Comic Book Legend Todd McFarlane: Kaprizov's new contract, Rangers' new captain and reviewing AV's book.

Jason Demers showers Adnan Virk with praise for his new book before the pair discuss Kirill Kaprizov's contract drama, the New York Rangers' new captain and Ivan Demidov's big night. Then Todd McFarlane comes by to talk about creating Venom and Spawn, bidding on Mark McGwire's historic home-run ball and his time as an NHL minority owner. Finally, the guys look back on the Emmys and their favorite Shane Gillis jokes.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
NHL Unscripted is a production of the NHL and iHeart podcasts.
Coming Up. It's episode number forty seven of NHL Unscripted.
Cinephile in sixty on the new horror film Weapons plus

(00:25):
the Greatest Living Director Alive Martin Scorsese robbed of an
Emmy Award. Our special guest today is Todd McFarland on
the origins of Spawn and Venom and the bizarre story
of buying Mark McGuire's seventieth home run ball via auction,
plus The Dark Knight The Blackhawks lock up their masked
man I get As episode of forty seven. Great to
have you with us. Thank you everybody who's been supporting
my books. In a File, Interviews, Essays and Tails from

(00:47):
the Red Carpet. JD has bought his copy and tell
you bought your copy about what thirty forty pages in
what are you same?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
You guys are bought fifty something pages in.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
JD Early Impressions?

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Go ahead? Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:00):
No, I Like my question is just like, did you
have to pay for all those quotes from the actors
or No?

Speaker 1 (01:07):
I'll tell the whole story.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
No, I'm just like, because like I looked at that
page and was very very and I hate to say
this three times, very impressed. I wish it the comments
from everybody, and I've really enjoyed the book so far.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Thank you, buddy.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
JK.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Simmons a great guy. Visit MLB network a few months ago.
I had his number of text and I missed him
that day, but I was like, hey, man, I would
love it if you could do a blurb for the book.
He's like, yeah, of course, send it to me right now.
He sent me as the email. He's like this okay.
I'm like, yeah, whatever you want. And he has been
unbelievable supporter. I actually texted him the other Day's a
Hugese Tigers fans, so he's he is locked inner Detroit
Tiger's right now leading the central. I can't thank him enough.
Miles Teller fella Eagles fan, so I texted him after

(01:43):
the Eagles game. He was like yeah, happy to help.
And Josh Tamel a gigantic Vikings guy. He was probably
the nicest one. I was at Humdingers with my kids,
which is a bowling alley, and a litter of the
phone call comes in Josh Toamel, I have to leave
my children, like got an actual movie star is calling
me JD. What's up. He's like, hey man, he goes, sorry,
I meant to say the blower. He's like, what do
you need from me? He's He's like, it's a sports
book movie Bay in the movie book. He's like, remember
my interview. He's like, Okay, I'm going to send you

(02:03):
a couple options. You tell me what works for you. Like,
these guys are so nice, so I can't think specifically.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
J K.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Simmons. Josh Ta Melbo was John rt is a great guys?
Well t is from Carly? Is why I love John?

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Go ahead? Question?

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Uh if any of them want need actresses as well? Yeah,
my wife is ready to work auditioned self tape.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
So you know all these big budding starts, let's produce something.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Let's get something out there. JK. Simmons.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
If you're interested in Jillian Miller, let's get this going.
Tal what do you think it's so far? De Niro
k Comedy, Let's go.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
I loved that. I told you before. I love that.

Speaker 6 (02:38):
You asked de Niro about King of Comedy, which is
such an underrated film for Scorsese and de Niro, and
I thought it was so cool. Like I again, I
wasn't sure exactly what the book was. I thought maybe
it would just be transcripts of your interviews from the
Cinophile podcast. But you walk us through the whole like
step by step of getting of prepping to interview de Niro,

(02:59):
which I'd be freaking out if I was interviewing him
one on one.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I know what a huge.

Speaker 6 (03:04):
Fan of his you are, And so just like the
whole process of like mentally prepping to sit with him,
and the whole step by step of his response and
your thoughts and going through your mind when you see
him walk into the room and all that.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
That was pretty cool. That was a great place to start.

Speaker 6 (03:21):
And just all the little stories and anecdotes involving you know,
really many of the greatest actors of our time.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's pretty cool. I'm I'm looking forward to getting into
it a lot more.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Good sales so the book boys appreciate it. So up
on once again, wherever you get your book sold, We'll
talk here of comedy another time. I just love the
fact that I mean that Secene where Jerry Lewis and Danio
said that was based on true experience that you know,
Jerry Lewis's on the phone. This one was like called
my kekeonograph is a just one second and then he
has to leave and she's like, I hope you get cancer.
I hope you just turned to them like a dime.
And I was like, yeah, that's a true story. Jerry
told us this story. Marty's like, that's getting in the movie.

(03:52):
That is what people are like, crazed fans. I love
you and then they hate you. All right, let's get
to hockey. Carell Capriso. Last week we discussed at length
JD the ongoing Connor McDavid contract saga. This week it's
Carill the thrill do for a stack. Frank starvled reporting
he turned down eight years, one hundred and twenty eight
million dollar contract extension. The average AAV would have been
the highest in the league. It's sixteen million dollars. You

(04:14):
had mentioned last week. I said, tell hey, if McDavid
drags us out, obviously there's other guys in play, Capristoff
one of them. Where do we go from here when
a guy turns down sixteen million dollars this season?

Speaker 4 (04:24):
Well breaking news. I heard from an inside source that
that is completely fabricated or not true.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Wow, yeah, so good.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
I had I asked a couple of people I know
around and I said, that can't. I'm like, there's no
possible way that Carell would turn that down unless he truly,
if he honestly turned that down, he'd be traded like now,
because a team would have called. They would have had
to get rid of him, because I don't know how
much higher the Minnesota Wild can go, and I if

(04:59):
that is the case. But I just heard that somebody
kind of leaked that out and whether that's a little
but a gamesmanship to kind of ruffle his feathers, or
if it's just somebody that was kind of speaking out
of their ass, but yeah, I've heard from from people
within his camp that it's it's something that he had
no idea that was even something that popped up. So

(05:21):
Billy Garrion came out as well and kind of mentioned it,
and I do believe him. I think that either there
was a leak that happened or somebody misquoted somebody, so
because I just can't, you know, I do expect that
Connor's waiting for these other big names to fall, specifically
Capri so Sof and ikeel I don't see Connor, and
I I don't know why Connor would sign before these guys,

(05:44):
because he is the man, and he is the guy
that is going to set the tone whatever they signed.
So I think it's like a holding pattern, and I
think whenever Carel decides to sign, Connor will sign after.
But but I can't believe for a second, and I
truly don't want to believe that he would turn that
down unless he vehemently hated Minnesota and the city and

(06:06):
the cold weather.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
But I don't know.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
He's Russian, right, so I mean he understands the winner.
It doesn't bother him that much.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Let's say you're playing in Russia. You know the Russian
mindset a little bit more than most. As you said,
those numbers were eye bopping to me, I'm like, if
that's not good enough to get it done, what more
exactly do you want? So that's interesting, as you said that,
you have a whole lot of rubles, exactly a lot
of borst. Meantime, after just thirty two games, J T.
Miller's second go around with the Rangers already pretty eventful,
the Rangers naming him the twenty ninth captain in franchise history.

(06:35):
The team hasn't had a captain since Jacob Trouper was
traded last year. He was drafted by New York and
twenty eleven, making stops in Tampa and Vancouver, traded back
to the Rangers in January. Truba and Crowder now both
in Anaheim's the three two year olds a captain. My
question to you is, we all are well aware of
the controversy Difficulty had with Eleias Petterson. So when I
think of captains, JT. Miller is exactly the first guy

(06:55):
think of as far as a level headed, harmonious force.
Tell me why, though you think it makes sense he's
the captain of this team.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
Yeah, he's a bit of a he's a bit of
a loose cannon there so, but I do think they
need some fire. You know, I think they're top guys.
It's a lot of good players, but it's a lot
of guys that you know, Elias Petterson esque, you know,
I mean, Mika's advantage ad and and you know, I
know my other pick would have been Vincent Trocheck, So

(07:23):
I wasn't.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
I was.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
It was probably a toss up between him or JT. Miller,
And I do believe that.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
I like J. T.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
Miller as the pick. I think they're really trying to
change their identity and they're gonna have somebody that really
kind of drags him into the fight. And you know,
as much as Vincent Trocheck is a gamer, and you know,
I think there's just another level of edge that JT.
Miller has that that Trocheck doesn't. So I like it.
Those are my two picks. I don't think he could
have gave it to anybody else. You know, I know

(07:51):
there was talks about maybe Shisterkin, but I don't love
the whole goalie play especially, you know, I just don't
think it works.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
So J T.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
Miller, I think it's he's going to have to emulate
in kind of. I mean, he's gonna echo with that
coach staff wants. They're gonna be hard nosed with some skills,
so and they're really going to have to lean on him.
But you know, I'm not sure what this team's gonna
look like this year. You know, they have some players,
but you know, I expect them to kind of be
scratching and klawing unless you know, this new coaching staff

(08:21):
Sullivan puts puts really something in place. That allows them
to excel and kind of you know, it really highlights
all of their best attributes.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
So it's up in the air for Rangers. But I
like this pick. I'm on it. I like it. Good
job JTM Miller the workhorse.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Yeah, I just said a little bit of fire and brimstone.
Sometimes it's not bad. If a guy's gonna kick in
the ass, you don't think it. Me and you exactly,
You'll be on me. If I was here early, you
can ask tal I was ready to go today. Tom
McFarlane was locked in. Meantime, Mark Andrey Flurry continues to
extend the farewelter, What is this going on here? Broken Flowers?
The forty year old goaltending legend remaining retired, but he
will suit up for the Penguins in a preseason game

(08:58):
September twenty seventh. How about that for a homecoming for Flower?
When three cups the Penguins, was drafted first overall by
the team in two thousand and three. I've had more
than a few people text me I understand. I thought
he was retired. IM like, he is retired, He's just
gonna play. When he came here for the peng which
is an honorary thing. What do you make with you?
Are you cool this?

Speaker 4 (09:13):
Do you think it's a little odd? I mean, whatever
he wants at this point. And if you know you
have a willing participant in a team that wants to
kind of allow you to have this spotlight in this moment,
I mean, more power to you.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
I'm kind of like, hey, more of the school.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
If you just recede into the darkness and you take
your retirement and you take your walking papers and you get.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
The fuck out of there.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
But he is such an iconic figure there and I
think it means a lot to him to kind of
finish there. You know, part of me would have liked
because I did love the San Jose Sharks so much
and you know, to have potentially retired as a San
Jose Shark and I know some guys really like that,
So you know, I agree with that. It's a cool
thing to have and a cool moment to have for
your family. I mean, how his groins are gonna feel,

(10:02):
and if he's been skating, I have no idea.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah, in this.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
Preseason game, you'd hate to see him go in there
and like just tear is growing off the bone and
then he yeah, and then he's on LTI R and
he's got to stay on the team the whole year.
That'd be fantastic. And then he plays in the playoffs
and they wouldn't cup.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (10:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Whenever it's a non competitive game, it's always a bit
of a challenge. It reminds me my favorite tennis player
on my favorite athlete. It's a great Roger Federer. When
things were winding down for fed you know, his last
appearance was, I mean his last one with that unfortunate
was terribly you know, six love six love got drilled
in the quarters. But he wanted to go out on
his own terms. So his last appearance actually was in
the Rod Labor Classic. Now Labor is a legend of
the game, but it was like an exhibition term in England.

(10:40):
And your point, Federer was forty years old at this point.
He was just like, I just hope I don't hurt myself.
I just I just do want to embarrass myself. I
want to have one last time on the court to
say goodbye. And of course Rafa was his greatest robble.
It was very cool him and Nadal were playing doubles together.
It was a very odd way to say goodbye to
Roger Federer at this random Rod Labor Class exhibition tournament.
But to your point, hey, man, if a guy gets
to go out on his own terms rather than hey,

(11:01):
my last competitive appearance, I got blitzed. Thought, I'm all
for it some with you on fly where it's like
he plays five minutes, he makes two saves, he gets
to where the Penguins jersey again, stick taps all good.
I get it.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, you you know, it's so hard and there's so
many of us in sports that you don't get to
write your own ending. And having the ability to do so,
I think it's a really big privilege and an honor
to take, and I think you just take it in
you run with it. If they're willing to give it
to you, I'm like, sure, do it. And I'm sure
he'd be fine either way. But I'm sure they approached
him and said, do you want to end it this way?

(11:31):
And he probably had a fun idea to do this.
I'm sure he's gonna have a lot of fun out there.
But yeah, it's just interesting. If I'm a goalie trying
to make that team, I'm like the fuck.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Man, every game, every a tire else the old bastard.
Just hang them up. Let the kids play.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Speak and let the kids playing goalies. The Blackhawks locked
up one of their core pieces and they're rebuild. Goaltender
Spencer Night three years, seventeen point five million dollars. Twenty
four year old drafted by the Panthers in the first
roun of twenty nineteen, was traded to Chicago last season
along with the first round pick and the Seth Jones
deadline deal. We know the black in for their tough season, JD.
There's no question about it. But where do you have

(12:07):
Night as far as being a piece of the movie
for I mean five million dollars a year for this guy.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
We're still talking about the Blackhawks.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
We could keep it brief.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
If I think we've talked about the I think we've
talked about the Black Frank Daser, the Naser laser. Yeah,
they're gonna stink this year again, hopefully they're a little
bit better. I mean, Spencer Knight is a goalie that
you know, there's a lot of promise and uh, there
is a lot of high hopes for him, So hopefully

(12:37):
he can. You know, he voiced it last year that
he it's nice to be in a place that wants him,
and Chicago you know, they they they spoke, they paid him.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Now it's going to be up to him.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
A twenty four year old goalie that has that size
and that capability to be athletic.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
I mean, could be a big piece moving forward. He's
got to figure out his.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
Kind of up and down and consistency issues, but yeah,
it's a big piece if he finds his game. I mean,
do I think they're gonna Absolutely. I just don't know
how you find your game when you're giving up fifty
great a scoring chances a game. So we'll see if
they can play some better defense and help them out
a little bit. So, but yeah, I think Chicago will
not have a great season this year. But you know

(13:15):
they're making some important signings.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, good compensation for guy who's about to face a
whole ton of rubber. And one more thought before we
get to our special guest topic, Farwell, And it may
have only been the first rookie showcase of the preseason,
but fans of the Bell cent are absolutely buzzing. Saturday night,
I've been Demoedov taking the ice for the Habs against
the Winnipeg Jacks, prospects a Demodov a goal into assist, highlight,
real time goal late in the game. Montreal pulled him

(13:38):
from the lineup the next night. But seriously, JD, everyone's
so excited after the promise that Montreal made last season,
now to have this guy for a full season. You
know what it's like in Lebel provals, how excited everyone is.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (13:48):
Just I mean, is there a better place to watch play,
you know, a hockey game and be part of an
organization twenty thousand for a fucking showcase game of kids
making mistakes and turnovers.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
But to die Demodov's.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Point, and to his credit, you know, as a young
kid who you know he played in the playoffs, a
lot of those guys can rest on their laurels and
be like I don't need to be here, Like I'm
better than this. He goes out and puts on a
show enough so where they pull him out of the
next game. That's a good credit to him and a
good credit to the organization by being like, listen, you
didn't come in here, cocky, You didn't come in here.

(14:23):
You came in here, you worked hard, you played, you dominated,
you prove that you're deserved to be here. You only
get one game, that's fine, And I like that that's
a good that's a good show of faith by the
organization and also a good show of faith by Demenoff
that like he wants to work. And I think this
kid's different and I think he he really wants to
be there and he's gonna will himself onto this roster

(14:44):
and be a really a focal point of this offense.
So you know, if I'm this Montreal Montreal Canadians organization,
I'm really happy about that. And you know, I think
oftentimes you see these organizations like kind of grind the
young kids even though they earned it. It's like, hey, listen,
you earned it. We gave you a little bit of rope.

(15:04):
You didn't hang yourself. You worked hard, you worked your
ass off, you had a great game. Okay, no need
to play. We'll see a training camp. And I think
that's a good show of good faith by both sides.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Tell also Mnchrell, guy, you'll be back home in ten days.
So he'll be buzzing with all the demodop fever. Right.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
The Demi God, the Demi God is ready to go.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
He's ready to go.

Speaker 6 (15:24):
You know, it's it's been fun to see what he's
been doing already. He spent the whole summer in Montreal,
which the local media absolutely love that he's basically been
training in the city all summer, and yeah, just you know,
it's been interesting because the discussion has been about nice.
The whole discussion has been about who's gonna be a
center because they're not very deep at center. And to

(15:44):
their credit that this coaching staff in the front of
office that both kind of made the point that this
guy has the potential to kind of be like a
Caprice off and that he can drive a line from
the wing. He doesn't need to drive the line necessarily
from center.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
So, yeah, it's gonna be fun.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
I'm looking forward to it. It's gonna be a lot
of offense.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Offense goes through him.

Speaker 4 (16:02):
I know Kapen and is also a lot of people
who have been talking about him, And if Kirby Duck
can stay healthy, that's definitely an option. So you know,
they're gonna have to find a center for him, have
a couple of trade pieces. Some young kids, do they
really make a splash at the deadline they think they might,
But yeah, he is the possibility to be the Koucherov

(16:22):
Caprice sof not. I don't think he's to that ilk
and that skill set, but he has the ability to
drive a line for sure.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
I'd be amazing to think, well the kind of promise
potentially has for this Montreal Canadians team. Again, we'll talk
more hockey in the days and weeks ahead, but coming
up next Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn, co creator
of Venom. He'll tell us but John Leguizamo's fat suit
and Spawn, why speed kills in baseball? And I his
daughter Joe Gary Bebben absolutely crazing a tete a tet
that's coming up next after this on NHL un Scripted.

(17:01):
Our next guest is a legendary artist, writer, comic book creator,
an entrepreneur. He gained plenty of attention when he began
working as an artist on The Amazing Spider Man, but
is perhaps best known as the creator of the historic
Spawn series. He's also along with a passionate sports fan
and memorabilia collector who also's co owner of the Edmonton Oilers.
A big thrill to welcome in, Todd McFarland. Todd, great
to see you, Thanks for doing.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
This good thanks for having me, I can I throw
in a little bit, usually the easy ice breakers. I
also co created Venom, the Spider Man's character show. Usually
people I go, oh, I went to that movie.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Absolutely, I read that comic book. Yeah, exactly. My kids
are huge fans of Venom. We want to get into
all the comics and all that. But I want to
ask you, first time out of the gate, which passion
came first for I know you played college baseball, but
what was a bigger passion for you? Comics or sports?

Speaker 5 (17:53):
Sports. I kind of broke into comic books pretty late,
started collecting late. But I have a brother year younger brother,
you're old, and so we were constantly if you guys
got siblings, you know how that goes, right, Everything everything
is a game. So uh yeah, by the time I
started collecting comic books, my competitive nature was well honed,

(18:18):
was well honed.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
And you know, for you, what was the sport growing up?
And and I know you had a little call a
little for right into college baseball, So talk about just
your your sport career. And and you know when you
really decided to kind of fully shift.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
That's when when the scouts and everybody else said you're
not good enough. We all have the dream. I still
maybe until a couple of years ago, still go, man,
I have a chance. I still play. As matter of fact,
I had two for two with a single double four
RBIs the other day with the thirty beautiful I played

(18:55):
against the thirty year old. So anyways, I went to Yeah,
I mean, I grew up in California, so by the
time we get I'm Canadian. And by the time I
went back to Canada, it was sort of too late
because you know, by the time I moved back there
at fourteen, they said, hey, you can play hockey. You're fourteen,

(19:16):
which means at best you're going to be able to
grab and carry the hockey bag. Right maybe at best
you can be the equipment kid because all the other
kids have been playing for ten years. Or since you're
coming from a summer place, you could be one of
the best baseball, basketball, football players we have. Right when
you're fourteen. Those are easy choices, right, like, oh, I
want to be a dufist or I want to be

(19:37):
a star. So I stuck to those sports, played all
of them, minus hockey, obviously, much to the chagrin of
my dad, who played all the way up till he
was eighty one, and I went down when I I mean,
they don't have organized baseball in high school in Canada,
so to play, you know, you played in some of

(19:59):
the leagues, but if you wanted to go anywhere post
high school, you have to go the border. I did.
Went to a small school outside of Spokane, Washington. They
had just the year before amalgamate it with the Pac ten,
so it was it was the Pac ten. My first
year I went to JC, couldn't crack the lineup. I

(20:22):
was a center fielder. The coach, from my perspective, had
given a scholarship to the center fielder ahead of me.
I thought I was better, but I was never going
to get on the field because he was never gonna
benches his scholarship kid. So it just drove me more
to just go every day. I'm going to show him

(20:43):
I'm the better of the two.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:45):
And then at summertime they send everybody to sort of
travel teams, and so we went to one up in Canada.
I was the token Canadian. Everybody else was from an
American school. And somebody from one of the Pack ten
school saw me and said, hey, you know, did a

(21:07):
trial and they said, we'll give you a three year scholarship.
And so I played my three years at Eastern Washington
UH out playing, playing center field out out there. So
again it's it's these ones that you guys all know, right,
the longer you play sports, the more you're gonna come
up with good batter and different coaches. You just got
to plow through them, right, And so couldn't couldn't play

(21:30):
JC junior college, but I could start Pac ten, right,
So it's a weird it's a weird one. But I honestly, gentlemen,
I had one skill had I had maybe maybe two,
but one of them was I was left handed, an
advantage and I could run like the win and you
know that you can't teach speed, so that allowed me

(21:51):
to accomplish a lot of things. But the hitting was okay,
the power was okay. The arm borderline puss arm, right,
So we're but but but and I went to tryouts
and they would always, like before games, the scouts would
come and they get you to run like sixty yard
dashes forty yard dashes, right, and they would get me

(22:12):
to run it over and over because they couldn't believe
their thumb, right, they're like, no, I must have pushed
it too soon, right, And then they would say, hey,
what is your like after a third time, what is
your running speed? And I tell them and they would
That was the only thing that kept me around because
a couple of the scouts said that, they go, Kid,
the fastest guy in the majors at that point was
a guy named Willy Wilson, and they go, Willy Wilson

(22:35):
doesn't run what you run right now, right, So so
that kind of kept me around the game. And then
after my senior year, I went for a tryout with
the Medicine Hat Blue Jays, an affiliate with the Blue Jays,
and I got to tell you, gentlemen, I played way
over my head that day, right, Like you know when

(22:55):
you're you know, when you're playing better than your skill set, right,
And the arm was on fire and I was running
and I was hitting and I was hitting for power,
and I just go, oh man. And they called me
into the office and they go, hey, we've got an
opening and your Canadian which is even better. Yeah. Yeah,

(23:16):
so we you know, you could be a bit of
a draw because we just had one of our high
draft picks turn us down. They don't want the money.
So we offered him like eighty grand and back then
that was a lot, and and him and his dad
don't want it. They were out of high school so
that they could get more going back to college. And
so they said, we're going to make a call back
to Toronto, come back in the morning. And I went, oh, man,

(23:39):
who knows, I might I might be able to baffle
them here with one good day. So I went, I
went back to the hotel. My dad brought me back
the next day, and I could see on the look
on their face, and they just went bad news. The
kid from Philadelphia and his dad decided eighty grand was okay. Right.
So I've said before, you never want to be the

(24:01):
twenty sixth man on a twenty five man broster.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
So that was true.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
And I thought, at that point, gentlemen, my ideal world
would be I played minor league baseball at night, and
then then I honed my drawing abilities during the day,
knowing that being a pro forever was going to be
short lived. But given that I didn't get the first part,
which was getting to play minor ball, I just go,
I guess I'll turn all my attention to trying to

(24:29):
get break into comic books.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
So well, it certainly it worked out well. Speaking of
the comic books, Spawn is such an incredible creation, so
wild the original and so vivid. And I remember the movie.
I mean John Leguizamo's clown when it imitates Jimmy Stewart,
he says, every time someone farts, a demon gets his wings,
and then he farts twice, he goes oops twins like
my wife and my sister let to this day, we're
always howling about that. Talk to me about leg Gamo

(24:53):
and Clown and that entire creation.

Speaker 5 (24:55):
So yeah, it's interesting because there's there you could argue
there's two main characters. There was Clown and then there
was Spawn, right, and Spawn was played by an actor,
Michael Ji White, and Michael Ji White was built like
a Greek god, right. I mean, he was really into
health and he did everything whatever else. But he was

(25:17):
so health conscious that he didn't even like when they
put like makeup on him, and he had to put
in eye contacts and stuff, and it sort of bothered him.
And I understand because he would he goes. I worked
hard to get to this right here, John Legazamo, For
those of you that don't know, the actor is not

(25:38):
a very big man. He's very slight. He's not tall,
and he's not maybe he weighs a buck forty, right,
But they had to put him in the fat costume
every day, right, the big and I'm telling you, this
wasn't like what they do now. It was like this
big foam thing. And whenever he wasn't on set, they
had this little hole so they had to put a
tube in it so they could blow some kind of

(26:00):
air in there so they could cool him down. So
in between shots you just saw this big, bloated dude
in the costume trying to he couldn't even sit up
if the costume was so fat. And and and the
thing I remember is that not once did he ever
complain Wow.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (26:20):
He just was like and I he was like, let's
just make the best of this. So uh and after
you stayed friends with John ever since, so he yeah,
he just he he took it, absorbed it and and said,
all right, this is the gig, painful as it can
be at times when you're in prosthetics. Uh. And he

(26:40):
and he rolled with it and had a good time
with him.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
Well, it's just such a great character in such a
great world and and you know, speaking on that, building
worlds and characters that to me have stood the test
of time.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
Like what does that mean to you?

Speaker 4 (26:52):
You know, just being a kid like you said that
played minor league baseball and then and then dove into
attempted to play minor league baseball, like you said.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
The way you talk about you're skilling her, I mean.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
Tryout well there, but you know, like what do you know,
what does that mean you to like build these characters
like Spider n Spaond that just stand the test of
time and venom that you know for you, you know,
did you ever imagine and see yourself doing things like this?

Speaker 5 (27:22):
Here's the thing, Jason, and I'm sure you guys have
done plenty of interviews yourself, and people do when you
do interviews, people want you to like analyze yourself. Right,
we don't do that and people don't do that in life.
What we all do is live our life and then
all of a sudden there's things that we've either done good,
bet or and different that are now part of our

(27:44):
resume because and I say that, Jason, because if I
knew what I was doing and I knew how to
do it, I'd have twenty characters that were famous right now,
so you you trip into good luck at times, and
part of it is and the hockey ven act where

(28:05):
that you're not going to get a goal if you
don't take the shots, right. So the more shots you take,
then people go, oh, man, you got ten goals. Yeah,
cause they took a hundred shots, right. So it's not
like I took ten shots. I took one hundred shots
and only ten percent went in. So both the characters,
I mean, Venom was literally a complete accident. In the

(28:26):
quick story on that is I was I was doing
the Incredible Hulk at Marvel, and I was quick enough
to be able to do two books. Right. Most people couldn't,
but I was getting faster and I could do two books.
I was looking for another book, and so everybody at
the Marvel office, all the editors said, yeah, we'll look

(28:47):
for work, but don't go into the Spider Man office.
You don't want to go in there. It's a mess.
Now if you know my personality, Shoot, that's the wrong
thing to say, right. So I I'd belized to go,
come on, what do these guys say I went in there?
But they were true. There was a bunch of They
had three books at that time, three Spider Man books,
three different ones, and the artists were rotating and at

(29:12):
the time somebody came up and they said, hey, Todd,
this is our sort of icon character right now. Spider Man.
Amazing Spider Man, which was the granddaddy of the books,
is number twenty one in our sales ranks. If you
want to come on board, knock yourself out, because we're
looking for help. So I go, oh, okay, there's an opportunity.

(29:33):
But he was wearing this black costume from if there's
any Geeks out there, from this big series that had
come out in an event series called Secret Wars, and
I went yeah, so they offered me this Spider Man book.
But being a stubborn guy. And this is where the
accidents don't replicate that often because most mid twenty people say, oh,

(29:56):
you can give me Spider Man, cool and out the door, right.
But I was like, I don't want to draw him.
He was in the black costume, Peter Parker, I want
to draw them too, black costume. If you don't get
the black costume off, then I'm not going to draw it, right.
And they were like, well, the people who created it,
and the current editor in chief and some of the executives.
They like it, and I go, well, this is easy.

(30:18):
We'll just take it off. I'll create a new character.
We'll put it on that character, and then I can
get Peter Parker in his red and blue classic uniform.
So the very next day I handed them the design
that became Venom. Right, I'm here here, this is what
this costume should look like. You look way narlier instead
of on a one hundred and seventy pounds Peter Parker

(30:41):
who cares? And that character ends up moving on And
then the writer comes in, Dave make a liney to
add sort of the background to it, says it was
Eddie Brock. Let me tell you. He told me it
was Eddie Brock after the fact because I drew Venom
as big and monstrous, because I thought he was an alien.

(31:02):
And then they approved it. They said, man, we like
the design. And then like about a week later, David says, oh,
here here's the first story, and it's a guy named
Eddie Brock, And I went, whoa, whoa, who Eddie Brock.
Isn't he human? Like what the information I could have
used earlier when I was trying to draw this guy,
but they had proved that and I sort of liked

(31:22):
the look, and I went, eh, if Bruce Banner, little
skinny Bruce Banner can turn into the Hull, why can't
Eddie Brock turn into sort of a big Venom? And
that was it. And so Venom literally exists for one
reason because I didn't want to draw up Peter Parker
and that Dan Black costume. Right, So, and it turned
to a billion dollar happy accident for Marvel and Sony Pictures, right,

(31:44):
So that's how it is. And then when seven of
us left Marvel at the top of our game and
started Image Comics, and just so people know, everybody knows
Marvel and DC, right because of all the movies. If
you ask the next natural question, who's third, who's the
third biggest company, that's us Image and we have been

(32:05):
for over thirty years. So when we moved and started
Image Comic Book, nobody was buying Spawn. Nobody cared about Spawn.
That was the character. I'd created him in Calgary when
I was a kid going to high school in my basement,
when I was first starting to collect comics, and so
I had saved them all those years and pulled them

(32:27):
out and I go, we're going to do Spawn. But
nobody cared who that character was. What they cared about
at that time was that all of us who began
Image comics we had we were like the dream team
of artists and they were buying our art and so
they just look it. If you were if you were

(32:51):
Wayne Gretzky fan with the oilers and he went to
the Kings, you had to go to you had to
start watching Kings games. Right when Michael Jordan went to
the Washington Wizard, you had to start watching watching the
Washington Wizards. So Spawn was just that, and then the
bonus then was on each of us. And now I'm
just talking about my book to go, oh, they're buying

(33:11):
the book now because of me, because I'm that hot
Spider Man artist that they want more art from. And
let's see if they'll continue to buy it. I'm going
to have to deliver the goods. And now last I
think two days ago, I just handed an issue three
hundred and seventy of Spot.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
Wow, Oh my god, I love it.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
It's an incredible run. I remember being twenty years old
during the McGuire Sosa home run chase in nineteen ninety eight.
You mentioned being Canadian. We're all Canadian as well. I
was working at TSN as a production assistant. I was
going to school at Ryerson at the time, so I
remember being enraptured in the home run chase like everybody else.
And I remember cutting the sound of a young Todd
McFarlane saying, I'm not rich. I just love baseba like

(33:51):
nobody else. I'm paying three million dollars since Mark McGuire
Baseball trusts me, I'm mortgaging my future for this. I
just love baseball so much. And I remember thinking afterwards,
when all this stuff came out the Mitchell Portega Man
Poor topic front somewhere, is like, are you kidding me?
I paid three million dollars in this baseball what it's worth?
How Todd? Obviously we all got screwed by it, But
what was your reaction to all of that?

Speaker 5 (34:09):
Well, first off, I didn't intend to spend that much.
Let's just be clear, right, I thought people would tap out.
That auction was held at Madison Square Garden. I had
just finished doing a fantasy camp in Florida for the
with the Baltimore Orioles. Because the guy who distributes the

(34:30):
most comic book was part owner of the Orioles at
that point and had been bugging me all the time
to come down there, right. So I finished it, and
then I had to get up to New York for
the for the press conference. There was an airline strike,
so I had to bake board and steal my way
literally all the way up to New York to get there.
But when the auction went here's here was here's what

(34:53):
Here's what went wrong In the hindsight is the young
lady that was bidding for me over the phone, she
had never done it before. She was the roommate of
somebody who worked at this auction house, and they knew
it was going to be kind of sort of busier
than usual, so they recruited some people, and so she

(35:14):
was on the phone going, hey, I've never done this before.
So where that cost me was if I had been
in the room, because I said, no, I just want
to be an anonymous bidder, right. If I had been
in the room at some point when I saw there
was another bidder that was serious, I would have just
stuck my hand up and never come down so that

(35:34):
that person could have seen I'm walking away with this
I don't give a shit what you're doing. I'm getting
this ball. But what ended up happening was at some
point the bidding. I think once it got past a million,
and I thought it would tap out at that point.
Once it got past a million, then wow, each bid
was then one hundred thousands. You had to go one

(35:56):
hundred each time. So when it bounced back to you,
it was like another two, another two, another two. And
I was telling her and it was and it was
literally I got to tell you guys, it was like
listening over the phone to a hockey game like I would.
She would bid, I go put the paddle up. Put
She couldn't hear me put the paddle. She put the
paddle up, and it'd be like like a little bit
of grown and then all of a sudden there'd be

(36:19):
a little bit of weight and then he, I guess,
put his paddle up, and then there was this cheer.
So it was like, oh, I see the home team's
taking the rush to the goalie down at the other
end here right and and I and it got so loud.
I kept saying, put the paddle up, and don't put
it down, and she's like, I can't understand what are
you saying? And so what that did to the guy

(36:39):
on the other end because I talked to him like
later and he goes, well, they kept putting the paddle down,
so I thought you were hesitating, Todd. And I'm like,
so this young lady cost me a lot o money.
But eventually I got the ball. Now here's here's why
I bought the ball. Do I like baseball? Shoot? Guys
would go on all day long. Do I like sports?

(37:01):
We're going for a week? I had been, I have,
I had started a toy company. And there's a couple
of rules in life, right like location, location, location, and
stick to what you know. And here's what I know sports.
So I go, I want to make sports figures, not

(37:21):
those starting lineup goofy little things around in the marketplace.
I'm I'm a hardcore collector, and I wouldn't give a
penny for though I never had one of them. I go, no,
I will not buy a bad fac simile of what
as an athlete. No, I'm not going to do it.
But when I try to get into the front doors

(37:42):
of the four major sports football, baseball, basketball, hockey, I couldn't.
They wouldn't let me in. I wasn't like, They're going,
who are you? And so I had to put my
auntie on the table at the big boy poker table.
And oddly for me, my calculation was, and you can
do odd things like this when you're not a public company.

(38:03):
I thought it was buying. I thought it was buying
that ball. If I get that ball, and then I
can get headlines, national headlines, which I did then very
quickly when I went back to those four sports, especially
the actual institutions. The unions welcomed me in prior to that,
but the but the the big boys, you know, who
owned the logos and the symbols, didn't. And then they

(38:26):
saw the headline and they they made this really easy
calculation of if he's got that much money to spend
on a baseball, he must be successful. Bring him in
and and and like I said before, literally I did.
I had to beg boor and steal every penny to
even pay for that. But that was it. So I
got in and in short order I ended up having

(38:48):
the NHL, the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball, the
players and and the uniforms. Because you have to have
two license you have to you have to get the
league to sign off, so I got the logos in
the uniform, and then I had to get the union
to sign off, so I have the players right. And
again you can imagine since there's hats and shirts sold

(39:12):
that the union doesn't get nearly as much money as
the leagues with the logos. So they were more than happy.
So I had I had the baseball Union and I
had the hockey Union. Said yes, and I began making
those two. My very first version of both of those
were without sanctioned logos, right and oh yeah yeah. And

(39:35):
so at some point then I came in to the
NHL and I had this meeting and I remember there
were all these lawyers sitting around the table and they
sat there and I had my toys, and there's like
Pavel Burrey. I had Pavel Burrey who was playing at
that point, he was playing for the Panthers. And they said,
you can't do this. Because I was just doing sort

(39:57):
of like generic stuff. They go, you can't do this, Todd,
I go do what they go, you can't do this.
This looks too much like the as I go, it's
not the Panther's uniform, going well, you can't do this,
we're gonna sue you, and I go, what do you say?
Like that? We're here so you guys can threaten me? Okay, cool?

(40:17):
So here's what I'm gonna tell you. First off, and
there isn't a Google back then, but like you guys
should do your research. You grab the wrong tiger by
the tail, right. I love these kinds of fights. So
here's what we're gonna here's what we're gonna do.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
You spawn, you.

Speaker 5 (40:37):
Are gonna tell me that you're gonna go into court.
I've done my homework. All you have to do is
prove eleven different changes from the original and you're good
to go. I will walk you through twenty one of them. Right,
you're red for the panthers is not the same red
I have. I have like a burnt red. Right. So

(40:58):
if you want to go into court and say you
own fucking reddish, you're gonna lose. And then you own
yellowish colors, you're gonna lose. And that somehow you're the
only guy that can put stripes on a piece of cloth,
you're gonna lose. And here's your problem today. Right now,

(41:19):
everybody believes your threat because you send out these letters
all the time, the seas and desist. Not just the NHL, everybody, right,
all the big leagues, they do it. They protect their
their marks. I get it. But if we go to
court and you win, you already think you own one
hundred percent? What's your update, what's your what's your good day?
You own a one hundred percent? That you win, you have

(41:39):
one hundred percent. But if you don't, not only do
you have to give a piece back to me, but
that that case will go across the entire globe and
anybody who wants to then do a knockoff can then
do a knockoff. Now we can go that way, and

(42:00):
I'm perfectly willing to go that way. Or let's let's
look behind door number two. I give you a check
for a half a million dollars for a minimum guarantee,
and you give me the right show. I can actually
do the red that you own and the logo that
you own, and I can put Pavlo Brewery in the
uniform and that I'm gonna make this toy anyway, and

(42:20):
you can neither sew and get nothing. Could you already
think you want one hundred percent? Or you can take
this check for half a million and then I gotta
pay royalties on top of every sale for the rest
of my natural life, as long as I've got a
contract with you. I don't know. This seems like an
easy choice to me. But and so they went away
and they came back. Browse furled, and he went, Okay, begrudguingly,

(42:44):
We'll take the half a mill. So I was doing
NHL toys after that. Cool.

Speaker 4 (42:50):
Well, that's an unbelievable story. And I wonder, I expect
your time with the Oilers was a little bit smoother
talking about anties on the table and especially creating or
maybe not, but how was that creating the team logo
and and and also being a part of that organization.
Whether it was rocky or whether it was, it was

(43:11):
a good experience for you.

Speaker 5 (43:13):
Okay, So so i'll give you the Rocky part for
I'll give you right.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
I love here. I love hearing the Rocky part.

Speaker 5 (43:19):
Yeah, okay. So I'm a big hockey guy, right, so,
but I just it was driving me crazy how the
NHL was being played at that time, right, this is
one dominic Hassak and Key and Keith Pronger were winning
and Chris was it too defensive?

Speaker 3 (43:40):
Like what do you think about it? Yeah, okay, to defensive?

Speaker 5 (43:43):
Okay, too defensive, Like what are you talking about? They
were all time low since the fifties of scoring pull game,
Like you go to any CEO at any company and go, hey,
we're selling at the rate that we were forty five
years ago. That CEO is out right like, I don't
know why, and so I just so. I would then
do these interviews going I don't understand. I don't understand

(44:07):
why they don't get rid of the center ice line.
I don't understand why they don't go four on four.
I don't understand why they don't go into overtime. I
don't understand. I don't understand. And then here's the rocky part.
I would say that after I became sort of minority owner,
and then bring the phone would ring and it'd be

(44:27):
like the NHL front office and they're going, hello, this
is the Commissioner's office. Oh yeah, we're gonna send you
a bill. You've just been fined ten thousand dollars. And
I'm like pardon and they're like yeah. If you go
like when you signed the contract to become an owner,
there's like three binders, this thick of paperwork, and I

(44:47):
should have read all of it, but I didn't. And
so they went, if you go to binder three, page
twelve hundred and forty four, like section two, right, it
says something where I'm not supposed to disparage the league
or something like that, right, And I go, I'm not
disparaging the league, but okay, whatever. So I had to

(45:08):
pay it. Then I did another interview. I guess I
got wound up again and bring, uh, We're going to
send you another bill, right. The third bill was the
oilers paid for it. Right. They were just like Todd,
why why are we having to pay this bill? We'll
do it, but why we have this bill? Anyways, I

(45:29):
I we were at the Wayne Gretzky retirement uh, where
we raised his number up into the rafters, right, and
we were having a big celebration at dinner where Wayne
was there and a couple of dignitaries and uh uh

(45:49):
Commissioner Gordon or commissioner said. Commissioner Batman came in and
I was with some of the other guys and he
walked by and he goes, hellong time, and I went, hey,
mister Batman, good to see you. And all the other
minority owners of the oiler were like, man, Garry Betman
knows you. You know, Gary Bitman, he knows you. Man,

(46:11):
that's super cool. And I'm like, well, I don't know
that he knows me. I don't know that that would
be the world. I think I'm kind of infamous with them.
But okay, shortly thereafter I got a meeting. I was
in New York. I got a meeting with Commissioner Betman. Now,
for some reason, I don't remember why, I had my
seven year old daughter with me and I go, you're
going to the meeting. So she came into the meeting

(46:33):
and he just wanted to hear, like, my what my
rants were right? And he should never have done this
because that's like you. You asked Todd, what do you
think is wrong with hockey? That was like Mussolini from
the balcony, Right, I just want I just go, oh,
he said that one thing, So tell me your concerns.
And I just verbal vomited at him for an hour. Right.

(46:55):
But here's the fun part about it. As he was
doing that, my seven year old who's in his office,
bore it out of her skull, right, And so he
Gary was listening to me intently, and then every now
and then would go, just on, just one second time
that excuse me, a little girl, could you get your
feet off the Corinthian leather chair there? Just like just

(47:16):
could you turn around and sit? Yeah, thank you, Thank you,
my dear, and then like everyone, and then take twenty
minutes later, excuse me, could you put down that voss,
that mean voss? Could you just put it down on
the shelf stack. Thank you, my dear, just thank you.
So while she was basically touching all of his valuables,
I was I was going. And then not only was

(47:38):
I talking about all these things that later would come
to pass, because my wife would going, aren't those things
you used to get fined for? And I'm like, yeah, whatever.
But as part of the rules, My argument with him
was all the things I just said above and he
and he would say, well, we have a rules commission.
I'm going Gary, stop thinking about it, just implement one

(47:59):
of these rules like in the NBA. They want, Oh,
let's put a three point line on it. Oh, we
don't like that. We're gonna go back to two point. No,
we're gonna go back to the three. No, it's too far.
We're gonna move like you can't do his zone defense. No,
they change rules once a year, like take whatever the
ten you're thinking about, implement one. Let me tell you

(48:20):
I was never invited back to Gary's office after those
kinds of conversations. And at some point when I did
sell my piece years later, it freed me to be
able to just talk out loud again and say the things.

(48:40):
And I don't know. I go, why do you want
to make Paul Korea a goon? He's now having to
choke up his stick in the corners to protect himself
the way that the rules are right now. And Wayne Gretzky,
a young nineteen year old Wayne Gretzky came into this league,
they would be calling him the pretty good one, not
the great one, because he couldn't do what he did before.

(49:05):
I don't get it. Why on goalie pads. Why I'm
all for protecting the players, but you know that the
leg is only this thick. Why does the pad have
to be this stick right? Why are you doing what
do you like? Why do you have to I'd cut
those pads down, or I'd make them that bigger since

(49:26):
the players are getting bigger. I'm not saying a lot
and they're going, what do you want games to be
eight to nine? No, but I want to go from
two to one to at least three to two. And
I was threatening to go to games where I know
I'd have a good seat where the camera would be,
and I'd have my big sign, and every time the
goalie stopped stopped it, I'd have a big sign going.
It'd be sort of anti climate change. Stop protecting the air,

(49:49):
because that's what's happening. If the pad wasn't there, it
would have gone through the air. It wasn't gonna hit
his leg. I don't understand it. I don't understand you guys,
But you guys, do you Gary, I'll I'll just make
my toys do what we gotta do. But here we are.
Now we changed some of the rules. Oh okay, Oh
so you opened it up. So you now without the
center line, you have basically the bomb the breakaway pass.

(50:12):
Oh okay, every other sport has it. I'll go, go
go gog. But anyways, don't get me wound up. What
you have.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
Great stuff for Todd McFarland again spawn Venom Image Comics.
This was tremendous and again, this is a good time
to remind people we are a collaboration of the NHL
and iHeartMedia. Todd, this was fantastic stuff. Man can't thank
you enough.

Speaker 5 (50:31):
Sure all right, you guys be good.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
Thanks once again, Todd McFarland. He was fantastic. Emmy's recap.
A lot of ovations there for Stephen Colbert, course, who's
showays being canceled, so he finally gets to win an Emmy.
Congrats to him. I was just enraged though, Martin Scorsese,
who was America's greatest living director, has won an Emmy before.
He won it for directing Boardwalk Empire the Pilot, but
he was nominated for an Emmy. He was nominated for
Best Guest Actor in the Show, and I was so

(51:01):
thrilled that the studio did so well, especially Seth Rogen
fellow Canadian Vancouver guy. Jesus, I know he wents for acting,
writing and directing. That's incredible trifecta. But Marty was robbed.
He loses to Brian Krantz, and again I love Crantz,
who doesn't love Walter White, But he's not enough Emmys
for acting. Marty could have won his first Acting Emmy
for Best Guest Actor in a comedy series. He loses
along with Ron Howard, who tal was also a fan

(51:22):
of the Congrats to Brian Krant and it wins for
the studio. Your thoughts on the Emmy Awards.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
Uh, well, I mean I did watch it as well.
You know, my wife forced it.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
She sat me down, tied me to a chair, and
opened my eyelids open. So I was forced, much to
my chagrin. And you know, my wife made a funny comment.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
The other day.

Speaker 4 (51:39):
She's like, I was like, who the hell watches this?
We're one of four people watching this and we live
in a condo. You know, we live in a condo
building in Arizona because we you know, we travel so much,
and we literally look across the way and in one
of the condo buildings across somebody's watching the Emmy, some
old person. And my wife's like, yeah, these fucking old
people and me watched the Emmys, And I guess you

(52:01):
as well, tal So Talon, Uh but I like, you know,
do I like those award shows?

Speaker 5 (52:08):
No?

Speaker 4 (52:09):
I don't like the self pandering and the self masturbatory.
I like the Boys and Girls Club thing. I thought
it was hilarious. I know a lot of people were mad, but.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
It just goes to show you. I get it. You
win an award, it's amazing.

Speaker 4 (52:21):
But to what Nate Bargatzi was saying is like more
people are watching social media, so do your thank yous,
and if you want to do something really long and extended,
give really a heartfelt thank you. Don't take this stage
to hijack it for the kids. And exactly the way
that I predicted it, the actors did not give a
fuck about the kids, and they were like negative seventy
grands and.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
Then they're all like, well, it's the first time we won.
And I get it.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
And I think it's a big thing when you're a
first time winner for an Emmy to thank people so
and I know it's a hard job to win those things.
It's hard to win. But yeah, to your point, I mean,
there's a lot to like about it. I loved I
wish Corsese would have won, but it's hard to deny
as much as Brian Cranston has won so many awards,
how good he was, he was hysterical chief and how

(53:08):
that they told him I read something. They basically told
him that last episode at the studio like hey, like
just like run wild, and they did not expect him
to like walk around his pants and they're like, holy fuck,
like is he going too far?

Speaker 1 (53:22):
That?

Speaker 3 (53:23):
Did you read that?

Speaker 1 (53:24):
I didn't know that, but I thought it was but
he's in the gondel of his pants.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
But they told him it was so funny.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
They gave him the leash and they literally like Seth Rogan,
I think, was looking being like this is is this
too much?

Speaker 3 (53:37):
Like? Because he just went after it so great.

Speaker 6 (53:40):
Tell your thoughts in the Emmys, I watched it a
little different this time. I didn't watch it live. I
the the Television Academy really quickly had like basically YouTube
clips of every award ready to go as soon as
the show is over, So I just watched all the
acceptance speeches and the presentations. I didn't watch much of
Bergosa's gen z. Yeah, let's just get through this so

(54:03):
I can watch some tiktoks.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
Damn it.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
No. I I loved seeing uh. I loved seeing the
studio get so much love.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
I love that show.

Speaker 6 (54:12):
I was so blown away and was really thought it
was really cool to see Seth Rogan like sweep the awards.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Basically, I've killed it.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
I think he was.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
I think he is.

Speaker 6 (54:22):
It's the best acting performance of his career in my opinion,
and obviously the writing and the direction is next level
with all these one shots.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
You know, so I love the show. That That was
my main takeaway.

Speaker 6 (54:35):
I liked the Little Kid from Adolescences except in speak.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Yeah, yeah, that was pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (54:41):
I mean, I'm not a big awards show guy, like
like JD said, unless my wife is watching it and
I happen to be in the room, I'm not really
paying much attention to it. But love seeing uh love
seeing the studio get get all that love.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
And congrats Adolescence and the pit huge winners there he
come back.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
Yeah, and then who knew the show about the Hollywood
and all the studio execs right mass you know, just
massaging them wins all the awards.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
Class's my buddy' said Hollywood votes for Hollywood. He goes,
what a surprise, A big circles jerk wins all the awards.
I'm like, yeah, this is not surprising the studio would
do so well. Weapons is a critical acclaimed film ninety
four percent on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm not a big horror
movie guy. My friends kept seeing it. Go see it.
I said, well, I'll just wait till it's streaming. So
I paid twenty bucks to watch it on direct TV
the other night, and probably a good thing I didn't
watch in the theater because there's more than a few

(55:31):
jump scaries. You watch it during the day, it's not
nearly as scary, although, as my friends had said to me,
know it's a horror comedy. It's a kind of in
that Jordan peele Vain listen. I thought it was an
excellent movie. The less said about it, the better. Basically,
the premise is one morning, twenty kids from one classroom disappear,
and we don't know why that is. And I thought
the mosaic structure of it was fascinating, you know, the
one sections about Julia Gardner who's the teacher, Josh Brown's

(55:51):
a father of one of the kids, and then the
story goes around and around. I thought it was ingeniously plotted.
I thought it was an excellent payoff, good horror movie,
not as scary, So that's a good news for me.
Weapons a good solid film at the theaters. What do
you think, Jendy.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
Love the love the premise, love the build up, didn't
love that it would ended up being some like you know,
weird foodoo, juniper bush or whatever the hell it was, Like,
I was kind of hoping it was like because they
kind of teased it this like virus, you know, when
they had the wild nat geo, this fungus thing, and
that's kind of been the a lot of the movies

(56:25):
now talking about like these diseases and fungle things that
take over you. So, I mean, I loved the villain.
I thought she was incredible. And I do love that
first scene with the the you know, the the gay
couple and he basically she's sitting there, Can I get a.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Bowl of water?

Speaker 4 (56:42):
And I just I love that whole build up, and
then kind of after that, like the whole I just
didn't know, but you know, I I did think it's
I like the pacing of it and the jump scares.
I watched it in theaters with Jill and I jumped
out of my seat on one of the scenes like and.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
Was like had I was like this.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Like you just He's like here comes, Yeah, don't do
it to me.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
Yeah. So but I liked it. It's a good movie.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
Yeah, really definitely not not not a genre I watch
a ton of, like you said, with the horror movies,
but I thought it was a well made genre movie
and uh, definitely excellent performances across the board. All right,
a little more hockey, we'll get out of here. Captain
returns the Rangers fed a pretty natural part of where
it came. The shoulder patches will wear this season. The
team will be sporting a logo for Game seven, the
multi platform sports and entertainment brand copan and by Mark Messier.
What do you think about this shitty mess and the

(57:30):
Captain returns for the Rangers.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
Yeah, I love it, love everything about it. I mean
it's I just like, yeah, it's just I mean, as
simple as that. Let's just keep it simple, stupid.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
I like it. I love it.

Speaker 4 (57:45):
Yeah, it fits, it fits, and I like it. You know,
I know we're always looking for me to hate on stuff,
but I love it exactly.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
You're all in on Broadway here. Connor McDavid got to
enjoy when the money Fringe benefits to be in the
face of the NHL of the weekend, He got to
hang out on stage with country star Morgan Wallen during
his concert Edmonton. Your thoughts and Morgan Wallen.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
Well, now we can go to something I don't.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Like that was my assumption. I all all of you
shocked if JD.

Speaker 4 (58:11):
I'm sick of this Morgan wall and walk out shit.
I'm just like, are we serious? Like okay, you know
famous people great and watching them awkwardly walk and then
it's he's like doing this, and then you know the
half of the actors and people are just kind of
walking and then you kind of rub your hands together
and like look at the camera and like hype everybody up,
and then you have another two minute walk to get

(58:33):
to the stage. So I think it's just a little
bit overplayed. Now that's me zigging when everybody's zagging. But
I don't know any Morgan Wallen songs.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Nor do I. I'm glad youthson was sending me a
Morgan wall In contra and I go, I gotta be
watching that. I know the name. I wouldn't know one single.
Normally I would at least know one single. I have
no idea Morganwallan is all but a huge star.

Speaker 4 (58:51):
Yeah, didn't he get caught like a bunch of times,
Like wasn't he like canceled and not canceled?

Speaker 3 (58:55):
And and I don't.

Speaker 4 (58:57):
Know what can you tell us about would had he
had a song with Posts alone.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
I like, that's the only one I know by him.

Speaker 6 (59:07):
And as far as what you're referring to my my
understanding is he got busted dropping some N bombs, some
hard That's what I got what it was and uh
after the country if it turns out misinformed, But then
I got got geez no, I know, yeah, but I
guess it was he was he got out of uh

(59:29):
of jail, of celebrity jail.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
Eventually, I guess, wow, okay, well that's.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
What it was. Yeah, I was.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
I was like some I kind of was like, didn't
fucking like It's like seeing Armie Hammer at kind of
the resurgence of Armie Hammer, and it was like, those
are like all these weird allegations are Kevin or Kevin Spacey.
It's like, oh, you guys, just get a new publicist
in here, right back out there.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
Well, from racially charged mature from Morgan Wall to another
racially charged guy in Shane Gillis. Of course, he lost
his job with sn L because of some jokes in
the surface of the past, but Asian comedians, it's all
worked out well though for Shane though, he's never been
more popular SNL actually brought him back when he joked,
and now there's a great pick making the rounds over
the weekend of NHL Stars and Buddy's Cole Cottfield and
Trevor Zegres hanging out with Shane Gills. Gill's probably a

(01:00:12):
huge Philly guy, loves the Eagles, loves the Flyer, so
the Segrets connection there makes sense. But do a little
bit crowd work your thoughts on Shane Gills. I think
he's really funny and for everyone does a Trump impression, JD.
Gillis might do the best one.

Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
He's just like the classic everyday man comedian and I
just think he's so incredibly funny everything he does. I
mean him on I don't know what the name of
that show is, The Football Show with McAfee when he's
when he's chirping Nick Saban and he calls him Alabama Jones.
It's one of the all time great clips if we
If you could find that and people are listening, go

(01:00:45):
watch that. He basically makes a joke pregame show about
how you know Nick Saban pays his players, and then
he's on set with him, and then Nick Saban's like
pissed off. Oh, and he basically is on live and
he's being like, I thought, this is a fun show,
and he's like Alabama Jones over here because he's wearing
like an Indiana Jones hat, because Alva Jones over here.

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
Good kiss at me.

Speaker 4 (01:01:05):
And it's just like he's so good at kind of
toning that line and being like, don't be a dickhead.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
And you know, I love him.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
I'm a big fan of his and my wife loves him,
and you know, Tim Dillon, all those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Un Tel, you love this joke from the SPI's about Belichick.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Well, I was just gonna drop this one quick.

Speaker 6 (01:01:23):
I loved him at the SPZ and I'm not an
award show guy, but he made it. He started with
a joke about shoey Otani and his bookie, and then
he followed up by saying a bookie is what Bill
Belichick reads his girlfriend before bedtime.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Loved it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Amazing line, amazing, All right, Thanks so much, j D
and tal has always thank it. Everyone for checking out
NHL Unscripted. Thanks once again to Todd McFarland. Coming up
next week, se the Pound sixty attribute to the great
Robert Redford. The legend leaves us at the age of
eighty nine, and plus our special guest Chris Ponger talking
hockey again. That's coming up next week on NHL n Scripted.
Thanks so much for checking us out. NHL Unscripted is

(01:02:12):
a production of the NHL and iHeart Podcasts. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.