Last Call At Torchy's : Deadwood Pilot

Hal's got words I guess when it starts pissing raining here, you know who to blame, huh? Now I know words circulate. Indians kill the family on the spearfish road. Now it's not for me to tell anyone in this camp what to do Much as I don't want more people getting their throats cut, their scalp lifted, or any other godless thing that these godless, bloodthirsty heathens do, or even if someone wants to ride out in darkest night But I will tell you this. I use tonight to get myself organized.

Hello folks, once again, it's been a long time, but this is the last call of Torchy's. I am one of your hosts, Cocksucker, Gary Hill. With me as usual is cocksucker. Lee Russell, how you doing, sir?

uh damp palms running my family, I guess. Um I don't know what that means, but uh yeah I'm doing all right. It's it's it's been a little while, but you know, we've we finally uh circled around and we're back and uh We're in a dusty little uh boom town full of uh scum and villainy and uh people looking to make their fortune and uh a lot of people swear a lot

Yeah. Wouldn't you know what cocksucker camera scots are too? How you doing, man?

I I prefer the the term cocksucker number three. Thank you. I'm doing good though. Excited to get my boots a little muddy and uh my guns out of the holsters.

Nice, nice, nice. Yeah, been a long time, but yeah, if you guys didn't want to wear This is a show we do when we can get to it. Uh all about Walter Hill's filmography, um, directing work so far. We there's more to explore in writing and stuff, but um Next up in the in the in the in the till here, if you will, is um the Deadwood pilot, which he uh was the director on and the right and uh consulting producer on. And um yeah, this stars a whole lot of people that you may know.

Yeah, I I think he's just, you know, after that he's just kind of like producer, kind of like tangenally connected to it kind of thing. Um it might even just be like uh an alien situation where it's like my name's on all of this and I'm gonna get paid for it even if I don't do shit.

Yeah. Well associated by proxy

Yeah.

That is the way to go.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh boy. Yeah, your your principles in in the pilot, you know, 'cause it's it's just a lot to explore and I think lay it out pretty well in in the pilot. Um, Timothy Olivant is Seth Bullock. Ian McShane is uh the Dazer Lee Al Swearing is Al Al Sweringen Uh Molly Parton. Molly Park Molly Parton. Molly Parker as Alma Garrett. My words escaped me. WRL B round, you know, from much things. Um most folks that know him from Scream. as Dan Doherty, your your local bartender. Uh Brad Doruf as Doc Cochran.

That's all I'll say about it.

He does a good job, yeah. I can still enjoy his work. And um and as in I guess uh a five episode arc it's been a while since I watched these, um Keith Carradine as as wild Bill Hickcock and this uh this pilot um shows up in this and I I gotta mention him because he shows up for a hot second. Uh Blue Island's own, Illinois' own uh South Suburb guy, Mike Haggerty, who you've seen in many, many things shows up as a guy who's screaming at a wagon that they give a uh a chamber pot to.

Oh yeah.

I just love the Mike Caggery shows up in this. So it just It's a series of of people who shows up in this thing that makes me so happy. But um I'll kick it to Cam burst. Um

Well, I have to thank my mother for introducing me to this. I was living on my own. far away from home and she sent it to me burnt on CD or on uh video disc. And I was just like, what is this fucking series? And she sent me season two first and I was just like, I was fucking lost. But I finally saw season one and this is you know no surprise. This is my favorite TV show of all time. Literally my favorite TV show. They could have given us 18 seasons of this and I'd have been happy.

Mm-hmm.

I fucking love it. Uh I'm going to be saying that a lot. Uh the colorful dialogue, the the calamity Jane. I mean, geez, what's not the love about this? You know, old crotchety doc. play by Brad Dourif, how he he lived through the three seasons of this with his health as bad as it was. But uh yeah um Is this the is this is if this isn't the best TV show of all time, then I don't know why anybody would think any different. I don't know.

Cool.

Lee?

Yeah, so um like we were sort of talking uh off recording here This is one I've been trying to like get into over and over again, and I I get a couple episodes in and then I get busy with other stuff and I just kind of drop it Um and it's not anything to do with the quality of it. Uh the few episodes I have seen are great, uh, and this is no exception.

But it does it depthly.

And it's and it's all through the performances and the dialogue for the most part. You immediately get uh who Swear Engine is, what he's doing in town, the kind of Plays he's making the kind of things he's doing to keep all the dirt off him, even though he's the dirtiest motherfucker in town. Um You know, I I was saying uh hive of scum and villainy. Uh I mean that that is what Deadwood kind of is presented as here.

Well put.

Yeah, the amount of world building you get in just just the first episode is pr pretty phenomenal. And I I credit that to to to Walter. And you know, it just Everything coming together, you know, you t two guys come into town to a lawless town where we w w one was once a marshal and of course he comes to town where everything's just, you know, crazy and I I lo I love the chaos of it. I love everything about it.

Those opening scenes with him, and you know, you learn exactly who Seth Bullock is.

Yeah It's really great. And um the opening's really great. It says sets up, you know, just what kind of man he is and you know No no nonsense, you know, with with with criminal and all this stuff, but you know it set sets up it sets up this town real great too. With just a town full of hustlers. in a town full of people who, you know, have to answer to the the the the main hustlers and you know know their place to stay in their lane or else something bad's gonna happen to them obviously. Yeah.

Don't go fucking around the Jen Saloon, that's what I gotta say.

No, if if you're a loudmouth Irishman who who wants to, you know wants to get some money out of a deal when you already owe Swering Jen basically your life He's got your life on tab. You don't go demanding money because, well, he's just gonna collect your life off screen, you know. It's like

Um what I what person I forgot to mention because he's into so much stuff too, is um our our our uh Asian character in this film. I'm not sure if he's a pig farmer or what he is, but he he's a remover of the bodies apparently. Uh Keon Young business woo. He's been in tons of things over the years and He just um he shows up and shows out in this in my opinion and he gets some good stuff in the movie, we'll talk about that another time, but uh with him.

Um but he's got the body disposal business basically because he's got the things, right?

And I just love I I love the the part where they throw the the the dude in the pit. These hogs just go into town on that guy's belly. It's just you know Oh yeah, you know.

I wonder I wonder, was that Snatch that really established that as a as a trope as like uh just just a movie Thematic touch tone where everybody knows now that, oh, someone owns pigs, there's a body that's going to be fed to them at some point. Like it's it's it's just a trope now, right? I feel like snatch is probably the the modern touchstone to that.

But uh I don't I don't quite be like you could be like Clint Howard and Evil speaking just like try pigs and you know say, you know what? He didn't own the pigs. He just made them he just made 'em come, that's all, you know.

I often say I don't need a reason to watch Deadwood, but I sure like to have one.

Yeah. But yeah, like I We you know we see how like the town is controlled by Swerengine, how he manipulates people. Um like I said, keeping the dirt off himself at all times. Like he's he's always He's always very on top of like anything that would expose that he is like behind certain deals. I I I do know that we learn that he is behind the family that gets massacred, which is kind of like the B plot of this or whatever.

You know, you get a you get like a Mephisto moment from uh smoke starts rolling out his ears or something.

Yeah, something along those lines. You know, because he he's holding debt on so many people in this town. Um he's got you know, he's got his his brothel under a a tight boot. He's not quite He's not quite little Bill from um Unforgiven. He he's actually a lot meaner. Um outwardly meaner

Literally under a tight boot. He he just jams that foot on that horse throat like that, like yeah, this is the way it's gonna go, you know.

He's like, you know, make a choice and he's like, I can either end it now or we can continue our you know our our work here Mm-hmm. I don't think she was totally comfortable with the decision she made, but she knew that that she was literally quite literally under the boot.

Yeah.

I really like that. I love how he he's the only person who is allowed to give swearing gin shit. He's allowed to yell at him like, well fuck you, Al. You know, and now we'll just give him a look like the fuck you just say to me. But you know, but he's he realizes, you know, that the doc is one of the only ones there that can help keep people alive. He might be a maniac, but

He's a crime d he's a crime doctor. For the for the criminal organization that runs the town. So

And if he can't and if he can't fucking rely on Doc, you know, he's he's got woo with the pigs. Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yep

So you gotta be locked down. Let me fuck a fucking weird science right here and put a rod through some dude's head. Yeah. Let me indulge myself, you know.

Yeah. That that's the thing.

That's a good comparison.

Yeah.

Well it's it's a lot more subdued, and uh not not in a bad way, but like He plays it a lot more straight, like you know, like he's not quite to the point of the you know I'm looking for the word not delusion, but you know Melancholy, I guess if you will, because he's he's he's heavily on the drugs on the opium in the well Walter Hill Wild Bill movie He's not quite there yet in this movie. He's just kinda like he's messed up, but he's he's ready to go. So I think uh He he looks tired.

He looks like he's he's trying to deal with things as opposed to, you know Taking drugs and becoming an alcoholic. Well, he's then already an alcoholic. But you know, he's just like he's he's dealing with it on a kind of subservient level.

Yeah. He he's he's presented as a more realistic, degenerate gambler in this, where it's like he he gambles but he keeps his calm even when he loses. He's just used to losing. He just keeps he just keeps keep having to hit that that fucking uh uh that drug every every night. You know, it's just like getting bankrolled by people and you know it is um his sidekick there, you know, makes us a side deal with the with the uh bartend uh the bartender, barkeep owner, or whatever.

And I also like his uh his relationship with Clamity Jane in this a lot more. Not to throw shade at Alan Barkin, but Robin Weigert. She is just a force to fucking behold.

And she's way closer to the real Calamity Jane. Like the the one from Wild Bill is a sexy romanticized version of the character, whereas whereas the real Cl Clemente Calamity. Calamity, thank you. I was gonna, I mean there's probably some of that, probably some of that going on, but like she is She was a rough around the edges, you know, tomboy-ish kind of character who probably was much more like she's being depicted in this than in the movie.

It's kinda like the Carrie vibe or you know, where if you read the way Carrie is written or how she's written as a character, nobody really really portrayed that in the way it is in the book until, you know Calamity Jane in this one is much more much more of an honest portrayal of what you get rather than she's been like you know, like you said, pretty and like

I was just gonna say you do get um you do get a like a a real sense of character in in in that performance just in that one episode. You kind of get like all the beats of her, like the the the tough outside exterior. You get the you get the the uh the empathy and the heart when when it comes to the to the surviving girl. And you also get this sort of like childlike obsession and love for Wild Bill that is not returned.

And it's one of those things where where like he's down like we said in the conversation here, so it's one of those you know, who who else is gonna be by his side at this point? And she she knows she's gonna stay by his side at this point Yeah.

Yeah he's the only person that's gonna besides her that stays with uh Wild Bill is Charlie.

Yes.

And he's at his wit's end with them. That's why he's like, nestle away a little bit of this money because we barely made it here.

Yeah, yeah. Uh Charlie Utter looks you know, Dayton Cli uh Collie here is Charlie Utter. He just even on his performance, he looks like a man who is under a lot of stress. It was just like He's he's the guy who's kind of handling all of this and kind of wrangling Wild Bill. And you know, and Wild Bill, he's he's stuck with Charlie Utter and and Calamity Jane because he is out of friends otherwise Everyone else wants to meet them. Everyone else wants to play cards with them.

Yeah, they're essentially star fuckers. You know, I mean, even I I love the the scene where he's playing cards with uh the the coward John uh I can't remember what his name was. The one that Garrett Delahan plays. But he's just like, uh, what did you mean by that that you had the draw on me? And he's like, uh say it. Say it out loud. Because he's always willing to say you know, not start some shit, but he's willing to finish some shit.

Yeah, Jack McCall. Yeah, uh Garrett Dillahunt is Jack McCall and he's you know he's talking at first uh he ain't so impressive then he starts playing cards with them And David Carradine is so fucking stone faced and like just waiting for an excuse. Like you say the wrong thing. Go ahead. I'm gonna let you say the wrong thing right now if you want to.

Maybe I should just go over here and shut the fuck up.

Yeah, maybe I'll have to shoot him in the back of the head or something, like a coward, you know

Oh boy. I was on mute, I'm sorry.

Oh, there we go. There we go. Same shit, right there. Podcasting professionals here.

Exactly. A plus C plus. Top of their game, guys. Top of their game.

This is what you waited a year for, ladies and gentlemen.

If you put a book and button on mute and just talk talking shit, you know. No, like I said at the beginning though I really enjoyed, you know, the world building of all this.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was about to say Brian Cox. I know he's in this at some point.

Oh powers booth too, man.

Oh yeah, there we go.

Um, who else is it the the great Steven Tobolowski who just shows up at everything and I'm fine with that because Tobo Tobo's the man, you know.

Wasn't Proof Taylor Vince in this as well?

Yes, he does show up in this.

This is just one of those shows, right, where every like you're su you're you're you're just kind of like surprised that James Gand Gandalfini didn't show up at some point just because, you know, but you know, he's probably under that Sopranos contract, so it's like, oh we can't do that.

You mean you even get feeling a door if there's for three episodes, so there's there's uh that comes later, I'd imagine. I don't know if the yeah.

Well is is is um is Jamie McShane, is that Ian McShane's kid? I don't know.

I have to look that one up later. Uh okay randomly, Greg Sipes um shows up for two episodes. If you guys don't know who that is, he's a voice actor most known for playing Beast Boy on the on Teen Titans. So you know I just I just thought like okay, you know Um I'll kick it to camera. Anything else to say about uh this great pilot episode of Deadwood Man?

Well, I mean it's possibly the greatest pilot of all time. It's the greatest first episode in my in my opinion. Because it it does so well in orchestrating the characters and weaving all these characters because there's so many of them. I mean we haven't really tapped into all of them, but it gives them all a chance to shine. It lets you know exactly who everybody is. It's masterfully written. The credit for that goes to David Milch, you know, who we haven't mentioned yet.

Yeah, and and he you know, and everyone knows that he you know he wro he he ran and wrote for like Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue and a lot of a lot of just notable TV before this and uh Yeah.

Yeah, uh and I I just say for anybody if you if you can't get through the first episode of this the through the pilot of the show And feels something, then I feel sorry for you.

Yeah, I don't I don't I don't I don't see how like it it establishes like you said establishes all the characters establishes what this show is about and it tells like two stories and kind of wraps them up in the episode. You know, it it tells it there's threads that are dangling from each one. But like it it tells the it tells the the swindling story that they do with with the rich guy from from out east or whatever, uh where they they sell him the fraudulent uh mine.

Yeah, and like uh even though while Bill doesn't you know last long, like you said, Lee, he's not long long for this world in this world of the show. You get to see a budding friendship with him and uh you know, Timothy Oliphant, uh, which is he just lovingly calls Montana all the time. Like when they when they shut shoot down on the guy who killed killed the family and he's like, was that you or me, Montana? And he's like, I think that was you.

I I I think yeah I think there was some hidden depth to that line too because I think it's like Bullock kind of going like You know what? I'm gonna give him the little celebrity rub and like stroke his ego a little bit at the same time. You know, we're getting along. Let's keep getting along. I'll I'll I'll throw I'll throw the uh ego stroke uh while Bill's way, even if I know that maybe I'm the one who put the bullet through the motherfucker.

Yeah, th they they might have both put the bullet through the son of a bitch.

Yeah.

But yeah, the the just such colorful characters. I mean it uh I don't know that I've ever seen a show and I keep waxing poetic here, but that it's done it. so right and so well, especially right off the bat. Other shows are like, oh, once you get four or five episodes into it, it really finds its its footing. No, this movie or sorry, this show finds its footing in the first episode like that.

Yeah, the little stuff we have. The the the little editions of the storytelling, like uh conversation in the tent and Somebody asked I forget who asked, but they asked where where they're from MBL. Oh yeah, it's the Reverend, right? Yeah. Saul responds with he's from Austria, but he he's from he's from Ohio. That that that tells you that yeah his family escaped from from from Europe from from whatever Nazi regime they were under, you know, and

Yeah, ju Jewish persecution. Yeah.

Yeah, that that thing too, yeah. But it was there was little there was a little it was a little addition to his backstory that They didn't dwell on, but you you understood what was going on there.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and it it sets up interest and dynamics, you know, for for possible future stuff. He he you know, he's he's a Jewish guy. Jewish guys aren't pretty well liked back then in in America. And so that you can see that running into some problems in the in a place like Deadwood where there's no real law and in uh Right. Yeah.

Yeah, we did a pretty good job covering this one. I'm I'm happy I watched it. I'm ha I'm happy to dive more into it actually. Just to watch more episodes 'cause three seasons and uh I I imagine it was expensive shit or produced, that's probably why it lasted three seasons and not no more. But uh whatever. Yeah.

We gotta give us some co some closure though. I mean, albeit you know a decade later with the movie, you know, they they they attempted to give us some closure.

And I appreciate that. Some folks don't get that though, so I I'm grateful for that. Yeah. Oh my gosh. But next up on the show and sooner rather than later, people, I promise. I promise, okay? My my my head's in a better place than It's been a very long time. So I would say that's an important part of the job. If you uh if your head's out of it, then you know, that twenty percent that turns you into a broadcaster is uh It doesn't work. I feel that brother.

Yeah.

He's in this. Uh Thomas Hayden Church is in this. I love these people.

I have never seen this.

It's it's good.

It's it's pretty well made, I remember. It's been a while. But um yeah, next up on the show, and um looking forward to that. on the Patreon. Um it'll it'll be out soon after this or before this. Who knows when? Uh we're gonna do the Deadwood movie that we mentioned that closes out the series pretty well uh ten years later. And um yeah, look forward to that. And um I know we are. Oh definitely. Any plugs guys you want to get to right now? You guys got stuff coming all the time.

Yeah, I'll throw over to Cam first. Let him plug his stuff.

Oh, I got a couple more uh Howling at the full moon's uh coming out and we did Cutters Club, Virtual Encounters 2. I got a uh uh episode that I did with Suzanne uh on Susperia that's gonna be coming out here very soon.

Speaking of stroking or ego, you put you out of that shit right there, you know.

It's uh well I knew when I was gonna do that there was only one person to ask

Well yeah, you know.

But uh also got an episode on Demons 2 coming out from a sequel to Deja Vu show. So those should all be coming out in the next month or so here.

Oh, nice, nice. Um yeah, I'll I'll mention I'll mention a couple things that uh uh first off on my podcast, uh we Last episode we did uh before the recording of this was an episode on seven psychopaths from uh twenty twelve Which was a uh kind of a post-Tarantino like critique of those sort of movies that came after Quentin Tarantino hit it big with pulp fiction and the like.

Wasn't Vaughn on that episode? Vaughn?

Vaughn was on that episode, yes. And uh Matt from uh Movie Melt. Nice. Yeah, and we had a really good discussion on that one. And um I'll just also mention uh I'm on uh the latest episode of Hello, this is the Doom Show on this very network. Which big thrill for me. One of my favorite podcasts of all time. And I finally got the guest on it.

I've been really guilty of that.

But uh, you know, once I finally got to hear it, we we talked about pale blood And at the time, Wingshauser had just passed, so that was kind of a little tribute show to Wingshauser as well. And uh uh yeah, that's uh about it i'm on another oh yeah i'm on uh i'm on my friend matt anderson's uh podcast um who's been on my show a couple times It's called Does This Come in Chromium? And it's a book and it's about comic books.

Yeah. I had a couple of those. I think I had a few of the Saints and Sinners line.

Ah, there you go. Yeah. Um, and um So uh yeah, we had a fun discussion about that. Uh you know, we're talking about what a great debut episode of uh Deadwood we're we hit we had here. That's a comic book that's like It's interesting, but it's not a good debut for the comic because it does not give you much of a clue what the fuck it's about. And so yeah, it was an interesting discussion. And uh yeah, that that's uh that's it for me

Uh yeah, releasing stuff again. I'm very excited about this. Um you can hear myself, uh X and Mike Merriman. Um New CinamaBeef podcast that's out now. We did uh Welcome Home Brother Charles and Braind together. So that was a That was a fun fun political impression.

That's a that's a thematic uh episode if there ever was one. Yeah.

Um next up on that show we record a week from yesterday, so it'd be this upcoming Thursday. Um we're doing Ruckus, which stars Dirk Benedict. And and First Blood, which is the one you know, but you know Ruckus came out before First Blood, so it's kind of an odd threadline to say which one is the rip off 'cause you really don't know 'cause Ruckus is like Rambo with exploitation elements in it. Yeah, yeah.

So it's Dirk Benedict?

Dirk Benedict, yes.

I have not seen that. I gotta add that to the list.

I mean I I would I would argue honestly Rambo really is just exploitation, but it's, you know, maybe slightly elevated exploitation in a sense. And and more more so because of what the series became. But like if if you're looking at it back in the day when it first came out, that's just a that's a exploitation that comes, you know, from a drive-in near you, you know, kind of thing, coming to a drive in near you along with like Macon County line or something like that, you know?

Yeah, some white lightning kind of thing.

Yeah. Well if any ramble one whatever, I think it was in first blood. I didn't um the second or third I forget. It might have been the second one. Where Ram oh yeah, he gets captured by um Steven Burkoff, I think that's the second one. And he's like there's that shot where he's gripping the microphone. You just see him flexing and he's gripping that microphone. Like, yeah. This is my muscles. I'm I'm angry. Come on now.

Hey yo, what we so angry for?

I don't need to act no more.

Oh gosh. Reality with this. This has been the last call at Torchy's and uh we appreciate y'all listening if you're still listening.

Come on down and grab yourself a pint, you cocksuckers.

Bye-bye now.

Bye-bye.

Later.