August 28, 2024 • 42 mins
Welcome back for season 4 of the Only Murders in the Building Podcast! Producers Ryan Tillotson and Maggie Boles are your hosts again this season. Today, we’re talking all about episode 1 with showrunner and co-creator of the series John Hoffman. He also is the director and co-writer of episode one.
We’ll talk about some of the new additions to the cast this season, the process of taking the trio to LA, and what it was like watching home movies of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez.
We'll also catch up with John's co-writer on this episode, Joshua Allen Griffith, about the copious amount of murderboards necessary to solve a mystery in the writers room and the secret behind the whistling sound you heard throughout the season premiere.
Just a heads up, there are spoilers for episode one. So listeners, if you haven't watched, stream it now and come right back.
Also, make sure you subscribe to the podcast. After this week, we'll be releasing two episodes per week, and we have some super exciting guests that we are truly geeking out over.
Send us your thoughts and theories: onlymurders@strawhutmedia.com
Or chat with fellow fans on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnlyMurdersHulu
We’ll talk about some of the new additions to the cast this season, the process of taking the trio to LA, and what it was like watching home movies of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez.
We'll also catch up with John's co-writer on this episode, Joshua Allen Griffith, about the copious amount of murderboards necessary to solve a mystery in the writers room and the secret behind the whistling sound you heard throughout the season premiere.
Just a heads up, there are spoilers for episode one. So listeners, if you haven't watched, stream it now and come right back.
Also, make sure you subscribe to the podcast. After this week, we'll be releasing two episodes per week, and we have some super exciting guests that we are truly geeking out over.
Send us your thoughts and theories: onlymurders@strawhutmedia.com
Or chat with fellow fans on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnlyMurdersHulu
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Straw Media. So welcome back, John, Thank you, Maggie and Ryan,
thank you so so much for being here. We're so
excited to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Oh so good.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Thank you so much. I'm so happy to see you too.
I'm very excited to talk about yet another season of
Only Murders in the Building with you two.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Hello, welcome. We are back for season four of the
Only Murders in the Building Podcast. I'm Ryan Tillotson.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I am Maggie Bowles. We're back for season four. We're
staying your hosts. We're also producing the show. We're still here. Yes,
So today we're talking with showrunner co creator John Hoffman,
also the director and co writer of episode one.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
We will talk about some of the new editions to
the cast this season, taking the trio to La and
watching the home movies of the stars.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
To talk to John's co writer on this episode, Joshua
Alan Griffith, about the copious amounts of murder boards necessary
to solve a mystery in the writer's room. All right,
shall we recap?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
No, not yet.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Before we recap, I want to tell you about some
of the special guests we're going to have on the
podcast this season.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Oh, Ryan, maybe we should try and keep an element
of surprise, but with the.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Strike last season, it's important that they know we're going
big this time.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Okay, fine, tell them Jane Lynch. That's right, Jane Lynch, says,
the one and only, says Pataki.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
I mean, if we're gonna have her on one season
of the pod, this is the one to have. This
is the one, the one to have, Jane Lynch. We're
geeking out and we actually have a bunch of others.
But that's all I'm going to tell you from now.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, leave a little bit of surprise,
all right. Now we recap. Okay, before we recap, quick
spoiler alert, we are going to talk about all of
the specifics of episode one, So if you haven't seen
it yet, go back and watch it now and then
come back.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Here we go, Episode one, Once upon a Time in
the West. We open up on home movies of Steve Martin,
Martin Short, and Selena Gomez.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And we pick up right where we left off last season.
They're recording the final lines of the Only Murders in
the Building podcast THEIRS, and they're wondering where Sas is,
so they head upstairs to Charles's apartment, but Sas is
not there.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Later, Charles keeps hearing a whistling sound in his apartment.
Death Rdle Dazzle is canceled, and Howard has adopted a
new dog, Gravy. Mabel's crashing with Oliver and someone named
Bev Mellon wants to make a movie about their podcast,
and she wants to fly them all to La for
a meeting.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Charles text Sas and she finally responds and says she's
working with Scott Bakula in La, so the trio decides
that's enough reason to make the trip.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
We meet Bev Mellon played by Molly Shannon and the
Brothers sisters, the two directors of their film. Charles and
Oliver are on board, but Mabel holds up.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
So afterwards they stop by sass house because she stopped
texting back and they find her mail piled up and
it looks like she has not been home for a while.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Definitely not.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
The trio arrives at a big party held in their honor,
and we meet the movie stars that have been cast
to play them, Eugene Levy, Zach Galifanakis, and Eva Longoria.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
So good. Loretta arrives to the party looking like eight Vision,
and she and Oliver share a really sweet moment.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Eva Longoria convinces Mabel to do the movie and ask
for a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
We see Scott Bacula finally at the party, but he
hasn't seen Sas either, so they decide to break into
Sava's apartment, where they discover notes on her desk and
it looks like she was looking into something.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
While in La they hear from Lester someone put in
order to replace Charles's window in his name. They also
hear from Howard his new dog was once a cadaver dog,
explains a.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Lot back in New York. Gravy the dog leads them
to the incinerator, where they find Saz's Bulgarian only replacements
and her ashes, and the person who'd been texting from
Saz's phone number tells Charles they're not his fucking friend.
(04:20):
Welcome back. Over the last few seasons, we have talked
to John Hoffman quite a lot. Yeah, every season, every season,
and one of the things we've talked about is that
season one felt like it was mabel season, and season
two felt like it was Charles's and season three felt
like Oliver's and so that kind of begs the question,
who do season four belong to?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Season four? We're flying through these suckers. It's interesting. There's
a natural lean in for Charles the story because of
the victim at the end of season three, and yet
we were very conscious in the writer's room to lean
into all three in their particular situations. And I think
(05:02):
because of the nature of the crime and the concern
for Charles, this combination of creating arcs for all three
of the characters that had the trio working this mystery
together throughout the season in sort of half protection mode
because they weren't sure who the intended target was.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And I feel like this season they get kind of
like the cartoonish, oversimplified maybe mean descriptions of who each
of them are. Thanks to of Bev. Yeah, Bev played
by the amazing Molly Shannon, which we were so excited
to see.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Molly's like an old, dear, dear, dear friend of mine
for many, many years, and I worked with her before once,
but this was and it had been a while, and
so the chance to get to work with her again
was like the greatest thrill and it was like, I
just she just knocks it out of the park.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
I think, Yeah, we're watching her on the other two
right now, and she's just so fun She's so good,
so funny.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Greatest and the loveliest human being ever.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Oh yeah, gosh, I love hearing that, I could tell.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So, so what was it like to get back on
set this season, putting the show together and then filming
it and being back.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah. I think the setup was really strong for an
emotional storyline, but also that mix of an emotional story
which I wed like to do, a car crashing tonal
mix of an emotional storyline that was right at the
(06:44):
core of one of our trio, particularly all three of
our trio, as I said, in protection of that other person,
and then buttressed right up against this hard, smashing kind
of big news that they were going to make a
film of the podcast they'd all created together. So those
simultaneous forces happening felt like both great comedy fodder and
(07:09):
great dramatic tension for them. So yeah, it was a
blast to sort of swing two different ways and then
follow two different tracks of was says The target was
Charles the target, and then subsequently the third element being
this West Tower and the residents of the Arconia that
(07:29):
we have not quite gotten to know yet. So it
was a great opportunity for like three tracks of a
story that felt really nice and clean and fun.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Okay, so last season you teased La. Obviously we had
an idea that we would be coming to La.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
We're here.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You did it.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Can you tell us about shooting in La? How different
is it? Where'd you shoot any iconic places?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I mean, it was crazy. I was directing the first
two episodes, so it was a huge bit of planning
and Kristen Burne, our brilliant producer, managed with both LA
contingencies and knowing who would come from New York and
how to balance that and set us up so beautifully.
And you know, I mean Kyle our DP and I
(08:17):
were so head down with Cedric Vara, our brilliant AD
and just really head down sort of planning out, mapping out,
cross boarding and you know, planning because we only had
three days to shoot in LA, and they were very
specific days, and one was at Paramount and everything that
we needed at Paramount, and then one was at this
(08:39):
location for the apartment building for SAZ and then when
was this huge Hollywood party day that was bonkers huge
for one day of shooting, and so we were within
our frame. You know, you could only have that, and
then we all had to head back and start shooting
in New York. So all set to go. Everything was great,
(08:59):
and the day before, I want to say, it was like, yeah,
the day before it was it was clear Kyle had
come down. Our DP had come down with the flu
in such a like like a major flu. Couldn't get
out of it. Oh no, And we had no DP
(09:20):
and we were in Los Angeles and I fortunately had
worked on the Paramount lot on Grayson Frankie and I
directed several episodes of that, and I knew a fantastic DP.
I worked with Luke Miller. But to say to him, like,
you need to come tomorrow morning at seven am we
start shooting. Are you free and do you have any
(09:43):
idea what this show is? And do you know? And
God love him, he dove in. He came. He had
to move a couple of things, but he saved our
asses and I mean followed along the plan, but also
really was he was brilliant and he really like made
at work in a way that that's backstage story.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Thank God for plans, right, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
Huge, Yeah, yeah, seriously.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Another thing about that that party, when Meryl Streep walks
in in that blackgown, I was like, ugh.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
She her, she left no drums forty five years Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
No crumbs.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah. It was a sleigh entrance, and that's what we
were looking for, and it wanted to feel like incidental,
a bit tossed off, not too grand, and yet there
she was looking like that, and it was like, ah,
kind of catching you breathless. I know, that was a
beautiful night. I want to say we were shooting that.
I mean it was probably ten thirty when we started
(10:54):
shooting it. We had two other scenes we still needed
to shoot, so we were there till a good tour
three in the morning that night at that house. Yeah,
all day before it. Wow. But yeah, how stunning, fabulous
and heartbreaking is she and Marty in that first scene.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I know, Yeah, in my notes on the episode, it's
just all caps stunning, stunning, I know, right like grab.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
It was a good It was a good way. You know.
There's been a lot of talk about La and the
show and we are. There has never been any question
for me that this is we are a New York
show and we will always be that. So there was
a lot of worry about how much time in LA
and that's going to do this or that. But I
did feel I don't know, I hope people feel that
(11:45):
it gave a surprising, like joke to the storytelling in
a way, and to see that trio in context and
make sort of light easy trophy jokes. But yeah, I
put a new spin on them for LA.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
It's fun to see the trio out just in general,
in general in a new place, you know. So it's like,
and I love your little trick because you I think
the opening shot when they're in LA is in a
in New York in the Paramount Life in New York.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Oh my god, yes, right, that was that. I'm so
glad you liked that. That was a It was a
real task and I was like, oh my god, is
this going to play? And everyone in that was so
good too. All those people, like is a wonner, So
they had to be perfect each time we did it. Yeah,
and uh and I everyone from the screaming mother on
(12:38):
the fire escape to the kid with the basketball and everybody.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, what's it called the fire hydrant? Squirt and water?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah? Those kids yeahes and hot Dog Guy and facing
the cab.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
It was all ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
We loved seeing the whole movies because they're clearly real
home movies. It's so cool to see everybody so young.
How many did you get to watch? I guess to
choose you wanted?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
There was such such limited footage obviously, you know, because
it was one of those things like do you have?
And I mean I assumed Selena had a lot more,
and she does in many ways, but you know, a
lot of it is like she's young enough that it's
like on you know, your laptop or on a phone
or so it's all very It's not old home movie
(13:47):
footage as Steve and Marty's were, But I it came
down to a very select few clips that we could use.
It just felt like the ones that, to me were
so clear and they matched up with it was sweet
the way they matched up with the script.
Speaker 6 (14:04):
Then we've had countless moving images emblazoned in our memories,
and ever since then we've had a chance to ask,
is that how I look when I run?
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Do it?
Speaker 6 (14:16):
Holly Crave you get here.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It's a whole season of reflecting upon what you've done
and who you are now. And that started off triggered
by the victim is a stunt double, a Hollywood stunt double.
So the entire season was written thinking in those terms
(14:42):
of film, of reflections of yourself, doppelgangers. And right at
the top of the season, Charles is narrating about film
and looking at yourself and as we all have home
movies and like you look at you really do reflect
(15:04):
and say is that me? Or who I used to be?
Or is that who I want to be? And that
becomes the theme throughout the whole season, and in a
way it sort of strips away any reticence between our
trio that has been there. You know, they came to
know each other carefully through season one, and you know
(15:28):
seasons two and three, I watched them stretch, you know,
into familiarity and more comfort.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Hell, yes I crushed it. Olivers, Yes I'm still homeless.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yes, this is his least defensive rope. We were very
conscious of just she's in Oliver's robe and she's coming
down and like annoyed with them a little bit more,
and she Selena felt very freed up in a way
that I hadn't seen for this character as Mabel. Simultaneously,
(16:05):
so that was like thrilling over and over and over again.
I think she's never been funnier in this Yeah, I
love that. You know, it's the show is about our
trio and where they are in their lives, and I
think it was time to do a season that what
have we created here with this podcast and what kind
(16:26):
of ways are we and creating trouble? Did we get
a dear friend killed?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Now?
Speaker 3 (16:33):
All of it felt like what are we doing? And
asking ourselves and being confronted by mirror reflections of yourself
throughout a season seemed really interesting.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
After the break, we talked to co writer of episode one,
Joshua Allan Griffith. We hear about his perspective on the
missing body at the crime scene and how to make
the perfect sound of wind blowing through a bullet hole
in the window of the fourteenth floor New Your Department.
(17:09):
First of all, I guess before we get into episode specifics,
how was it getting back in the room, How was
it seeing everybody? How was it writing?
Speaker 7 (17:15):
I mean, it was an enormous relief because we had
not been allowed to really talk about the show or
work on the show for so many months, and I
was a strike captain on the Sony lots. So I
was really out there every single day seeing a lot
of the writers that I worked with on the show
and missing them and missing the process. And so it
(17:38):
was very joyous to you know, get back in there
pass through the arch that we had been like walking
around in front of for so many months. That was
very emotional. And then it was also just to get
into that weird mindset that you really only use when
you're working on a mystery show, which is creating all
(18:00):
of these logical illogical It's like roller coaster of story.
So in a sense, I feel like my brain had
atrophied in those months a little bit. But once we
were back into it, it was you know, it was
my third season on the show, and it felt like
a homecoming.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Do you guys have a similar murder board in the writer's.
Speaker 7 (18:21):
Room, Yes, we have several.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
We have.
Speaker 7 (18:26):
God, I'm trying to think if I were to walk
back into the room today, you know, there's a board
that says that that season would have said episodes four
one through four ten, with every character you know, on
the left X axis and on the y axis is
the episodes, and you're sort of like putting up a
(18:47):
note card for their emotional state for every episode, you know,
tracking who they are over the course of the season.
Then there's a separate one with just like random things
that I think are more of like a wish list
of things which could rain from like I don't want
to spoil anything. God, I forgot about that, you know,
(19:09):
like bird question mark, does it talk, like, does it
narrate an episode? That's you know, like all sorts of
random stuff. That's another board. Then there's per episode boards. Yeah,
it gets very beautiful, mind very quick.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah, sounds very cool.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
It's fun to imagine. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Well, so in this season premiere we meet a lot
of new characters, so.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Those boards must have been even bigger this season.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, so can you can you tell us about some
of I mean, let's maybe let's start with the Brothers Sisters,
which is hilarious. This conceptually is very hilarious. But also
I recently discovered Catherine Cohen as a comedian and she
is so so funny. So tell us about the Brothers
Sisters and introducing them.
Speaker 7 (20:00):
Oh man, you know, pre casting there were many, I
don't want to say many versions, but like many stabs
taken at their voice and ultimately I guess the characters
in the voice land somewhere in between the actors that
you cast who were amazing and great to work with
on set, and where you start. And I remember a
(20:26):
version where they were sort of they only communicated in
whispers to one another, and everybody kind of had to
like lean in a little bit, like what do you say?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
What do they say?
Speaker 7 (20:34):
Like little snickers.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I've been with that person on set before, and it's
really hard to communicate.
Speaker 7 (20:43):
Yeah, like very art housey pretentious versions.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
They kind of.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Ended up pretty art house pretentious, right, Yes, like.
Speaker 7 (20:54):
A beautiful mix of like casting and wardrobe and ridiculous
character ideas. But they were just they were so much
fun and I feel like we shot a lot of
their stuff and what made it in is great. But
I also feel like there are jokes out there too
(21:15):
that get cut for time or whatnot that are just
so funny. I do a whole like spin off just
following their you know, grad school student films.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Yeah, right, that sounds good. I'd watch it. I would
love to see those. I present to you the brothers.
I'm sorry your brothers were sisters.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Oh I thought I heard brothers.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Were the brothers sisters Trina and Tawny brothers, and they're
identical twins, which is so neat.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And when there was a lot in this first episode
right like it's a it's a meaty premiere, and it's
also in so many different locations, and I was trying
to list all of the different locations that they have
scenes in, and then they're like all over the place?
Can you tell us about piecing all of those different
things together and making that work.
Speaker 7 (22:13):
I was lucky enough to be involved on the location
scouting for the episode, the Los Angeles locations scouting, because
we were still in the room in LA when we
were prepping for the first block episodes one and two.
So I got to sort of sneak away from the
(22:34):
room and go with John in a van and drive
around Los Angeles and check out different locations. So those
locations ranged from the places that we were considering for
the Sunset Swan, which is the apartment story department building
where Saz lives, the locations for the big Hollywood party
(22:58):
where they or the trio meets their ganger trio. So
that ranged from all sorts of crazy mega mansions in
the Hollywood Hills, and like how many infinity pools, you know,
and you see in a day. I remember distinctly we
were scouting the mansion that we ultimately ended up using,
(23:18):
and I was like looking over the balcony down onto
a property that was like down the hill, and that
property had a swimming pool that was not an infinity pool.
And I had a moment where I was like, Wow,
how like the scouting had changed me? I was it
(23:41):
looked like who would put that in? I was like,
I need to get out of this world. This is
not where I'm from. But it was just fun to see,
to like see to experience that for the first time,
drive around LA and try and capture different little sections
of the city that make it feel that pay homage
to different parts of Hollywood and different parts of Los Angeles.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
So I think the episode opens up with the Sergeiloni
film and then we see it again later.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
In the Once Upon a Time in the West.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Yeah, and we see it later in the episode. What
can you explain the connection? How did it come about?
Speaker 7 (24:19):
It came out of the brilliant mind of John Hoffin,
And I know that you guys talk to him. I
wonder if he asked him about it.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
He we forgot.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
That's why we were.
Speaker 7 (24:29):
Asking you, Oh, well, he's like in the next room,
I could run over there. And I think that we
were intrigued by the notion of like cinematic storytelling at
its most fundamental, you know, like to tell a story
with images without words, and just to show what you
(24:52):
can do with images, which is so much of what
the season is about. Moving him mentioned how much we
love movies, we love Hollywood culture, and what a big
role it plays in the lives of the characters in
this season and in general, like Charles Hayden Sandwich, you know,
in general in his life, to him being an actor,
Marty's character being a director.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
When we were kind of thinking of questions, we started
like looking into the plot of the movie and like
all the characters, and we're like, there's there must be.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
We may have over we may have overthought.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
I just guarantee the fans of this show will do
the same.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah, they're going to look into easter eggs inside of
Once upon a Time in the West as to who
the killer is. Yeah, and it might accidentally line up,
who knows.
Speaker 7 (25:35):
It's a ploy, like an elaborate ploy to get people
to watch TCM A little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
More So, let's take it back to the beginning of
the episode, because we kind of pick up where we
left off in last season. They're like ending the last
podcast episode and we as viewers know that Sas has
been shot, but the truth doesn't know yet. Can you
tell us about the process of maybe making the decision
(26:02):
that SAS's body has been moved? I don't know if
that happened after the season ended or before, and that
whole like building the tension of that opening scene.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Yeah, it was a shock to me. I was expecting
them to find respecting her there good question.
Speaker 7 (26:20):
I think that on the one hand, I know I
felt this way. I can't speak for everybody, but I
felt that the trio finding SAS's body was going to
be too emotionally shattering for Charles that tonally it would
be hard to, I think, manage that sort of scene.
(26:44):
I think when you watch episode two, you'll see that
the way in which Charles handles the ashes of Sas
after finding her in the incinerator is just I feel
like we wanted to give Steve Martin the opportunity to
use his physical comedy genius in a way that was
(27:09):
like both funny and mournful, and I don't think would
have been possible if he happened upon her body in
the flesh, which played into the decision. But I also
just think it's a great twist and it's a great
question it gives I think it gave us as writers
and gives the audience a lot of questions to ask,
(27:31):
and that gives you episodes to play with. And so
there's a character an emotional based decision as much as
a mystery decision.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
I think, yeah, I can see that, and you get
to do a lot of really fun things with the
tension of the trio entering the apartment and expecting them
to find her and not.
Speaker 7 (27:52):
Yeah, and you get the bullet hole, Like you get
to play with the dramatic irony of the bullet hole,
which I think they used this. But when we were
editing the episode, John and I were working with the
editor and toying with different versions of the whistling noise,
and I was sort of like, I let you know,
(28:13):
I think this works, but I always pictured it sounding
a little bit more like and they're like what I
was like, you know, the kind of like and they're like,
hold on, like, could you record yourself doing that and
me and I was like, yeah, I guess, and so
I did that.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Is it your voice?
Speaker 7 (28:32):
It's my it's my mouth making that noise. And I
was like, I thought that we had like progressed beyond
this technology. I was simultaneously proud and a little let
down and demstified by it.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
But yeah, that's mee magic. Oh my god, what a
great what a great story.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (28:54):
Absolutely, But if someone had to get murdered, let's also
who we hoped it would be.
Speaker 7 (28:59):
That's important.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Oh no, it's fine.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Count of three, one, two.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Listeners. What do you think did that sound like Joshua
Alan Griffith's mouth?
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I think it did. It sounds pretty convincing.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, okay, Well, after the break, we catch up again
with John Hoffman to talk a little bit more about
what it was like building the tension around Saz's missing
body and the origin story of the Brothers Sisters.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
In this episode, we meet the Brothers Sisters. Yeah, uh
have theories as to the name and and but can
you tell me the inspiration a brother Sisters?
Speaker 3 (29:55):
I have a First of all, I have a weakness
for a really dumb joke. Okay, that and it wasn't
a dumb joke. I will not say it was a
dumb joke because I'll never forget Pete Swanson in the
writer's room pitching it and kind of hiding his head,
and I said, what, what did you just say? He said,
what if? Their last name is the Brothers, but they're
known as the brothers sisters. And I was like, Okay,
(30:16):
I'm in love with it.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
So because there's so many famous brother directing teams, yes,
you know.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Yes, that's that was the play on it that I
loved it for. I thought the Duffer Brothers. I thought,
you know, any any of the brothers pairings that have
produced or directed movies together, the Cohen Brothers, all of that,
and I thought, it's always brothers. I don't know that
there's ever been sisters. So if it's the sisters, let's
call them brothers, which I thought was sort of a
thumb in the eye that way.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
That's great, That's what I wanted.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
And oh my god, another huge one episode one. We
see Scott Bacula.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Hey, saz.
Speaker 8 (30:57):
Oh Facula, Hey, Charles, congratulations. It was nice to see
another white haired white guy beat the odds.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Oh thanks, I mean kind of surprises, right, Yeah, I
know surprises that have been teed up.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah, totally true, true true.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Did you get faked out?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I mean I knew it wasn't Saz because I knew
she was dead, but I was like, who is it
going to be? And I was not expecting It's got faculous.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
So that was really fun.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
He was so great. I love him so much. And
I worked with him on a show I did for
HBO called Looking, and so he had heard his name
being bandied about in the show for three seasons, and
you know, was like, I don't understand what's happening. Why
am I being brought up? He said, I just know
(31:53):
I know the guy who does that show I worked
with before, and and I don't know if I even thought,
like was I making fun? I'm like, no, I love you.
That's what we keep using your name because everybody loves
Scott Bacula. So he was really great in being game
to come. He was doing a play in New York
and just came by and gave us this lovely moment.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
It was really great. That was fantastic, And I'm wondering,
I'm curious to know the order of how things happened
in the first episode, and landing the idea that that
body isn't in the kitchen.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
That was very fun because there's constant like I was like,
when are they going to see this body? Like it's
got to be there.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
I did not think it was going to be missing.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I know. That was a fun sort of thing to
play with. And then the phone message coming in and
like creating a sense of foreboding with the audience that
they didn't have and how long could we hold that?
But if we kept tethering it, you know in ways
that were odd clues and that whistle through the window
and all that there were things running through that kept
(33:03):
it was a balancing act for that first episode, particularly
within the writing, to have the fun of Hollywood being
introduced and all of that, but to keep alive this
mystery story and wait a minute, that there's something wrong. Yeah,
and Charles carries a lot of it, and then the
(33:23):
other two slowly are starting to feel it, and I
hope I love the build of that. And it was
thrilling to sort of have the fun of that first
episode of all of the stuff, all of the new
locations and all the places we were going and the
new information about a movie and everything else and doing
all that we get to do all these things, but
like to be able to sort of build a back
and forth between the great sort of Sergio Leoni classic
(33:47):
of once Fung Time in the West and what they're discovering.
And it's actually sort of gutting what happens at the end.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
Obviously, what are you most excited about for once the
season premieres and people start watching it and talking about it, Like,
(34:17):
what is it that you what is it that you
most look forward to now that you've done this for
now four seasons?
Speaker 3 (34:24):
I mean, in some ways this season, you know, even
though we're we have the elements that become a part
of the fabric of the show, you know, the Hollywood
movie sort of world but slowly coming in and coming
to New York and like making its way as a
presence but not overtaking it and keeping I hope that
(34:47):
people really like that. We're also just back to a
mystery based story that's emotionally connected to the Trio in
a way that you know, feels big and right for
us in that way. I really like that part of it,
and the trio working together a lot throughout the season
(35:10):
and across the season is always a good thing. I mean,
that chemistry and that alchemy that they found together, And
as you guys were saying, it's sort of the growth
of them, you know, just makes you want to hang
with them more and more, it feels to me. And and
then I think, I think the other thing is sort
of I'm really proud of everybody on the show that
(35:33):
sort of is unafraid to dream big and go a
little bigger and keep it within the within the sort
of tone and nature of what the show has always
wanted to be, but stretch it in ways that feel like,
oh my god, this is this is quite a ride
for a television show. It and it feels that way,
(35:55):
maybe more than ever in this season to me, certainly
by the nature of who's in it, but also you know, thematically,
and I don't know, it felt like a good moment
to sort of step back and look at a podcast
that if they had solved as many murders as this
podcast had done, it's we weren't pushing it too fast
(36:17):
and far. It felt to me very like a modern
situation that they would find themselves in now, having Hollywood
come a calling.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Thank you, so much for listening. Next week we'll talk
all about episode two. We'll hear from writer Kristin Newman
and some of the brand new members of the cast.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Also, after this week, we will be releasing two episodes
every week. So get excited and hold on to your butts. Yeah,
well on to your boots. Please send your thoughts and
theories to us at Only Murders at straw hutmedia dot com.
We love hearing your thoughts and theories.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
And take a minute to subscribe, rate, follow review if
you like the show.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, it's super helpful.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Oh, before we go, we have teamed up with the
moderators of the Only Murders subreddit and they were so
kind enough to put together a list of some of
the best discussions and theories leading.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Up to this episode.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
Here is one of the moderators, Hannah.
Speaker 10 (37:25):
Hi, Maggie, Hi Ryan. So pleased to see you by
back housting the pod this season. I'm one of the
moderators for the Only Murders in the Building subreddit our
slash only Murders really, and today I've got a little
refresher on the subs, theories and hopes for season four.
Our members have missed the show so so much, and
(37:48):
everyone is really happy to see it back on our
screen so soon after last year's strikes and everything. So
huge props to the cast, crew, writers, everyone for their
hard work. Of course, the main question everyone has for
now is was says the intended victim? Or was the
murderer really aiming for Charles or maybe it was neither
(38:13):
of them? Song Mom Forever says, watching season one, I
noticed theory sees the trio in Charles's apartment through his binoculars.
Any chance the shooter was in the Diamas apartment. Then
we have naval gazing with a really fun theory about
someone who's often mentioned on the show. They say a
(38:37):
lot of people are joking about Scott Bacula being the killer,
but what if he was the intended victim? I was
watching the very first episode and in it, Oliver confuses
Charles with Scott Bacula. So I think Charles says, and
Scott we're all running around the building that night looking
the same. Some people also think we may have another
(39:00):
murderous duo on our hands, like we did last season.
Distinct Presence eighty suggests Sas was killed by two people,
a woman and a man. We also have many people
wondering if we may see Jan somehow being involved with
this season's mystery, as she's obviously dated both Charles and
Saz and we know she can be quite the psychopath.
(39:24):
Another known x of both Charles and Sas is Cookie,
who was briefly mentioned in season one. Maybe we'll meet
her this season and we'll find out a little bit
more about SAS's passed through her Unicorn. Best friend says,
I think Sas got tangled up in something nefarious, either
through Jan or through work. And finally we've got a
(39:47):
beautiful yet tragic theory brought to us by scary Underscore season.
Maybe Saz knew that Charles was in danger for some
reason and took the bullet for him one last time.
Now getting away from the mystery a little bit. In
terms of what people hope to see this season, Sas
(40:07):
has been a fan favorite since our very first episode
in season one, so our members are really excited to
learn more about her and her backstory this season. I
think it'll be very interesting. People are also very happy
to see Davine Joy Randolph aka Detective Williams, another fan favorite,
back this season after her very successful year last year
(40:29):
with the holdovers, and obviously had to mention it. Everyone
is so happy that the iconic Meryl Streep has decided
to come back for another season, because who doesn't love
a bit of Meryl. Now, regarding the plot, our members
were initially a little bit skeptical about our trio potentially
(40:50):
leaving the Arconia for lated season, but the trailers have
kind of turned that around and everyone now is nicely
excited and intrigued to see you what do your element brings?
And finally, if anyone was wondering, yes, which of the
Pick Quick trip lists did? It is still stuck in
(41:10):
everyone's heads and to paraphrase Steve Martin, here's a great
season four. We are looking forward to more interesting theories,
great mystery, and fun discussions with everyone.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Only Murders in the Building podcast is a production of
straw Hut Media, hosted and produced by Ryan Tillotson and
Maggie Bowles.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
That's Me.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Associate producer is Stephen Markley. Original music by Kyle Merritt
and Only Murders theme music by Siddartha Kosla.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Big Big, Big, Big Big. Thanks to John Hoffman and
the entire Hulu team. For their help on making the
show possible.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Thanks guys, Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
The end, people really liked you.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
We didn't hate us, and that was that was the
key all we really needed.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
I know, the feeling we have a very low, low
bar right there with you.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Truthfully, that's my bar always.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Just don't hate me.
Straw Media. So welcome back, John, Thank you, Maggie and Ryan,
thank you so so much for being here. We're so
excited to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Oh so good.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Thank you so much. I'm so happy to see you too.
I'm very excited to talk about yet another season of
Only Murders in the Building with you two.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Hello, welcome. We are back for season four of the
Only Murders in the Building Podcast. I'm Ryan Tillotson.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I am Maggie Bowles. We're back for season four. We're
staying your hosts. We're also producing the show. We're still here. Yes,
So today we're talking with showrunner co creator John Hoffman,
also the director and co writer of episode one.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
We will talk about some of the new editions to
the cast this season, taking the trio to La and
watching the home movies of the stars.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
To talk to John's co writer on this episode, Joshua
Alan Griffith, about the copious amounts of murder boards necessary
to solve a mystery in the writer's room. All right,
shall we recap?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
No, not yet.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Before we recap, I want to tell you about some
of the special guests we're going to have on the
podcast this season.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Oh, Ryan, maybe we should try and keep an element
of surprise, but with the.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Strike last season, it's important that they know we're going
big this time.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Okay, fine, tell them Jane Lynch. That's right, Jane Lynch, says,
the one and only, says Pataki.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
I mean, if we're gonna have her on one season
of the pod, this is the one to have. This
is the one, the one to have, Jane Lynch. We're
geeking out and we actually have a bunch of others.
But that's all I'm going to tell you from now.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, leave a little bit of surprise,
all right. Now we recap. Okay, before we recap, quick
spoiler alert, we are going to talk about all of
the specifics of episode one, So if you haven't seen
it yet, go back and watch it now and then
come back.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Here we go, Episode one, Once upon a Time in
the West. We open up on home movies of Steve Martin,
Martin Short, and Selena Gomez.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And we pick up right where we left off last season.
They're recording the final lines of the Only Murders in
the Building podcast THEIRS, and they're wondering where Sas is,
so they head upstairs to Charles's apartment, but Sas is
not there.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Later, Charles keeps hearing a whistling sound in his apartment.
Death Rdle Dazzle is canceled, and Howard has adopted a
new dog, Gravy. Mabel's crashing with Oliver and someone named
Bev Mellon wants to make a movie about their podcast,
and she wants to fly them all to La for
a meeting.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Charles text Sas and she finally responds and says she's
working with Scott Bakula in La, so the trio decides
that's enough reason to make the trip.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
We meet Bev Mellon played by Molly Shannon and the
Brothers sisters, the two directors of their film. Charles and
Oliver are on board, but Mabel holds up.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
So afterwards they stop by sass house because she stopped
texting back and they find her mail piled up and
it looks like she has not been home for a while.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Definitely not.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
The trio arrives at a big party held in their honor,
and we meet the movie stars that have been cast
to play them, Eugene Levy, Zach Galifanakis, and Eva Longoria.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
So good. Loretta arrives to the party looking like eight Vision,
and she and Oliver share a really sweet moment.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Eva Longoria convinces Mabel to do the movie and ask
for a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
We see Scott Bacula finally at the party, but he
hasn't seen Sas either, so they decide to break into
Sava's apartment, where they discover notes on her desk and
it looks like she was looking into something.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
While in La they hear from Lester someone put in
order to replace Charles's window in his name. They also
hear from Howard his new dog was once a cadaver dog,
explains a.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Lot back in New York. Gravy the dog leads them
to the incinerator, where they find Saz's Bulgarian only replacements
and her ashes, and the person who'd been texting from
Saz's phone number tells Charles they're not his fucking friend.
(04:20):
Welcome back. Over the last few seasons, we have talked
to John Hoffman quite a lot. Yeah, every season, every season,
and one of the things we've talked about is that
season one felt like it was mabel season, and season
two felt like it was Charles's and season three felt
like Oliver's and so that kind of begs the question,
who do season four belong to?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Season four? We're flying through these suckers. It's interesting. There's
a natural lean in for Charles the story because of
the victim at the end of season three, and yet
we were very conscious in the writer's room to lean
into all three in their particular situations. And I think
(05:02):
because of the nature of the crime and the concern
for Charles, this combination of creating arcs for all three
of the characters that had the trio working this mystery
together throughout the season in sort of half protection mode
because they weren't sure who the intended target was.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And I feel like this season they get kind of
like the cartoonish, oversimplified maybe mean descriptions of who each
of them are. Thanks to of Bev. Yeah, Bev played
by the amazing Molly Shannon, which we were so excited
to see.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Molly's like an old, dear, dear, dear friend of mine
for many, many years, and I worked with her before once,
but this was and it had been a while, and
so the chance to get to work with her again
was like the greatest thrill and it was like, I
just she just knocks it out of the park.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
I think, Yeah, we're watching her on the other two
right now, and she's just so fun She's so good,
so funny.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Greatest and the loveliest human being ever.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Oh yeah, gosh, I love hearing that, I could tell.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So, so what was it like to get back on
set this season, putting the show together and then filming
it and being back.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah. I think the setup was really strong for an
emotional storyline, but also that mix of an emotional story
which I wed like to do, a car crashing tonal
mix of an emotional storyline that was right at the
(06:44):
core of one of our trio, particularly all three of
our trio, as I said, in protection of that other person,
and then buttressed right up against this hard, smashing kind
of big news that they were going to make a
film of the podcast they'd all created together. So those
simultaneous forces happening felt like both great comedy fodder and
(07:09):
great dramatic tension for them. So yeah, it was a
blast to sort of swing two different ways and then
follow two different tracks of was says The target was
Charles the target, and then subsequently the third element being
this West Tower and the residents of the Arconia that
(07:29):
we have not quite gotten to know yet. So it
was a great opportunity for like three tracks of a
story that felt really nice and clean and fun.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Okay, so last season you teased La. Obviously we had
an idea that we would be coming to La.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
We're here.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You did it.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Can you tell us about shooting in La? How different
is it? Where'd you shoot any iconic places?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I mean, it was crazy. I was directing the first
two episodes, so it was a huge bit of planning
and Kristen Burne, our brilliant producer, managed with both LA
contingencies and knowing who would come from New York and
how to balance that and set us up so beautifully.
And you know, I mean Kyle our DP and I
(08:17):
were so head down with Cedric Vara, our brilliant AD
and just really head down sort of planning out, mapping out,
cross boarding and you know, planning because we only had
three days to shoot in LA, and they were very
specific days, and one was at Paramount and everything that
we needed at Paramount, and then one was at this
(08:39):
location for the apartment building for SAZ and then when
was this huge Hollywood party day that was bonkers huge
for one day of shooting, and so we were within
our frame. You know, you could only have that, and
then we all had to head back and start shooting
in New York. So all set to go. Everything was great,
(08:59):
and the day before, I want to say, it was like, yeah,
the day before it was it was clear Kyle had
come down. Our DP had come down with the flu
in such a like like a major flu. Couldn't get
out of it. Oh no, And we had no DP
(09:20):
and we were in Los Angeles and I fortunately had
worked on the Paramount lot on Grayson Frankie and I
directed several episodes of that, and I knew a fantastic DP.
I worked with Luke Miller. But to say to him, like,
you need to come tomorrow morning at seven am we
start shooting. Are you free and do you have any
(09:43):
idea what this show is? And do you know? And
God love him, he dove in. He came. He had
to move a couple of things, but he saved our
asses and I mean followed along the plan, but also
really was he was brilliant and he really like made
at work in a way that that's backstage story.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Thank God for plans, right, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
Huge, Yeah, yeah, seriously.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Another thing about that that party, when Meryl Streep walks
in in that blackgown, I was like, ugh.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
She her, she left no drums forty five years Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
No crumbs.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah. It was a sleigh entrance, and that's what we
were looking for, and it wanted to feel like incidental,
a bit tossed off, not too grand, and yet there
she was looking like that, and it was like, ah,
kind of catching you breathless. I know, that was a
beautiful night. I want to say we were shooting that.
I mean it was probably ten thirty when we started
(10:54):
shooting it. We had two other scenes we still needed
to shoot, so we were there till a good tour
three in the morning that night at that house. Yeah,
all day before it. Wow. But yeah, how stunning, fabulous
and heartbreaking is she and Marty in that first scene.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I know, Yeah, in my notes on the episode, it's
just all caps stunning, stunning, I know, right like grab.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
It was a good It was a good way. You know.
There's been a lot of talk about La and the
show and we are. There has never been any question
for me that this is we are a New York
show and we will always be that. So there was
a lot of worry about how much time in LA
and that's going to do this or that. But I
did feel I don't know, I hope people feel that
(11:45):
it gave a surprising, like joke to the storytelling in
a way, and to see that trio in context and
make sort of light easy trophy jokes. But yeah, I
put a new spin on them for LA.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
It's fun to see the trio out just in general,
in general in a new place, you know. So it's like,
and I love your little trick because you I think
the opening shot when they're in LA is in a
in New York in the Paramount Life in New York.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Oh my god, yes, right, that was that. I'm so
glad you liked that. That was a It was a
real task and I was like, oh my god, is
this going to play? And everyone in that was so
good too. All those people, like is a wonner, So
they had to be perfect each time we did it. Yeah,
and uh and I everyone from the screaming mother on
(12:38):
the fire escape to the kid with the basketball and everybody.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, what's it called the fire hydrant? Squirt and water?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah? Those kids yeahes and hot Dog Guy and facing
the cab.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
It was all ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
We loved seeing the whole movies because they're clearly real
home movies. It's so cool to see everybody so young.
How many did you get to watch? I guess to
choose you wanted?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
There was such such limited footage obviously, you know, because
it was one of those things like do you have?
And I mean I assumed Selena had a lot more,
and she does in many ways, but you know, a
lot of it is like she's young enough that it's
like on you know, your laptop or on a phone
or so it's all very It's not old home movie
(13:47):
footage as Steve and Marty's were, But I it came
down to a very select few clips that we could use.
It just felt like the ones that, to me were
so clear and they matched up with it was sweet
the way they matched up with the script.
Speaker 6 (14:04):
Then we've had countless moving images emblazoned in our memories,
and ever since then we've had a chance to ask,
is that how I look when I run?
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Do it?
Speaker 6 (14:16):
Holly Crave you get here.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It's a whole season of reflecting upon what you've done
and who you are now. And that started off triggered
by the victim is a stunt double, a Hollywood stunt double.
So the entire season was written thinking in those terms
(14:42):
of film, of reflections of yourself, doppelgangers. And right at
the top of the season, Charles is narrating about film
and looking at yourself and as we all have home
movies and like you look at you really do reflect
(15:04):
and say is that me? Or who I used to be?
Or is that who I want to be? And that
becomes the theme throughout the whole season, and in a
way it sort of strips away any reticence between our
trio that has been there. You know, they came to
know each other carefully through season one, and you know
(15:28):
seasons two and three, I watched them stretch, you know,
into familiarity and more comfort.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Hell, yes I crushed it. Olivers, Yes I'm still homeless.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yes, this is his least defensive rope. We were very
conscious of just she's in Oliver's robe and she's coming
down and like annoyed with them a little bit more,
and she Selena felt very freed up in a way
that I hadn't seen for this character as Mabel. Simultaneously,
(16:05):
so that was like thrilling over and over and over again.
I think she's never been funnier in this Yeah, I
love that. You know, it's the show is about our
trio and where they are in their lives, and I
think it was time to do a season that what
have we created here with this podcast and what kind
(16:26):
of ways are we and creating trouble? Did we get
a dear friend killed?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Now?
Speaker 3 (16:33):
All of it felt like what are we doing? And
asking ourselves and being confronted by mirror reflections of yourself
throughout a season seemed really interesting.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
After the break, we talked to co writer of episode one,
Joshua Allan Griffith. We hear about his perspective on the
missing body at the crime scene and how to make
the perfect sound of wind blowing through a bullet hole
in the window of the fourteenth floor New Your Department.
(17:09):
First of all, I guess before we get into episode specifics,
how was it getting back in the room, How was
it seeing everybody? How was it writing?
Speaker 7 (17:15):
I mean, it was an enormous relief because we had
not been allowed to really talk about the show or
work on the show for so many months, and I
was a strike captain on the Sony lots. So I
was really out there every single day seeing a lot
of the writers that I worked with on the show
and missing them and missing the process. And so it
(17:38):
was very joyous to you know, get back in there
pass through the arch that we had been like walking
around in front of for so many months. That was
very emotional. And then it was also just to get
into that weird mindset that you really only use when
you're working on a mystery show, which is creating all
(18:00):
of these logical illogical It's like roller coaster of story.
So in a sense, I feel like my brain had
atrophied in those months a little bit. But once we
were back into it, it was you know, it was
my third season on the show, and it felt like
a homecoming.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Do you guys have a similar murder board in the writer's.
Speaker 7 (18:21):
Room, Yes, we have several.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
We have.
Speaker 7 (18:26):
God, I'm trying to think if I were to walk
back into the room today, you know, there's a board
that says that that season would have said episodes four
one through four ten, with every character you know, on
the left X axis and on the y axis is
the episodes, and you're sort of like putting up a
(18:47):
note card for their emotional state for every episode, you know,
tracking who they are over the course of the season.
Then there's a separate one with just like random things
that I think are more of like a wish list
of things which could rain from like I don't want
to spoil anything. God, I forgot about that, you know,
(19:09):
like bird question mark, does it talk, like, does it
narrate an episode? That's you know, like all sorts of
random stuff. That's another board. Then there's per episode boards. Yeah,
it gets very beautiful, mind very quick.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah, sounds very cool.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
It's fun to imagine. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Well, so in this season premiere we meet a lot
of new characters, so.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Those boards must have been even bigger this season.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, so can you can you tell us about some
of I mean, let's maybe let's start with the Brothers Sisters,
which is hilarious. This conceptually is very hilarious. But also
I recently discovered Catherine Cohen as a comedian and she
is so so funny. So tell us about the Brothers
Sisters and introducing them.
Speaker 7 (20:00):
Oh man, you know, pre casting there were many, I
don't want to say many versions, but like many stabs
taken at their voice and ultimately I guess the characters
in the voice land somewhere in between the actors that
you cast who were amazing and great to work with
on set, and where you start. And I remember a
(20:26):
version where they were sort of they only communicated in
whispers to one another, and everybody kind of had to
like lean in a little bit, like what do you say?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
What do they say?
Speaker 7 (20:34):
Like little snickers.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I've been with that person on set before, and it's
really hard to communicate.
Speaker 7 (20:43):
Yeah, like very art housey pretentious versions.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
They kind of.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Ended up pretty art house pretentious, right, Yes, like.
Speaker 7 (20:54):
A beautiful mix of like casting and wardrobe and ridiculous
character ideas. But they were just they were so much
fun and I feel like we shot a lot of
their stuff and what made it in is great. But
I also feel like there are jokes out there too
(21:15):
that get cut for time or whatnot that are just
so funny. I do a whole like spin off just
following their you know, grad school student films.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Yeah, right, that sounds good. I'd watch it. I would
love to see those. I present to you the brothers.
I'm sorry your brothers were sisters.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Oh I thought I heard brothers.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Were the brothers sisters Trina and Tawny brothers, and they're
identical twins, which is so neat.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And when there was a lot in this first episode
right like it's a it's a meaty premiere, and it's
also in so many different locations, and I was trying
to list all of the different locations that they have
scenes in, and then they're like all over the place?
Can you tell us about piecing all of those different
things together and making that work.
Speaker 7 (22:13):
I was lucky enough to be involved on the location
scouting for the episode, the Los Angeles locations scouting, because
we were still in the room in LA when we
were prepping for the first block episodes one and two.
So I got to sort of sneak away from the
(22:34):
room and go with John in a van and drive
around Los Angeles and check out different locations. So those
locations ranged from the places that we were considering for
the Sunset Swan, which is the apartment story department building
where Saz lives, the locations for the big Hollywood party
(22:58):
where they or the trio meets their ganger trio. So
that ranged from all sorts of crazy mega mansions in
the Hollywood Hills, and like how many infinity pools, you know,
and you see in a day. I remember distinctly we
were scouting the mansion that we ultimately ended up using,
(23:18):
and I was like looking over the balcony down onto
a property that was like down the hill, and that
property had a swimming pool that was not an infinity pool.
And I had a moment where I was like, Wow,
how like the scouting had changed me? I was it
(23:41):
looked like who would put that in? I was like,
I need to get out of this world. This is
not where I'm from. But it was just fun to see,
to like see to experience that for the first time,
drive around LA and try and capture different little sections
of the city that make it feel that pay homage
to different parts of Hollywood and different parts of Los Angeles.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
So I think the episode opens up with the Sergeiloni
film and then we see it again later.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
In the Once Upon a Time in the West.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Yeah, and we see it later in the episode. What
can you explain the connection? How did it come about?
Speaker 7 (24:19):
It came out of the brilliant mind of John Hoffin,
And I know that you guys talk to him. I
wonder if he asked him about it.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
He we forgot.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
That's why we were.
Speaker 7 (24:29):
Asking you, Oh, well, he's like in the next room,
I could run over there. And I think that we
were intrigued by the notion of like cinematic storytelling at
its most fundamental, you know, like to tell a story
with images without words, and just to show what you
(24:52):
can do with images, which is so much of what
the season is about. Moving him mentioned how much we
love movies, we love Hollywood culture, and what a big
role it plays in the lives of the characters in
this season and in general, like Charles Hayden Sandwich, you know,
in general in his life, to him being an actor,
Marty's character being a director.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
When we were kind of thinking of questions, we started
like looking into the plot of the movie and like
all the characters, and we're like, there's there must be.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
We may have over we may have overthought.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
I just guarantee the fans of this show will do
the same.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah, they're going to look into easter eggs inside of
Once upon a Time in the West as to who
the killer is. Yeah, and it might accidentally line up,
who knows.
Speaker 7 (25:35):
It's a ploy, like an elaborate ploy to get people
to watch TCM A little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
More So, let's take it back to the beginning of
the episode, because we kind of pick up where we
left off in last season. They're like ending the last
podcast episode and we as viewers know that Sas has
been shot, but the truth doesn't know yet. Can you
tell us about the process of maybe making the decision
(26:02):
that SAS's body has been moved? I don't know if
that happened after the season ended or before, and that
whole like building the tension of that opening scene.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Yeah, it was a shock to me. I was expecting
them to find respecting her there good question.
Speaker 7 (26:20):
I think that on the one hand, I know I
felt this way. I can't speak for everybody, but I
felt that the trio finding SAS's body was going to
be too emotionally shattering for Charles that tonally it would
be hard to, I think, manage that sort of scene.
(26:44):
I think when you watch episode two, you'll see that
the way in which Charles handles the ashes of Sas
after finding her in the incinerator is just I feel
like we wanted to give Steve Martin the opportunity to
use his physical comedy genius in a way that was
(27:09):
like both funny and mournful, and I don't think would
have been possible if he happened upon her body in
the flesh, which played into the decision. But I also
just think it's a great twist and it's a great
question it gives I think it gave us as writers
and gives the audience a lot of questions to ask,
(27:31):
and that gives you episodes to play with. And so
there's a character an emotional based decision as much as
a mystery decision.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
I think, yeah, I can see that, and you get
to do a lot of really fun things with the
tension of the trio entering the apartment and expecting them
to find her and not.
Speaker 7 (27:52):
Yeah, and you get the bullet hole, Like you get
to play with the dramatic irony of the bullet hole,
which I think they used this. But when we were
editing the episode, John and I were working with the
editor and toying with different versions of the whistling noise,
and I was sort of like, I let you know,
(28:13):
I think this works, but I always pictured it sounding
a little bit more like and they're like what I
was like, you know, the kind of like and they're like,
hold on, like, could you record yourself doing that and
me and I was like, yeah, I guess, and so
I did that.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Is it your voice?
Speaker 7 (28:32):
It's my it's my mouth making that noise. And I
was like, I thought that we had like progressed beyond
this technology. I was simultaneously proud and a little let
down and demstified by it.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
But yeah, that's mee magic. Oh my god, what a
great what a great story.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (28:54):
Absolutely, But if someone had to get murdered, let's also
who we hoped it would be.
Speaker 7 (28:59):
That's important.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Oh no, it's fine.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Count of three, one, two.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Listeners. What do you think did that sound like Joshua
Alan Griffith's mouth?
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I think it did. It sounds pretty convincing.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, okay, Well, after the break, we catch up again
with John Hoffman to talk a little bit more about
what it was like building the tension around Saz's missing
body and the origin story of the Brothers Sisters.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
In this episode, we meet the Brothers Sisters. Yeah, uh
have theories as to the name and and but can
you tell me the inspiration a brother Sisters?
Speaker 3 (29:55):
I have a First of all, I have a weakness
for a really dumb joke. Okay, that and it wasn't
a dumb joke. I will not say it was a
dumb joke because I'll never forget Pete Swanson in the
writer's room pitching it and kind of hiding his head,
and I said, what, what did you just say? He said,
what if? Their last name is the Brothers, but they're
known as the brothers sisters. And I was like, Okay,
(30:16):
I'm in love with it.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
So because there's so many famous brother directing teams, yes,
you know.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Yes, that's that was the play on it that I
loved it for. I thought the Duffer Brothers. I thought,
you know, any any of the brothers pairings that have
produced or directed movies together, the Cohen Brothers, all of that,
and I thought, it's always brothers. I don't know that
there's ever been sisters. So if it's the sisters, let's
call them brothers, which I thought was sort of a
thumb in the eye that way.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
That's great, That's what I wanted.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
And oh my god, another huge one episode one. We
see Scott Bacula.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
Hey, saz.
Speaker 8 (30:57):
Oh Facula, Hey, Charles, congratulations. It was nice to see
another white haired white guy beat the odds.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Oh thanks, I mean kind of surprises, right, Yeah, I
know surprises that have been teed up.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah, totally true, true true.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Did you get faked out?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I mean I knew it wasn't Saz because I knew
she was dead, but I was like, who is it
going to be? And I was not expecting It's got faculous.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
So that was really fun.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
He was so great. I love him so much. And
I worked with him on a show I did for
HBO called Looking, and so he had heard his name
being bandied about in the show for three seasons, and
you know, was like, I don't understand what's happening. Why
am I being brought up? He said, I just know
(31:53):
I know the guy who does that show I worked
with before, and and I don't know if I even thought,
like was I making fun? I'm like, no, I love you.
That's what we keep using your name because everybody loves
Scott Bacula. So he was really great in being game
to come. He was doing a play in New York
and just came by and gave us this lovely moment.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
It was really great. That was fantastic, And I'm wondering,
I'm curious to know the order of how things happened
in the first episode, and landing the idea that that
body isn't in the kitchen.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
That was very fun because there's constant like I was like,
when are they going to see this body? Like it's
got to be there.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
I did not think it was going to be missing.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I know. That was a fun sort of thing to
play with. And then the phone message coming in and
like creating a sense of foreboding with the audience that
they didn't have and how long could we hold that?
But if we kept tethering it, you know in ways
that were odd clues and that whistle through the window
and all that there were things running through that kept
(33:03):
it was a balancing act for that first episode, particularly
within the writing, to have the fun of Hollywood being
introduced and all of that, but to keep alive this
mystery story and wait a minute, that there's something wrong. Yeah,
and Charles carries a lot of it, and then the
(33:23):
other two slowly are starting to feel it, and I
hope I love the build of that. And it was
thrilling to sort of have the fun of that first
episode of all of the stuff, all of the new
locations and all the places we were going and the
new information about a movie and everything else and doing
all that we get to do all these things, but
like to be able to sort of build a back
and forth between the great sort of Sergio Leoni classic
(33:47):
of once Fung Time in the West and what they're discovering.
And it's actually sort of gutting what happens at the end.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
Obviously, what are you most excited about for once the
season premieres and people start watching it and talking about it, Like,
(34:17):
what is it that you what is it that you
most look forward to now that you've done this for
now four seasons?
Speaker 3 (34:24):
I mean, in some ways this season, you know, even
though we're we have the elements that become a part
of the fabric of the show, you know, the Hollywood
movie sort of world but slowly coming in and coming
to New York and like making its way as a
presence but not overtaking it and keeping I hope that
(34:47):
people really like that. We're also just back to a
mystery based story that's emotionally connected to the Trio in
a way that you know, feels big and right for
us in that way. I really like that part of it,
and the trio working together a lot throughout the season
(35:10):
and across the season is always a good thing. I mean,
that chemistry and that alchemy that they found together, And
as you guys were saying, it's sort of the growth
of them, you know, just makes you want to hang
with them more and more, it feels to me. And and
then I think, I think the other thing is sort
of I'm really proud of everybody on the show that
(35:33):
sort of is unafraid to dream big and go a
little bigger and keep it within the within the sort
of tone and nature of what the show has always
wanted to be, but stretch it in ways that feel like,
oh my god, this is this is quite a ride
for a television show. It and it feels that way,
(35:55):
maybe more than ever in this season to me, certainly
by the nature of who's in it, but also you know, thematically,
and I don't know, it felt like a good moment
to sort of step back and look at a podcast
that if they had solved as many murders as this
podcast had done, it's we weren't pushing it too fast
(36:17):
and far. It felt to me very like a modern
situation that they would find themselves in now, having Hollywood
come a calling.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Thank you, so much for listening. Next week we'll talk
all about episode two. We'll hear from writer Kristin Newman
and some of the brand new members of the cast.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Also, after this week, we will be releasing two episodes
every week. So get excited and hold on to your butts. Yeah,
well on to your boots. Please send your thoughts and
theories to us at Only Murders at straw hutmedia dot com.
We love hearing your thoughts and theories.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
And take a minute to subscribe, rate, follow review if
you like the show.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, it's super helpful.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Oh, before we go, we have teamed up with the
moderators of the Only Murders subreddit and they were so
kind enough to put together a list of some of
the best discussions and theories leading.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Up to this episode.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
Here is one of the moderators, Hannah.
Speaker 10 (37:25):
Hi, Maggie, Hi Ryan. So pleased to see you by
back housting the pod this season. I'm one of the
moderators for the Only Murders in the Building subreddit our
slash only Murders really, and today I've got a little
refresher on the subs, theories and hopes for season four.
Our members have missed the show so so much, and
(37:48):
everyone is really happy to see it back on our
screen so soon after last year's strikes and everything. So
huge props to the cast, crew, writers, everyone for their
hard work. Of course, the main question everyone has for
now is was says the intended victim? Or was the
murderer really aiming for Charles or maybe it was neither
(38:13):
of them? Song Mom Forever says, watching season one, I
noticed theory sees the trio in Charles's apartment through his binoculars.
Any chance the shooter was in the Diamas apartment. Then
we have naval gazing with a really fun theory about
someone who's often mentioned on the show. They say a
(38:37):
lot of people are joking about Scott Bacula being the killer,
but what if he was the intended victim? I was
watching the very first episode and in it, Oliver confuses
Charles with Scott Bacula. So I think Charles says, and
Scott we're all running around the building that night looking
the same. Some people also think we may have another
(39:00):
murderous duo on our hands, like we did last season.
Distinct Presence eighty suggests Sas was killed by two people,
a woman and a man. We also have many people
wondering if we may see Jan somehow being involved with
this season's mystery, as she's obviously dated both Charles and
Saz and we know she can be quite the psychopath.
(39:24):
Another known x of both Charles and Sas is Cookie,
who was briefly mentioned in season one. Maybe we'll meet
her this season and we'll find out a little bit
more about SAS's passed through her Unicorn. Best friend says,
I think Sas got tangled up in something nefarious, either
through Jan or through work. And finally we've got a
(39:47):
beautiful yet tragic theory brought to us by scary Underscore season.
Maybe Saz knew that Charles was in danger for some
reason and took the bullet for him one last time.
Now getting away from the mystery a little bit. In
terms of what people hope to see this season, Sas
(40:07):
has been a fan favorite since our very first episode
in season one, so our members are really excited to
learn more about her and her backstory this season. I
think it'll be very interesting. People are also very happy
to see Davine Joy Randolph aka Detective Williams, another fan favorite,
back this season after her very successful year last year
(40:29):
with the holdovers, and obviously had to mention it. Everyone
is so happy that the iconic Meryl Streep has decided
to come back for another season, because who doesn't love
a bit of Meryl. Now, regarding the plot, our members
were initially a little bit skeptical about our trio potentially
(40:50):
leaving the Arconia for lated season, but the trailers have
kind of turned that around and everyone now is nicely
excited and intrigued to see you what do your element brings?
And finally, if anyone was wondering, yes, which of the
Pick Quick trip lists did? It is still stuck in
(41:10):
everyone's heads and to paraphrase Steve Martin, here's a great
season four. We are looking forward to more interesting theories,
great mystery, and fun discussions with everyone.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Only Murders in the Building podcast is a production of
straw Hut Media, hosted and produced by Ryan Tillotson and
Maggie Bowles.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
That's Me.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Associate producer is Stephen Markley. Original music by Kyle Merritt
and Only Murders theme music by Siddartha Kosla.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Big Big, Big, Big Big. Thanks to John Hoffman and
the entire Hulu team. For their help on making the
show possible.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Thanks guys, Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
The end, people really liked you.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
We didn't hate us, and that was that was the
key all we really needed.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
I know, the feeling we have a very low, low
bar right there with you.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Truthfully, that's my bar always.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Just don't hate me.
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