff and and so I mean, to the point where and this is a is a touching part of the story, like some of the people he connected with, he ended up speaking at their memorials. Yeah. And so it's like it's a really became a real deep connection that he had with this. And it's, it's just fascinating. It was just, I loved every second of it.

Bob Phillips 22:59

So I'm trying I thought I followed along with this. So there was a time where you could go to a theater on Broadway. And now now

Jeff Dwoskin 23:06

now you would go to let's say, like your

Mike White 23:09

big corporate annual meeting, going out the new product line, or just like we're celebrating how, what I thought but I thought doing that in a theater on Broadway, they were doing like a product

Unknown Speaker 23:19

launch.

Unknown Speaker 23:20

They were doing a man

Casey Ryan Plott 23:22

show Ryan hall or something.

Jeff Dwoskin 23:26

They may have actually gotten a big hall. Okay, but it would be like a very close thing. I forget if it was, these are the Burger King Raghu Ford pure oil, John Deere mill. Yeah, that's right. These are like all these companies would do it. So it'd be real closed off. So just like any sales organization, no one outside of that room would ever see it. Probably half that company didn't even know it existed. Right?

Mike White 23:48

Right. Most people would probably took those records home and just turn them in the garbage. So it's just that these exist at all these? Yeah. This era and all these weird shows that they would do.

Bryan Green 24:00

I'm doing a deep video search. And you there's there's video, some video of some of these back into seven. They were doing them up until the 80s. Right, right. Right, right. Like there's one called seeing the light for the industrial energy, industrial Energy Conference of 1978.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:17

It's just it's really, it's really, really fascinating. You can get this on. I think it's on Amazon. Also. I watched it on Netflix. I think it's on iTunes too, but definitely watch it on Netflix and stuff. It is definitely a good one. Joy,

Bob Phillips 24:32

add him that my bathroom is a special I think he's in his bathroom washing check that out. That's so weird. I love it.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:43

It's it's just one of those things that like like the records themselves. Yeah, when you find out this documentary exists, it's like just fascinating. It's just so cool. So fun. So fun.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:58

All right, bathtubs overbroad. way you know I love that documentary episode 156 A classic conversations I have an entire episode with Steve Young, the focus of that documentary, so check that out as well. And the documentary bathtubs over Broadway. That was from Episode 66 of crossing the streams, which is on our YouTube channel. We also covered black crab from Episode 67 of the live show. And from Episode 79 across in the streams, Christine Blackburn took us through Barry. So it sounds like you got a lot of homework for the upcoming week. So we're gonna let you go, go grab your favorite spot on the couch, grab the remote, cross your own streams, and I'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 25:44

Thanks for listening to this special edition of crossing the streams. Visit us on YouTube for full episodes and catch us live every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time. Now turn this off and go watch some TV. And don't forget to tell your family yeah, I'll be busy for a while.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai