Episodes
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Our old friend Thom Shubilla is here. Thom joined us previously to discuss his book, Prime Time 1966-1967, which was the story of how network television’s first all color season revolutionized the way we watch TV. His new book is entitled James Bond and the Sixties Spy Craze. They say pop culture in the 1960s was comprised of the Three Bs, Beatles, Batman and Bond. The first James Bond films in 1962, Dr. No, kicked off a pop culture craze the dominated movies and television for the next five pr six years. Some good, a ton bad, some laughably, laughably bad, and Thom Shubilla is here to discuss them.
Rachel Feinstein is here. Rachel is a really, really, funny stand-up comedian whoes new special Big Guy, is now in Netflix. You may know Rachel from Inside Amy Schumer, the show Not The Place, she’s also on Amy’s new show Life and Beth, she’s been on Crashing, Red Oaks, and you will probably recognize her voice from Grand Theft Auto if you happen to play that. Do you play Grand Theft Auto, or do you just live it? I’m not sure.
Speaking of spies True Tales From Weirdsville tells the sordid tale of the origin of the CIA, from its sketchy beginnings in World War 2 as the OSS into the mysterious behemoth it is today.
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Phil Hendrie is here. Phil Hendrie is a genius, and if you are unfamiliar with his work I am so happy that you get to learn about him through me. Starting out as a rock DJ he moved into talk radio and then perfected his very unique, very specific, very, very hilarious The Phil Hendrie Show, and now has his podcast, The World Of Phil Hendrie. There is a new documentary out about him called, quite simply, Hendrie, that will either introduce you to his incredible talent or will reinforce your appreciation of it. Phil Hendrie, so happy to have him on.
Additionally, we have nothing short of a broadcasting legend, George Schlatter, who re-invented how sketch comedy is presented on television, with the legendary Laugh-In, he produced series and specials for Cher, Mohammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, he is 93 and still going strong and he has a new book out entitled Still Laughing: A Life In Comedy and he is here to talk about it. George Schlatter.
True Tales From Weirdsville takes you into the world of cinematic legend Roger Corman, from the Creature From The Haunted Sea up through his two late 60’s counter-cultural epics The Wild Angels and The Trip.
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Episodes manquant?
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Max Evry is here. Max is the author of a fantastic new book called A Masterpiece in Disarray, the oral history of David Lynch’s Dune. Those of you who have seen the Denis Villeneuve version may only be dimly aware of the David Lynch’s Dune. It was only his third film, and it’s the only film of his that he claims not to love in some form or another. David Lynch’s Dune was, at its time, the most expensive science fiction film Universal had ever made. It starred an unknown actor named Kyle MacLaughlin and the guy who had only directed two film and one of them was Eraserhead. If you don’t think that’s going to be an interesting story, I can’t help you.
Christina Ward, like Max, is a pal o’ mine. She is the Vice President and Editor at Feral House Publishing, and she has written a book called Holy Food: How Cults, Communes and Religious Movements Influence What We Eat. I learned a whole bunch of stuff I didn’t know including, what major religion used to suggest that after someone died, it was a good idea to eat cake off their corpse.
True Tales From Weirdsville tells the stranger than fiction tale of California’s weird association with religious cults, focusing on two strange organizations that were both HUGELY popular, that both started out with seemingly good intentions, and how, one, specifically, went VERY off the rails. This is the tale of Aimee Semple Mcpherson’s Four Square Gospel Church, and Charles Dederich’s Synanon. You won’t believe your ears!
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We have our usual stellar line up to get the season off to, in this case, a rockin’ good start.
Our old friend Greg Proops is back! Greg has a new album out called French Drug Deal. He is also in a new film called First Time Caller. He’s out on the road with Who’s Line Is It Anyway and is getting ready to record the follow up to French drug Deal AND, greg is going to tell us all about what it is like to perform the Nightmare Before Christmas LIVE concerts, which he does, and about which I am so jealous.
Also, Leland Sklar is with us. If you own a radio, you have heard Leland’s work. Leland is one of the preeminent session musicians on Los Angeles a bass player of world renown. To let you know how long Leland has been making music, he tells a story in the interview where he was doing a session with another guitarist, and that guitarist was just forming a new band, but was unsure what to call it so he asked Leland, “I don’t know, do you think The Eagles is a good name?”
Leland can be seen in a new documentary by Denny Tedesco, who made the documentary The Wrecking Crew. This new film is called The Immediate Family and it is available now to stream, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough. And we will be hearing all about it, in today’s episode.
True Tales From Weirdsville goes deep on of my favorite musicians who is also tangentially featured in Immediate family, Warren Zevon. That story is stranger than fiction.
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This is our annual holiday spectacular, with great guests, True Tales From Weirdsville and, of course, hours and hours of Christmas songs and holiday games. Not really.
Kliph Nesteroff is here. Kliph is a fantastic writer who has been here before discussing his books, The Comedians and We Had A Little Real Estate Problem. He is here to talk about his spectacular and, in my opinion, mandatory reading new book, Outrageous, A History Of Showbiz and the Culture Wars. It’s one of my top five books of this year, just phenomenal and I’m really excited for you to hear him talk about it.
Also, actor Steven Weber is here. You know Steven from Wings, the TV miniseries The Shining, Chicago Hope and so much more. He is also a hilarious guy, a monster kid, and a terrific storyteller, so happy to have finally nabbed him to be on. Steven Weber is here.
True Tales From Weirdsville takes the idea of no good deed going unpunished to a whole new level, it’s the making of Monty Python’s Life Of Brian.
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It’s that time of year again! It’s mid October. The leaves are turning, there’s a chill in the air and the whole world smells pumpkin spice, which, oddly, smells neither like pumpkin or spice, but what can you do? Regardless, all that stuff adds up to two very important things! It’s time for our annual Halloween spectacular, and Target has already put up its Christmas shit. Well, tough toenails Target! We’re sticking with Halloween up to, well, Halloween, which is really just the night before the countdown to next Halloween, so there!
Aaron Lee is with us today. He is what you’d call a fellow traveler. A horror movie nerd, comic book fan and The Cramps devotee who has come to unburden his sympatico soul with us. Aaron is a hilarious writer who’s been an essential writer on, among others, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, the upcoming TED TV and so many more. But it’s Halloween, so we’re talking monsters, with Aaron Lee.
Also, my very dear friend Bill Corso is here. Bill is one of the most famous and successful make-up men in Hollywood today. In addition to being the governor of the make-up branch of the Motion Picture Academy, he is also the personal make-up artist of Jim Carrey, Harrison Ford and so many others. Here to talk latex, glue and other fun things to sniff, it’s Bill Corso!
True Tales From Weirdsville is going to take you down to the basement and unearth the down and the dirty in the world of James Warren Publications, which gave the world Creepy Magazine, Eerie, Magazine, Vampirella Magazine and, of course, Famous Monsters Of Filmland Magazine. It’s the weird and wonderful world of James Warren and Forrest Ackerman, two dudes who could not be more different if they tried to be.
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Two terrific guests on this episode, lordy. There is a new book out called The Exotic Ones, which tells the take of filmmaking duo Ron and Julie Ormond. They were contemporaries of Ed Wood and their story is every bit as bizarre. The book was written by the legendary Jimmy McDonogh, who wrote The Ghastly One about Andy Milligan. He’s also written biographies of Russ Meyer, Tammy Wynette, Neil Young and more. Jimmy McDonough is here today in all his psychotronic glory. And then we have our resident film critic Katharine Coldiron to further unpack the Ormond oeuvre but also to discuss her new book, Junk Film, Why Bad Movies Matter. True tales From Weirdsville is going to take you down to rabbit hole to uncover all things Kenneth Anger, and there is, as always, so much more.
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Hello! And welcome back to The Dana Gould Hour Podcast. It’s the dog days of summer and what better way to work through those hot summer days then to walk around in the heat holding a sign that says you want a fair deal from the people who work in the buildings behind you even though they’re all on Martha’s Vineyard at the moment?
Two fantastic guests today, my lordy. First off, a guy that I cannot believe that I know. He is in my favorite movie of all time, he has appeared repeatedly in one of my favorite TV shows, and he lived in my favorite city during one of its most fascinating periods. From Planet Of The Apes, and Dragnet and so much more, actor Lou Wagner is here.
Also, comedian and author Wayne Federman is here. In addition to being a fine comedian in his own right, Wayne is a comedy historian. He is the author of a terrific book called The History Of Stand Up, from Mark Twain To Dave Chapelle and he was also the producer of the fabulous two part HBO documentary George Carlin’s American Dream, directed by Judd Appatow and Michael Bonfiglio, Wayne Federman is here.
True Tales From Weirdsville takes a deep dive into a famous L.A. murder that occurred right down the street from good old Falcon’s lair Recording Studio, of course this was long before I got here, but our guest Lou Wagner was here. And although he’s all alibi’s up he’s got some stories to share, so we’ll give you some background to boot.
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We’ve a grand show, I tells ya, grand. One of the smartest, funniest comics out there, Beth Stelling is here today. Beth is not only a phenomenally talented stand up but she’s a terrific writer and she has a new special coming out soon called If You Didn’t Want Me Then.
Also, the author Ed Canfield is here to talk about his book Fact, Fictions, and the Forbidden Predictions of the Amazing Criswell. As usual, truth is stranger than fiction, and Mr. Criswell, God Bless ‘em was a delightful five star nutball with a shithouse crazy wife. Hooray!
True Tales From Weirdsville takes a look back to a time when conspiracies were harmless fun, that you could enjoy and indulge in even if you liked Jewish people. It’s true! There really was such a time! Specifically, we’re looking at the at the radio show that defined an era, Art Bell’s Coast To Coast AM. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, oh my Lord, just you wait.
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Hello! And welcome back to yet another long in the oven but oh, so tasty episode of The Dana Gould Hour Podcast. Again, as I said last month it’s a busy and hectic time here at Falcon’s lair with season 3 of Dr. Z in pre-production and, as I said last month, another project with Mr. Goldthwait and road gigs and festivals and blah blah blah. But we’re all working diligently. We don’t dump shit episodes out there on you so sometimes it takes a bit longer thank you want it to so thank you for understanding.
Our first guest today, is a returning champion. Burt is the co-author, along with Jeff Abraham of The Show Won’t Go On, the true stories of performers and actors who have literally died on stage. Burt has a new book that he’s written solo, it’s autobiography of actor Lawrence Tierney. Lawrence Tierney broke the big time when he came out of obscurity to star as Dillinger in the 1945 films of the same name, and went on to a career playing tough guys and criminal psychos. Unfortunately for Mr. Tierney, it was not a big leap. Lawrence Tierney was in jail as much if not more as he was on the screen. He’d go up for drinking, fighting, fighting while drinking and drinking while fighting. Burt’s new book, Lawrence Tierney, Hollywood’s Real Life Tough Guy, tells the story of a truly larger then life genuine old school Hollywood nutball and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Also, comedian Zach Noe Towers is here, Zach was the co-host of the show Sex Before The Internet, I figured what’s a lot of violence without at least a little sex. Zach is based here in LA and is incredibly funny. Zach Noe Towers.
True Tales From Weirdsville takes a deep dive into origins and effects of the of the rumor, started in 1969, that Paul McCartney was dead. A rumor so pernicious that McCartney had to take to the covers of Time, Life and Rolling Stone to assure the world that he was not, in fact, dead.
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Our first guest today, Jacquie Brown, a real person not the Quentin Tarantino character played by Pam Grier, grew up in the Pacific Northwest. She didn’t have it easy, in fact, I daresay she’s never had it easy. Her mom was an unwed teenager fully unprepared for parenthood, and Jacquie didn’t so much grow up as survive her childhood. She was, however, blessed with good genetics and decided to enter a beauty pageant. Not for the narcissistic boost, but it was a better way out of her circumstances then joining the military or worse. She ended up making it all the way to the Miss America pageant where she placed third. She then took her winnings and pursued her dream. She moved to LA... to become a comedian. This was not what Miss America, Inc envisioned she would do. What Jacquie Brown has been going through in the past couple years is fascinating, horrifying, and enraging so give it a listen and hang in there with it. Jacquie Brown, we should be as tough as she is. Link to her GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-jacquie-recover-heart-attack-car-accident
Then we’ll rocket immediately back to being ridiculous. True Tales From Weirdsville takes a deep dive into - again - something that seemed interesting on its surface, but, when you scratch the surface, you learn of a fascinating story underneath. A story more fascinating than anyone knew. The making of Jaws 2. It’s a much more interesting story than the one projected on screen.
And we’ll wrap the show with a wonderful interview with spookily talented Maurice Lamarche. Maurice is one of the preeminent voice actors in animation right now, as well as being a terrific comedian and actor in his own right. Probably most known at the voice of The Brain in Pinky And The Brain, he stands along with our own announcer, Tom Kenny, as one of the giants in animation voice acting.
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John Ross Bowie is with us today. John is what we here in the business call an improv bastard. John is best known for playing Barry Kripke on The Big Bang Theory. He also played Jimmy DiMeo on Speechless. John wrote the play Four Chords And A Gun about the Ramones recording of End Of The Century with Phil Spector. And he has a brand new book out entitled No Job For A Man that chronicles his coming of age in New York City, his own career in punk rock, his relationship with his father and his entrance into the highest calling known to man, show business.
Also, Devo founding member Jerry Casale is with us to talk about not only the early days and development of his legendary band Devo, the fact that Devo’s main theory, de-evolution, might be coming true his new EP The Invisible Man, his entrance into the world of being a wine maker and also (drum roll) fatherhood.
True Tales From Weirdsville takes a deep dive into the mind and tumultuous life of Charles Addams and how he turned a couple silly one panel cartoons into a an American comedy franchise that is still going strong today, some eighty years after its inception.
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Hello! And welcome to the Dana Gould Hour Podcast. We are in high dudgeon of the holiday season and we have an episode that, we hope, will stuff your stocking with candy coated oral enticements. We have two great guests joining us. From the Ologies podcast, as well as CBS’ Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca, Alie Ward is here to discuss all things ologistic, and we have a year-end recap with our film critic in residence Katharine Coldiron. We’ll be discussing the year in film, the year in streaming, and the year in streaming film.
True Tales From Weirdsville takes a deep dive into the world of the late great, brilliant but haunted Peter Sellers, specifically his barely released 1973 film Ghost In The Noonday Sun, which is the subject of the compelling making-of documentary The Ghost Of Peter Sellers.
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It’s that time of year again! Houses are adorned with skeletons and ghosts, abandoned malls are full of haunted houses are open and everywhere you look people are drinking pumpkin spice lattes and quietly wondering what it is they actually taste like because they don’t taste like pumpkins, they’re not spicy and they don’t taste like lattes, so you tell me.
It’s Halloween and we have another king size episode (sorry Joe and Jillinda). We have three, count ‘em, three big interviews. Mick is a horror film legend. He is the writer of, among many many others, Hocus Pocus, The Fly 2, he wrote and Stephen King’s Riding The Bullet, directed Stephen King’s Bag Of Bones, directed films in the Psycho franchise, created the Masters Of Horror TV show on and on and on. he is now the host of his own excellent podcast called Post Mortem, but he was gracious enough to appear on this, our annual Halloween Pageant, Mick Garris is here.
Additionally, in addition to being a bona fide rock star, with his band Possum Dixon, he has since become a magician and has won six, count ‘em, six awards from the Academy Of Magic Arts. He runs the séance in the prestigious Houdini room at Los Angeles estimable Magic Castle, he is the author of the book Strange Cures and he has a new album that he is here to talk a out called Séance where YOU, the listener, get to participate with Rob in a genuine séance at your own home in beautiful high fidelity sound, Rob Zabrecky is here.
And THIRDLY, I daren’t say lastly, LA punk rock legend and genuine witch, Pleasant Gehman is back with us to talk about her new book, Rock n Roll Witch.
True Tales From Weirdsville tells the tale of Harry Houdini, not only was he a skilled magician and clearly he world’s most accomplished escape artist, he was also a famous spiritualist debunker. Not because he didn’t believe, but because he wanted to believe so badly. Harry Houdini, the guy you only think you knew, only not really, kinda.
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Hello and welcome to the This Is Not The Halloween Episode But It’s Well Into Production And Is Coming Soon. My apologies for the later delivery. Last month I got married and then on our honeymoon we both – finally – caught Covid, so, again, we’re all getting back on our feet, so that’s that. We have a fantastic episode for you. Comedian Matt Braunger, one of our faves, is here to talk about, among many things, his new special, Doug, available now. We also visit with the great Frank Santopadre. A good friend, a fellow geek and the longtime co-host of Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast. It’s a wide-ranging interview. Very funny and also very touching and I’m very grateful to Frank for sitting down with us.
True Tales From Weirdsville has the story of MKUltra, the CIA’s experiments with LSD in the 1950’s. It could also be known as Operation: What Could Go Wrong?
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Hello! It’s hot, hot, hot. It’s the dog days of August, which means that here in Southern California there’s only three months left of summer. But we have a great show today. Now, I have spoken frequently of my affection for ME-TV. For me, it’s television comfort food. Star Trek, Voyage To the Bottom Of the Sea. Perry Mason. Now, these were not the shows on in prime time when I was a kid. But they were the re-runs that were on when I was a kid. They were the shows on in syndication, five days a week, in Boston on good ol’ Channel 56 or Channel 38. So these were the shows that I grew up watching every day after school. I’m sure that’s true for many of you as well.
Well, as it turns out, most, not all, but most of these shows all came from the same TV season. Star Trek, Batman, The Monkees, Lost In Space… The network television season that began in the fall of 1966 was the first all-color television season in American. It was really the dawn of modern television and, of course, all the stuff we see today was already going on back then. And there’s a new book about it called PrimeTime ’66 – 67 by Tom Shubilla and here’s here. And THEN, one of the giants of that era of television was Irwin Allen. Allen gave us Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Lost In Space, Land Of The Giants, The Time Tunnel and then turned around gave us The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. A true giant of 60’s TV and 70’s film, and my good friend Bond, Jeff Bond has a new, massive book, It’s not even a book, it’s a tome, called The Fantasy Worlds Of Irwin Allen and he’s here to talk about THAT.
True Tales From Weirdsville is taking a deep dive into the mind of Bob Rafelson who not only created that gem of the 1966 TV season The Monkees, but also made the Monkees movie, HEAD, which is really about what a jerk you were if you liked the Monkees. Starring The Monkees. And then he made Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces. You know, just ‘cause. And episode image by the great Drew Friedman, by the way!
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Well, things are great here, at The Dana Gould Hour podcast. We have two terroifoic guests today. Paul Myers, the author of among many books, A Wizard, A True Star Tod Rungren In The Studio, And The Kids In The Hall: One Dumb Guy is here to talk about the documentary he produced Kids In The Hall Comedy Punks as well as his podcast Record Store Day. Speaking of Kids In The Hall, if you haven’t seen the new season on Amazon Prime you are missing out my friend.
We also have the lovely and talented Greg Proops who is here to discuss not only his new album In The City, also available on Amazon Prime, but also his tour with Whose Line Is It Anyway and a little discussion of the state of the state of comedy which is, you know, great!
We have Two True Tales From Weirdsvilles this month. The first is a look at one of my favorite things, The Law Of Unintended Consequences. You know, let’s say you pass a big law, or, say overturn a right people have had for fifty years… You think you know how it’s going to pan out. All neat and tidy. But you know what? Even under the best of circumstances, there’s the law of unintended consequences. Things are not going to turn out exactly the way you want. As the old saying goes, all the best laid plans of mice and men. Will take a look at classic example of The Law Of Unintended Consequences, one that I have some personal knowledge of.
And a bonus True Tales, more in keeping with the tone of the show, about the Kung Fu craze of the mid 70’s. Bruce Lee, Kung Fu, Billy Jack, the whole shebang.
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Hello! And welcome to the end of spring start of summer edition of the Dana Gould Hour Podcast. Two very dear pals are joining me today, Alison Rosen, of the podcast Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend is here to talk about her new venture Upworthy Weekly, her podcast Childish with Greg Fitzsimmons and so much more.
And TV’s Frank himself, from Mystery Science Theater and The Mads, Frank Conniff is here to talk about lockdown in New York, having a Goddamn quadruple bypass and his new book, Billy Gillis, Seven Year-Old Screenwriter and our hundred year friendship.
True Tales From Weirdsville takes a deep dive into the world of Mickey Cohen. In his day, Mickey was one of the most fanous people in LA but he wasn’t a movie star. He was gangster. A gangster who, at one point, as you will hear, in a court of law, mind you, brought the LAPD to its knees.
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Greetings and welcome! Spring has sprung and the sun shines bright high atop the Mulholland Drive view shelf where at the birds sing, the squirrels scampers and every day that one crow just glares at me. We have a terrific show for you, Scott McGee is here to talk about his new book, Danger On The Big Screen, which is a history of stunt work. A lot of people think it’s a dangerous job where, in the old days, people were frequently killed. They’re right! And then we talk to… a stunt man! Bob Fisher, a professional stunt man who worked on The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries, Stan Against Evil and a host of other shows is here to talk about flipping cars, getting thrown 20 feet in the air, etc etc.
True Tales From Weirdsville does a deep dive into the time Monty Python's Terry Gilliam got into a fight with Universal Studios over his film Brazil. It got very personal and very public very quickly. And how it all got resolved… well. It oughta be a movie!
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We have a wonderful show in store for ya. My very good friend Susan Arosteguy is here. Susan is one of the producers of the Criterion Collection and she is here to take us behind the scenes a bit at the Criterion Collection as well as talk about some of the special editions she is working on.
I don’t know if you are a collector of Blu Rays; or subscribe to The Criterion Channel (which I highly recommend) but Criterion continues to curate an amazing library of rare and also classic films. And a movie doesn’t have to be 100 years old to be a classic, as evidenced by Susan’s filmography there. Criterion has also saved a lot of movies from oblivion and helped get them in fornt of new audiences. Truly the Lord’s work, assuming the Lord is a movie nerd.
If you’re a fan of Hanging with Dr. Z, Rusty Steel and Claudine are here! Or as they are known in real life, Paul Greenberg and his beautiful wife Jackie Harris Greenberg. They are here to talk about not only Hanging With Dr. Z but their wide-ranging careers and brushes with show biz greatness, I kid you not.
Lastly, True Tales From Weirdsville takes a deep dive into the little movie that could, but then, really, kinda didn’t -- Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
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