Hey and welcome back to the a24 podcast for this episode. We switched up the usual format to reunite the for Minds behind our new Showtime series. Moon base 8, Tim Heidecker, John C, Reilly Fred Armisen and Jonathan. Kreisel, it's a hilarious and touching conversation between friends and collaborators and an unfiltered view into the difficulties and delays that come with trying to get a project made, especially when it's a little weird.
We hope you enjoy it. I love xun calls, I just love it. I hope after this B, pandemics over. We can keep this whole Zoom culture going, you know, where I feel it at the end of a zoom call in my back. I just afterwards on my God, why does my back hurt from like being upright for so long and like, just staring at the camera? I was, I feel a little bit like my soul's been sucked out of me by the end of the zooms. I've been masturbating during
the calls and it's not bad news. You can just Turn off the hear about that guy. I know. Jeffrey toobin. Yeah, he was. It's like a fire. He was famous political reporter. Like yeah, he was a huge, a trout. He was playing with himself, on a zoom, zoom call. Was he playing with silver? Did he just show it? I don't know. And that he claims. I was just a big misunderstanding. I was talking to someone.
They got that signal kind of went out then their picture dropped out and I like, what's Yoki? You still there? Yeah, I'm going to the bathroom, come on. All right. Well let's talk about our show. Moon base 8 that we made in conjunction with a 24 that's why we're all speaking on this
particular podcast. I've got my radio voice dialed in. Everybody can kind of get into their NPR's mode Slow and Low. I'm Larry mantle so we have me Tim Heidecker John C Reilly Jonathan kreisel and Fred Armisen. Red is coming to us via Zoom technology up in where you up. I'm in Vancouver. All right, well, that's I think that's all we got. Can I had a question this morning? I thought. Well, maybe we could start an
ice breaker question. This is the question Creedence Clearwater, Revival. What is the name? What is that name about this 60s was all about these long names. I think like Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It's like cause it's because of tidal wave. Yes, where everyone was like the there's a the long every band name is like an organization of an old-timey organization. What was that 1912? Bubble gum company band? Oh yeah. And what was that?
There are some of the guys from the birds started that Flying Burrito Brothers. No, I'll have to look it up. I'm sorry. Great anecdote Credence. But the word Creedence Clearwater Revival. I don't like a church. Yeah. Survival. Is there water? Yeah. Okay. I think they wanted it to be sort of hard to figure out something like a conversation starter. Yeah, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Are you girls a little different, Strawberry Alarm Clock, John Fogerty would perform at my elementary school to raise money for the school because his kids started going there, really? It was kind of crazy. No, it was amazing. It was in a little school Amphitheatre. He's Been a long time, not being able to play his songs. That's right. That's right. But he was still playing them at the school during that time so he would get it out.
Well, all right. Well, Moonbase ait's a show that we made basically started from me. I was on an episode of Port of Portland area. A Chrysler. You were you had since moved on from Portland. I just wasn't directorate every episode at the you'd stepped away from the day-to-day. Yes. Is that right? But Fred, but I put Hired in it but I put in a good word for you, to be honest. He's cool. I was on there. I was hanging out with Fred.
We were laughing making each other laugh and I was texting with John I said John Riley, I was like I'm up here in Portland John's by the way lost in his Google. No no I got it. What's the bandits? It's the Fantastic expedition of Dillard and oh yes yes yes they loved those big long. Sorry. I'm like way after the Moment here but but they can edit that all together to make it all work. It's also like their band name fads do kind of go together.
Because remember in like 2002 is like The Strokes. The 90s was very one word. Polvo, pulp blur, blur pulp, Jane's. Addiction like a simple statement. So what's up? I have not, this is no joke. Not slept, since the election I've just been up. Really? Yes, it's now, it's a week and a half. I just been watching. CNN. I can't. Once they called it on Saturday. I'm like, I can't keep. I gotta see how all the states go. So, I've just been up, I watch it. I just watched CNN, 24/7.
The pretty much counted now. There's not a lot of news each day you'll wait. Do you see what happens next week? Yeah, if you might be surprised, you said yesterday, no one can stop. It is coming, right? And I'm assuming he's talking about the Biden presidency. Will you getting that that's bad in front of every video you watch for a while before the election with a just chubby bearded. Fisherman going, how do I registered to vote?
No, that's one added just kept saying it over and over and over was targeted to write to you like, hey, I kept getting Stacey Abrams saying, Time to vote. Wait, do you guys? You guys have ads on your YouTube videos? Oh yeah, I paid. I paid a not. Yeah, it's changed my life. It's changed my life. How much is it? It's like a hundred bucks a week. I'm gonna weekly do you think about what it would cost you to buy those videotapes stacking? All these videos, just click on one.
Did you guys read that story about the guy that's catalog. And every Letterman episode ever, he started taping them. He started on cassettes. Just taping the audio. Yeah. And keeping a database of what who was on and what the sketches were and he eventually started taking it on VHS and he's he's just surrounded by tapes in his apartment. He's like fully like enclosed by these tapes. What was his stated reason for this? He could never stay up late to watch it so he would, I don't know.
I don't know. I think it was probably that like just like a completionist. Yeah, it's got to finish it. I have a friend whose father obsessively collects magazines. Like he gets many many subscriptions to magazines and then it's turned into this hoarding thing because the Magazine's come and he needs to read them in order. Oh my God. So he's got his many years of
magazines ahead of him. He's like, no. I have to read every page of every magazine that I'm subscribed to God. It just sounds like a hell Zone. It's so irrelevant. By the time he gets, I know he's reading like the New Yorker from three years ago, 99% of magazine articles. Don't need to be read at all right. You get to the end of your like, I was trying to read an article today about geothermal energy. There's like a new, I know. And I was like, I want to learn
about this. I think this is cool because it's going to be this new Revolution. It is by the way. Yeah, I have a brother who's a contractor in there doing that with all the new homes. I, I checked out halfway through I'm like assume the rest of the I get, I get really mad when it starts getting low. I might come on. I feel like I have a million three and then four pages in. All right, just finish it out. Yeah you feel a little bit of padding going on? All right, let's get back on track.
We're here with John C Reilly, let's sort out this this origin story because as we started to do press it changed. It seemed like you guys didn't totally agree with where the space Colony idea came. How are you? Are you reading every interviewing to know No, I'm just remembering when we started talking about it. Like, because from my point of view and granted the whole thing, all four of us just started piling on adding ideas
and certainly. But I remember incorrect me right now on the record if I'm wrong. But we were trying to think about ideas when you were up there in Portland with red and then the subsequent days and weeks and days. And we started, you know, with three stooges bubble. All these different ideas, Civil War reenactors was one. That was And then I remembered
that I had. This idea for a horror movie that took place in the South, and the South Pole, in a research center, and it was during the like 60, or 80 Days of Darkness that they have down there and I thought that would be a brilliant cheap movie. And then you could make, it's all about like the monster is in there. Is them is their personalities and how they deal with each other. And that idea was inspired by me looking at a National Geographic article.
It showed this kind of really homogenous very National, Geographic friendly version of this base. And then it had these little things in between the lines that I noticed that said, like during the many days of darkness,
strange relationships, develop. It was this sort of coded thing, like, wow, they lose their minds during this darkness and they start sleeping with each other and start drinking to excess because and there was a picture of them unloading cases and cases of beer base but I have this vague memory. Three of sniffing out a show and I don't know if it was ever made since that we sniffed it out I have a vague memory of sniffing out that there was some kind of Ice Station.
Yes. Of course, I'm going to Antarctica shows on Fox. They made a pilot for it. Right. And I think we sniff that out early and now we said, oh, that that idea is taken. None of this sounds like a discrepancy sounds like we. Yeah, I don't. I know that was really hard. Trying to figure out is, where did we Steph Eames? And what shit did we step in? I think we're all agreed. Yeah, we're rolling. Greed on an all-in that now Tim. Do you remember what we were joking about on Portlandia two
things. I'm very strong. Memory of it one. Is this reboot of Punky Brewster that we were talking about? That's actually happening. It is. Yeah. Well God, but it always we were talking about it in this way. That as we do in real actually do sometimes you end up gossiping about who's involved and who's writing on it and it and, and how many Versions. It's gone through right? I heard it. Also the cameos. Like the cameos are always like you won't believe what they got.
Ya would hassle, huh? Oh my God, actually getting it. But also like I heard wrote Seth. Rogen like did a there was a went through him for it. He had developed it for a while, but then it kind of, it wasn't working. So then Judd and a couple other guys were like talking about this thing. That was like, so painful to get done and get made, and every
read, the latest revision. Yeah. Mase is the Golden Rod, Paige. Age is really, everybody's taking a crack at it. It's got it's getting really good and also being less super super like in the know about it. Like oh here's the kind of a dick thing that I can do right now. Okay. Which is the whole reason that Tim was up there, doing portly? Yes. Is a good one. And I did mention that once and then I thought that's such a shitty thing to say, to 10, but I just bought help myself.
Because in some way I can take credit for Tim and Fed working together on that Portlandia episode because the role was offered to me and I was like, I'm not going up there to do that is not enough to do or something. Yeah, you know, like any funny. Oh I thought to myself any funny person can do this. It's not a huge workload. Even Tim could handle this. No. Not even to but you know like it didn't require my services, you
know. Like at this point I'm getting old and I'm like, unless it really has to be me. Me right? I can just pass this along, you know and then next thing you know Tim fight me. Hey man guess what? I got this gig on Portlandia, I was like all right good for you John how to Tim do in the Exterminator part? I'm very good. I thought the episode turned out really got. It was very funny, he was great. He was so good in it. I wanted to use, I wouldn't yeah, that's right.
What's the other one? That's huge, the Portland the Webby, the Portland, acting Awards Portland. Acting Awards. I just want to bring up the other joke that we work. I'll make it quick. Okay. Other bit that we were doing was I think we did a Serial bit? No, I'm going to correct you but then you can go off this Peter Pan. Yeah, he does not sound like you've visited the factory or something peanut butter Factory and how they're cool.
This is actually became like a building block of the show, that kind of joke. Yeah. Because yeah, we realized like Oh wouldn't it be funny to have the three of us sitting around? Just debating Petty?
Things that really have no bearing on anything and don't there's no resolution to these things they're just do you like you know, Jimi Hendrix better or you know or the stones, you know, it's like who cares like but in the end there's not much of that in the show that really I think the show kind of went in a different direction than we maybe originally thought it was going to go but that's how it happened.
That's what that that pettiness. That Think of this, not letting something go and needing to be right. And you know pushing things right? When you should just be nice and just let it go, you know, because member that astronaut we talked to he said that you all look like you're always supposed to say when never had anyone has a suggestion in space. Thank you. Even if you think it's the dumbest idea, these three guys
did not get that train, right? Because they're immediately like, I don't, I don't know if that's a good idea, so Christ will came in because the three of us said, let's try to do something. I think we had Come up to the space idea. Pretty quick Arie. I literally remember saying, like, well who's going to be the fourth Beetle here? Why don't we go? Just aim as high as we can Steven Spielberg and that's he
was unavailable. No, I mean John was literally the First and Last Choice. Contrary to the actor conversation. We were just having you really were the only person we want to because we thought, well, here's someone all three of us immediately trust and someone. Already knows like how to get the best out of us. Right? What was it like from your point of view over my point of view. It's like it's so exciting to be like, oh this is done like the idea. There it is. I can imagine it.
I'm excited to like watch from the sidelines of like laughing and just I know how small it could you know, just what you're talking about these little petty arguments and like yeah, I love that kind of thing. So didn't already have a group that's going like oh we want to do that. That you go. Yeah, well that's will be just fun to scrimmage around in this world as we were heading into
actually making it happen. And when it went from like a bunch of insane, ideas, and character ideas, and images. What did you think was the biggest challenge to actually turning it into something real? It's kind of like yeah, just sifting through all the ideas. You know, I was thinking about this after so many years of like trying to get this made and you know, you have all these meetings Talk about episodes and then you could go, it might never happen.
But yeah, it was really just, I remember there was a couple meetings of like, well, then, you know, somebody could get sick and that could be an episode where we have to quarantine, you just go, I like, I immediately know. Okay. I could put that whole episode together, right? I have everything is crystal clear. So just and it's just talked about a moment. How ideas come from very small things and I like one episode, the move the base episode.
I remember Fred just going to keep You know, when people pay someone who's talking about packing, I'm just like how anal people can be about packing. And he said something about Fred where he can like find something really specific and really granular. And it's something that really bothers him that maybe he only picks up on but finds really funny. And then that becomes our all right. Well, why would these guys need
to move? What, how can we do scenes where we're packing, you know, like why would this threat and so the most work backwards from them. But I come in there and I go guys and just a minute. We're on a bad energy left, unexamined decision. You guys go. Okay. All right. Yeah, I guess we'll have to deal with that.
Yeah, you know what I remember early on, when we're coming up with ideas for the show of of loving, my favorite TV show of all time is The Andy Griffith Show, mines Mad About You, Paul Reiser, it's my favorite shows, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, sorry, Andy Griffith. I literally was I remember being in the room with you guys and we were trying to come up with ideas and once we figured out the kind of sameness of the environment and once the characters got kind of set, we
realized you know, each episode doesn't have to be some intricate plot. It can just be about one thing that one little conflict because in a world where everything's the same all the time, one little thing becomes a whole story Delia. And I remember pitching you guys there was this great episode of Andy Griffith where Aunt Bee Makes pickles like she decides she's gonna get into pickles and then Andy and and Barney try. The pickles are like oh my God
these pickles are terrible. Terrible pickles. But she's a sweet old lady and so they decide to hide the pickle, like empty them out and hide them. And then she sees the empty charge, oh, your voice, like my pickles, and she starts, giving them more and more pickles in it. Yeah, the whole epic. That's it. But I just about like, they don't like her pickle, right. So I thought like, Like what's
our version of that? I'm trying to think, how did that turn into it must have turned into something things like, you know, whether we like this candy bar, right? We ran out of water or we're we have a cow. Now we have to hide the cash decide like is really.
I mean, I'm a fan of the show and was nice about making it, and then it's sitting on the shelf for a while, is like, watching it again now, after not seeing it for a while and like forgetting about lots of things about it, but like Just like the little runs of jokes like me wanting to make use this cow for milk, and you cap keeps saying like and then we're going to turn into steak and it's just perfectly time where there's like, three of those little asides.
Like me, then it's time for chops. It's just like, you come again, come closer and closer emotionally to. Yeah. And I'm just salivating thing about A1 Sauce. Yeah, you have to leave the, you know, if to leave reality a little bit, for some of those kind of jokes to work, those are clearly about John and Tim being funny and enjoying each other's sense of humor. Then like it being a character fact that we don't know what NASA stands for, you know.
I like to kind of rationalized that by saying like well just In the Heat of the Moment they couldn't remember but they do know somehow but I think from now on I might not when I make something like a film or show or whatever. I might wait two years to look at it because when this was first done, like we had some early screenings at all. Remember thinking like, like, I don't know, I was just add some health concerns at the time, I made the show and I was it was
reminding me of that. And then I just felt like I'm sure about my own performance and I didn't like the way my hair looked or whatever. And now like you said, like I forgotten about all those insecurities and now I just watch it like it. I love it.
Yeah, I love it all removed. All the stuff that that all the bad parts that have been cut out that I don't remember are just now distant, you know, they're not even didn't even come into play anymore and I just enjoy it like a fan, which is a good way to enjoy things. I don't generally like watching or listening to myself. No. It's what about you. Fred? You like watching your own work. I love it. Are you have the Fred asan every year? Where you show all your favorite things?
I'm even surprised. It's me. Oh my God, I love this. What am I watching? I got so lost in it. Did I do this? Yes. That's one thing that's really hard to predict is whether something is going to age? Well because there are things that I've done that thought like oh man, this is as good as it gets and then three years later. Like this is feels very dated and not. So that's I didn't know. I'm always looking for stuff
that might have legs. You know, that might that might be that, you know, might have relevance to people in the future but it's very hard to predict. I did this one movie a few years ago and Was a very small independent movie and my scenes are like, some of the funniest things I've ever done. I think not really. That's, that's overstating. But I'm the funniest thing in this movie, but I feel like I'm in a whole other movie. Like, you know what I mean? Like, the rest of the movie
isn't like this at all. Yeah, and my scenes are like, I'm just improvising as this kind of low-rent manager who's on the phone and just, it's all that dislike, really? Dumb stuff. That but I was like, cracking myself up. But that's what I had when I was at, I can wear I can Of myself from it a little bit. I've had this thing happen a couple of times where I did something small like a little movie and then it changed
titles. Hmm. So that when we did the movie like that together, where I'm like, I actually will some I'll see a clip of them like I do not. What is this? What is this movie promotion? Yes, is the promotion was originally called Quebec, which I thought was a better title. Yeah, me too. Well, can I just say something about that? Steve? Steve Conrad? Add who made the movie. Have you seen his shows John Curtis?
I, they're like the greatest Patriot and this new show his other show, Perpetual, Grace limited. It's like, some of my favorite show I've ever seen. He's one of the ground. He's brilliant. He is really mad. I'm doing a new stop motion. Animation show of his me too. Oh, thank you very much. I actually, they asked me to do it and I couldn't do that part.
Then went to the other weird thing about this show, obviously, we made this in this really unusual way, which Was, we went to a 24, I think you are out of town or something. When we actually went around to pitch this show, I joined in a video call at 1 p.m. I remember, but we only went to a couple years, just done a whole big pitch on another TV show idea. I think we're both feeling really discouraged. Yeah, used by the hens of Amazon, and these kind of places, we're pretty bitter
about the process. We like, I'm not going in there doing all tap dance again, but we did bring a 30-person chorus with us to these meetings. For that pitch that's a whole other story to go 30 Man chorus Menzies wire for Grooms to sing for the heads of Netflix. Amazon Hulu who did them all and we're over time. Yeah we did. That Journey song right? We do know we did the Chicago Chicago walking in a park Saturday in the Park that day in the Park. Yeah.
And like a so what I'm saying? Major digress. We felt really burned by that process. We thought we made this huge effort was a great. Dear for a show and then got nothing. So I was like, I'm not going around and doing a tap dance again for these people and then do a pilot. And the thing that scared me was, we would try it. We would sell a pilot. We would get all of our schedules to align under the full moon and build a giant moon base set, and then shoot a pilot.
And then who knows, if we'd ever get back together again, that was my fear. That we would like capture something great and then it would be impossible to do again. So we were like, well, 2824 and they very interested in doing it. And we just said, we want to do six episodes and then you guys go off and sell it to whoever wants it and I won't call them out. But another company was in a bidding war with a 24.
Remember, it was down to two and they were both really wanting it. And this whole thing. I think that getting burned on that TV pitch experience, actually made us feel like, you know what, I don't want to have to like, listen to Executive opinions about whether the script is funny or not Ida. Let's approach it like an Dependent movie like that's my wheelhouse.
I come from independent movies and I thought the way you do it is like if you create the vision, you get someone to believe in it, they pay for it and then you send it out into the world. Why? Why should a TV show be any different than a movie in that way. And and so we went to the greatest contemporary independent film company out there and lo and behold they went for the idea and the two years that we're waiting, for this one to get snapped up by a,
by a distributor. The show just came into focus in a way, like, none of us could have predicted, I think you said Chrysler, we're like things just take so long sometimes and you just have to say like Ravi at 8:24 everybody that was involved with the show, they were true to their word and in a way that was, like, sometimes hard to realize all the time, you know? Because you're like, what is going on? What? Yeah, I have a very, I think very hard for me to trust people.
I'm always thinking like things are You know, I guess they're all. I don't know. You know no but you just had that feeling so much patience. I was reading an article about that new Mad Max that came out a few years ago when they were working on it for like 15 years. Like, they started shooting they almost started shooting like 15 years before they actually made I'm like oh my God! You must have to. Okay, we almost shot.
It was shut down for 15 years. Started again, they must just have to believe in a blind faith. You just have to do it. Otherwise, I think I was raised with like, like, on the south side of Chicago, this whole idea of like, who are you to think? You're going to be successful, right? Who are you to think that you're more special than everyone else? So, I literally was raised like that. So it's less conspiratorial Thoughts with me than it is self esteem like low self-esteem
confirmation. Like, well, yes, of course, you know, I got lucky with that other movie because I was working with those people, but right now, this thing that I made, of course, know it Yeah, I know. But I thinking like, man wants it I think and then luckily we have these amazing people at 8:24 especially Ravi, he was like no guys you know, even as humiliating as it must have been for him to write these emails after months and months of
waiting. Like, hey man, you know, we're still waiting for this response from that one, this one and that one among us, we were going like, yeah, right, man, it's over. It's over. We had the joke going that Robbie's got. Is it, is it actually in like the, Barbados And he's fled the
country. You love you, Rose 824 was mad at him for spending this money on our show and I'm sure there were many other Executives in town who would have in the same situation of him as him would have said, you know what, this is going to be our tax write-off, but it's just I'm tired of working on this. Let's just I got other fish to fry, man. And thank you Ravi. But, you know, stuck to me. It seems like into everybody probably hear it. Feels like oh, it's Fred Johnson. Only John cry.
So, like what wouldn't work about that or why wouldn't that be big? But it still ends up. It still ends up being a weird show that isn't for everybody that it doesn't look like everything else and you all you have to do is watch five minutes of like just flip around the channels to see that like what what goes out into the world is very different than anything I've ever made or try to make and it's not easy for anybody to sell it or to defend it.
I think it was the case of Like you know these companies these distribution companies are used to used to going and buying Fabric and then having lots of meetings about what the cut of the suit is going to be like and then trying a couple of different fabrics and then at the end of the day, they have this suit that then then they go and try to sell and we kept
going hey we got the suit. We already have a suit made its really cool want to see it and like yeah, well we're thinking of making our own suits, you know? And then eventually I think the truth just one out and especially With this quarantine yeah, pandemic thing. It made the show make a lot more sense than it did originally I think or didn't seem so weird. It didn't seem so hard though. Well everyone's dealing with that isolation. Make poor Fred right now. Look at him.
Yeah, I'm trapped. Thank you ver. The other thing about doing it in six weeks, as we kind of like, it got compressed or six episodes, as we kind of got compressed into, this is the show we're doing and we're doing it all now. So, In though, we knew what we were doing there was, there is a benefit to sometimes doing a
pilot. We just went in fucking deep end jumped in and we're learning about the show, as we're making, it probably was, I was going to say, it is sort of a show about roommates room, just getting along with your roommates. Like friends, did you guys have a roommate experiences from like college or like those years after where you're like, have some weird person. Is released.
Yeah, I think I think being in a band is kind of like that like you're in a van with these people who you're supposed to be with and you love them and then somewhere in the middle they just drive, you insane, just by recommending a restaurant. That's like we should hear those words will just really drive you crazy. Like how could you suggest that? That would just suggest that place and you're going to use to there. Smells in the van.
Just like, I can't believe I have to be with this person. Even though I started to loving them and I remember he breathed in college. My first dorm, I had my first roommate, you know and it's such a shocking experience really to have just suddenly you're like I'm living with this stranger and they're like it's a small room his bunk bed. Like this guy's is my is my life now. He's like my partner in life and I just met him. I grew up with five brothers and sisters.
So my whole life was roommates. My whole, I mean, my bedroom, we were four boys in my bedroom for until my older, brother started to get, just turn into, you know, teenagers and young adults and they kind of moved into the playroom but even they had to share another room. So by the time I left the house I was like determined not to have roommates to this day when I'm alone, when I'm in the house and my family leaves and I'm
suddenly alone in the The house. I'm like it was like sense of like Adventure in like privacy and I can just do whatever I want and you know, like it's and it's from the childhood of just never having privacy at home. Never I think of just I'm too
settled in my own odd ways. Now to really be someone that could share a bathroom again with well, I was just thinking like one interesting thing was kind of saying this earlier, but like the idea of like doing six episodes without Really stopping and looking and seeing what we were actually getting. Yeah, it was, it was weird because now when we kind of we shot them out of order, like what are we grabbing things from olive oil because we shot everything inside?
Yeah, we went outside so it's not that's a ballsy move for. It's a tough, It's a tricky way to do something. And I say I always think like you really don't know what you're doing until you've kind of done it. You know, a little bit like all of our shows. I think we've you know, you make couple episodes like oh, this is the show we're making. Then you follow that like seeing the show. Now with Steven drozd music, the guy from The Flaming Lips like that music does such an amazing
job of setting the tone. I think it just in it. It changes the way. I would make more a little bit and just you know I mean it would it would inform the way you make more. Yeah you'd learn about what the show is and you'd say oh that was really that really works. That doesn't work as much. This really like do more of that kind of episode, you know, it was really a Older on TV in
general for a long, long time. I mean until very recently honestly, it was only when I saw that escape at dannemora. Oh yeah. That I was like oh okay. We're in the new era. Where if you have a good idea and you have good actors in this great performances, like, of course, you want it to last as long as possible, Right?
Like that thing could have been twice as long and I would have just gobbled it up like so then Maybe really realize like you know, these ideas of, you know, I do still have hesitancy about working in TV only because the pace if you are a little weird, you're a little freaked out by the pace of the show. Yeah. The pace of the work day, right? Because, you know, yeah, they like well we got it in 3 takes
what are you worried about? Like, it's not that I'm worried that we didn't get something that's a, if we did seven takes what would we get, right? You know, would we get something? And, you know, when I work First-time directors, an independent film. I always tell them like don't err on the side of like building. Beautiful sets are on the side of getting yourself as many days as possible shooting so that you can incorporate new good ideas, you know, right.
I mean luckily with us we're just improvising constantly felt free to do whatever we want. Everything's going everything's gold that comes out. But yeah I mean You could also argue on that point. That film sucks. I find most movies. Pretty boring. This this man's, if this very naughty, 24 movies, if moon base, 8 was a movie, it probably wouldn't be as good as the show.
I don't think no way because you would have you'd be forced to like cut down on the weird stuff in order to have stuff that really fed the plot. And You would lose a lot. So yeah, I'm starting to come around to the idea of it. Mean, my big thing is, I always advocate for that central vision for it to seem. And that's another thing that going to messes me up about TV is like, when different directors come in and then the director is by definition, kind
of a guest star, right? And then the actors have more power than the director, then the writers have more say than the directors all sudden. Like, I don't know how to work in that environment. I grew up doing movies and right. It's a pyramid. The directors at the top of the Pyramid, that's how Paul Thomas Anderson works and he makes great movie. So why would you change that structure? But what we operated kind of like a movie in that sense.
Yeah, there wasn't like a big right there was no writers room, that that's one thing. I'm very proud of the way that we did it. We're all strong personalities with our own little egos and our own, you know, sent our own right to say, I know what's best in this moment, right? But somehow, the four of us treated each other like a true democracy. Yeah, and I really felt like all of us had equal say in this which is it's hard to do that with two people let alone for yeah.
Well the I think we all complemented each other in the right way Crystal's Vision. His like visual sense in the show, is very strong. It's like a cool-looking show. Yeah, you never want me every time I see a still or anything, I'm always really happy about it. How it looks. It just looks so great. I'm so happy about that and those suits that we We attested wearing look great. Yeah. Photograph, I said if we do more of the first scene is us getting new suits. Wow, that's not gonna work.
I just thought I was just thinking about that because that's not going to work because they're in the base. They can't suddenly get, most NASA can give them whatever they want guys. The low-budget show those suits are those are the suits okay, congrats to make them better. We should put cooling systems in them like that. Like, I have for my fat suit on Stan and Ollie. There was that There was attempts that never really worked. There were like cool when we
just shoot it in the winter. Yeah, that's the answer that of the hottest or simple answer. Or I always also this is controversial. But as like, you know, the key, it's about the three of us. So like, maybe we're just now divers in in the Pacific, you know, in Hawaii and we're the truth. Isn't that like the Gulf of Mexico I would do like I was watching over the Halloween, I've watched and Costello Meet Frankenstein with my kids and you know they loved any good. It's there's some great.
My friend have you must like that movie? I can't remember. You should watch a part of it. Well yeah, it was great moments but then there's one of those movies that everyone says that they've seen. And I'm like, do I really sound peacock?
It's actually on peacock, if you have that streaming thing, but then the second That like the end that movie with their like, they introduced The Invisible Man, at the end of that movie and then the next movie they made was they meet the Invisible Man, but they're two completely different people, you know, not there, like detectives different names and like this idea. Next was gonna be called oil based on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico oil, riggers, transitioned out of there.
That's why I like them up. At Movies. They're always meeting each other for the first time and every movie. Hi, I'm Kermit we're journalists now. Yeah. Well, Fred final thoughts. Um, I think we should maybe invest in a 24 in some way. Maybe there's some way to like help them find, you know, with finances and stuff. Maybe that's the new my money. Yeah. With your money. But what is the future of movies? Not just movies, but the whole thing of communal Gathering. Yeah.
Concerts everything is the least of our worries. You know, like how about just feeling a group identity and being together with people again for you think something is going to get figured out just only because everyone loves it so much. Well, did you see that Flaming Lips concert where? Yeah, the whole audience was in their little hamster, bubble, that's not getting another one for Mass consumption but no, but it's something where there's a well-known Direction. Well, yeah.
Yeah. What about like something? Like Woodstock? We could do a wood stock pile of Woodstock, 99. Wow, you know spread them out. Yeah. Member was it spiritualized, those concerts with headphones are Flaming Lips did that to other than Dave, Chappelle's done, a couple of concerts on his farm. I think they'll be the vaccine and then we'll get comfortable going out by next year, by next fall, or something. That's even with a vaccine, I'm going to be rocking a mask for quite a while.
Yeah, they say the The new reality for a while. Yeah. But how great would it be if Jim Carrey came back out with a new mask movie? I mean, this is the time to seize 824, if you're smart, get in and get in bed with Jim and did they do the math to the I did? Yeah, there was there was there wasn't Matthew. Yeah, speaking of Showtime, I'm just glad the show is out and people are enjoying it.
That was the purpose of it. You know, it's like a little bird that left the nest Finally flying on its own. I've got a lot of met you don't you're not on social media. No. But all you guys know I'm the only one. So I watched The Social dilemma and I had a couple social media accounts just to kind of keep track of certain family members. As soon as that movie it said the end, I turned it off. I got up and deleted both of my social media accounts and I ain't going back.
Well, I but people like you, that's who I am and the messages I get 9 to 10 10 to 10 to 1921 something like that, nine out of those and seen enough thing. The funny thing is, I thought somebody direct messaged me. This show is terrible. I really want to talk to you about this man. What do you think? Well, and he's like, I'm a, I'm a fan of this show is to give me talk to you about that. Why do you think I want to hear that?
Why? What about you thinks that I want to hear from you about that? I did you slide into my DS with that. How do you think that's supposed to make me feel? I'm hoping now that with the fact, That it's out there. People are enjoying it, it's giving people pleasure, and it's like an antidote for all the kind of like craziness. We've been through. I hope there's like a Groundswell where we get to do more, because it really was just
almost like an experiment. Will this work will be funny like, oh, by the way, I was watching the last episode and we do say that doctor her, the that's skips father's dead. So we did have an idea that your father would come back, but but then I was like, oh well, he just lied about He lied about. He lied about buying making his uncle. Who looks a lot like his twin brother.
Like you're weird your dad, my dad's been dead for a long time but you know like the weird Uncle like yeah, it kind of feels like your dad has some of the same opinions as your dad but not quite. I think that would be worse in a way than your dad coming to visit you or are you just forgot that he's still alive because you cut you do like the previously on moon base and he had passed away is like oh
you're right, he didn't die. I just I've just been in this experience for so or here's another this is the this is you're getting a good Glimpse at. There are writing part of writing process or for I could say well I told you guys he was dead because I'm tired of living under his shadow I just wanted to have a place where I could be my own man and you guys thought he was like out of the picture and you guys like wait, what the cake sentiment? We don't care. This is the reality.
I'm creating my own reality here. This is my opportunity to live without him under my. Do you think we can sell? Quiz Lord out on my God because my favorite thing I love it. I think we could fill in the gaps and just put it out as a game. It has such a beautiful board, beautiful pieces. It's got to be people that just do that. That can be, this is gonna be our retirement right here, selling quiz. Lord, that's Christmas season almost. We got to get it out there.
You know what they did on Star Wars is they didn't have any toys ready for the first Christmas after the movie came out. So they so they sold an IOU. You re so that when a toys did come out you, so at Christmas time, people just got an IOU. So we could do that for quiz. Lori's start order, started aren't exactly finally that I'm very grateful for all of your friendships and what we all were able to do here together and I'm very grateful to a 24.
Yes, for believing in us from the beginning to the end. And I'm really Grateful that people are responding to the show. Amen to that, Amen. To Fred safe, travels back to the States, hopefully soon, thank you. Amen, to that as well. I agree. John kreisel, good luck in all your endeavors the killer throughout the rest of the year. I hope your family stays safe and well, all of you. It's cold. Yeah, hang in there. Keep doing good things and believing in each other and and
things will get better. Right? Amen. A24. Thank you. Thanks for listening, the 824 podcast is produced by us a 24 special. Thanks to our editor Tom Wyatt and robot repair who composed our theme