February 1, 2023 • 42 mins
Mike, Chris, and Mark tackle episode four, "Revenge and Remorse," aka, "The Guilty Alibi." William Shatner doesn't make it past the credits, and Dr. Joyce Brothers hits Johnny up for advice on the Cinderell Complex. This episode is rife with literalisms, visual gags, and weird touches, and may be the last really strong episode of the series.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Police Squad in Color, starring LeslieNielsen, also starring Alan North and Rex
(00:29):
Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln. The night'sspecial guest starter William Shatner. Ay you
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the night's episode The Guilty Allaby,Welcome to from the files of Police Squad
in Color. I'm your host.Mike White joined me, of course.
Is mister Chris Stashue. I wentto the movies on the Waterfront. Also
with us, is mister Mark Begley. Is this some kind of bust?
(01:12):
Yes? Very impressive. On thisepisode we are talking about revenge and remorse.
It was the fourth episode shot.The fourth episode aired, though it
aired before the third episode. Wecould just go crazy with house, just
like the Prisoner, Just like thePrisoner. The Prisoner was gladly those two
(01:37):
that are swapped, though, becauseI would have a real hard time keeping
track of things if anymore had beenswapped. Special guest star William Shatner,
who avoids getting shot, but thenhe ends up either choking or getting poisoned.
I imagine it's poison but I kindof wish that he had just like
taken a bite and then he chokeson the food. But it was a
drink that he drinks and then heis that great thing in slow motion for
(02:02):
you as well. Yeah, yeah, oh okay, all right, the
post production slow motion which I absolutelyhate. Yeah that was weird drink poisoned
by Leonard Nimoy. Coincidentally, Ohokay makes sense, you know, yeah,
it definitely makes sense. Directed byPaul Krasny, written again by Nancy
(02:23):
Stein and Neil Thompson. I'm notsure if Pat Proft was involved with this
one or not, but yes,this is the fourth episode, and this
one is all about a mad bomberwho is going around killing all of the
people involved in a particular court case. And I think it is the core
case of mister Casalis, whose namereally rings a bell. I wanted to
(02:50):
mention something that I don't think we'vetalked about. Part of the credits that
confuse me as a kid and confusesme to this day is the Abraham Lincoln
it And I think Mike early onyou mistakenly said Rex Harrison, who is
who I always thought it was becauseI knew that name, And then I'm
(03:10):
like, well, wait, no, who's Rex Hamilton because I don't I'm
not familiar with this guy. What'sthe joke here? And so I looked
finally looked him up, and he'dnever done anything except be Abraham Lincoln and
the opening credits of Police Squad.Shouldn't it be someone familiar like Rex Harrison?
I don't know. Well, that'sthe gag. That guy is an
Abraham Lincoln impersonator in real life.That the whole that makes sense. I
(03:38):
guess it'd be if they were likeand how Holbrook has Mark Twain, but
how Holbrook has the whole career apartfrom Mark Twain. Yeahs fdr. Yeah,
that's a deeper cut. Yeah.I thought it was Alan Rickman as
Richard Nixon? Or is it whohe plays in that movie? Or does
(03:59):
he play j was that w orsomething else? No, it's that Forrest
Whittaker movie where he plays the butlerin the White House. Oh okay,
gosh, man, I remember whenthat was supposed to be a big deal.
Is that Lee Daniels directing that?I think so. I don't even
know who Lee Daniels is, butit was all over like Lee Daniels the
(04:21):
Butler. Okay, a movie tochange the time, Yes, all right,
I don't know what I'm getting confusedwith. But there's this whole gag
in here of these walking feet,and we start off the episode with these
walking feet, and we get thewalking feet three times. I think again
(04:41):
the law of threes when it comesto comedy. I kept writing in my
notes hop scotch, like I keptwaiting for those walking feet to hit a
hot scotch thing and then do hopscotch. I don't know if that's an
in another episode or if it's inthe movie. It's going to be in
the movie. Okay, that's it'sthe whole and Where the Hell was I?
(05:03):
It's that whole thing where it's likehe's voice over ring and it shows
him walking and then shows him doinghopscotch, and it shows him walking off
the end of the sidewalk, whichis one of my favorite gags the whole
movies, like and Where the Hellwas I? And he's like essentially overlooking
la at the Hollywood side. Butyeah, that's no, you're remembering it
from the movie. I was expectingit in the episode too. Yeah.
(05:25):
I wasn't expecting it, but Idid like what we got going over the
chair, yes, inexplicably, thenover the table, and that was pretty
good. Replacing the gavel with theexploding gavel. That was good. And
we've got Frank back in his car. At the beginning of this he was
getting his car washed. So we'vegot the guy in the back still washing
(05:47):
his car that he got pulled awayfrom goes to headquarters. My boss was
already on the scene, and thiswhole thing of coffee Frank don't have Frank.
And then the way that they walkthrough that commissary line and they just
pick out prime rib and all thatsitting there eating a slice of prime rib
(06:10):
Leslie Nielsen is throughout the entire scene. Yes, he is just muncheon down
on that slice of prime rib thewhole scene. I appreciate because again we've
talked about the lack of continuity,and there's a there's a continuity gag in
this episode where it's check your jacketand you know, check your jacket,
but and that disappears immediately. ButI appreciate that they leave it with them
(06:32):
eating food and he's just sitting eatinga slice of prime rib for like damn
near two or three minutes. Theygo through all the suspects and they're listening
off all of these names until theyget to Salis Salus and Nam rings a
bell in all of the different bellsthat are going off typewriter. Such a
(06:53):
stupid gag, but I fucking loveit. It's like the on the Waterfront
gag. It's like it's that literalinterpretation thing, but done in the right
way. There's no movie theaters downat the waterfront. I liked early on
when that we see those feet andthen we see the gloved hands, and
(07:13):
again cop show type stuff. You'reyou're scrolling down the directory to find what
you want to find, but theperson's like dragging all the letters and numbers
off. That was good. Youdon't usually see stuff like that. I
like that. I appreciated that youcan see some of these jokes coming a
mile away. He was a modelprisoner. And then yes, yeah,
(07:35):
or the whole thing of his wife, La Lana Casalis, the way that
she's boxing up all the stuff forthe widows and orphans and then taking all
of their clothes and then they cutto them walking out and they're just in
their shirts and underwear. That stuffworks. I actually really like the gag
where they're in the dressing room ofhis wife. She's like, let me
(07:57):
go change. She goes behind thething and comes out, it's a different
actress. The rest of the episode. The rest of the entire episode,
it's somebody else. Well. Itwas weird because when she starts to talk,
I was like, that doesn't soundlike her voice. So I think
they adyard the original actress, youknow, the second actress over the first
(08:18):
actress. Her voice doesn't change whenshe comes out from behind that changing panel.
Even that's a really good gag though, like it just that one is
a and it stays throughout the entireepisode. They don't walk it back,
which again, for all the continuityproblems that they do on purpose, there
are some things that they don't walkback. Oh yeah, I was expecting
(08:41):
a third actress when they met upwith her again. Yeah, I kind
of was expecting there to be afurther twisting of the dial and there wasn't,
which I don't know. That's showingsome restraint maybe or maybe they just
couldn't come up with another funny gag. I don't know, maybe a little
bit of both. I think itwould have with a completely different actress.
(09:03):
Again, maybe not going back tothe original gal That's what I was expecting
and hope. Yeah, I thinkI think it could have worked pretty well.
I mean, her name is Mimide Jour, but now she goes
by Mimi Coffee, isn't What doesdo your mean of the day of the
day. I think it's just toget to the coffee gag. So it's
(09:24):
maybe now it's Mimi coffee, coffee, no thank you. It's kind of
like the cigarette gag. That's howI saw it. Yeah, I mean
that is as far as it endsup going. We've got another coffee gag
in this one, which is talkingabout coffee commercials. My doctor says,
I have to switch to decaf,and this is I think maybe somebody was
(09:48):
referring to him lugging in the nextepisode. Yes, yeah, this coffee
commercial bit when they bring it backis part of that mugging that And I
don't know if it'll continue into fiveand six, but you know, definitely
we get there eventually in the moviesfor sure, pretty quickly into that second
(10:09):
one, and probably in the firstone a lot as well. Even there's
a lot of mugget for the cameras. Again, there are a few people
who do the mugging as well asLeslie Nielsen funny Face as they would call
him. That's not what makes thiscomedy funny for me at least, it's
the fact that he has to bethe straight man while delivering the jokes.
(10:31):
That's the thing, Like he's thestraight man and he's the comedian, and
that's what's always worked for me withLeslie Nielsen. And there are very few,
if any, other actors who cando it as well as him.
Hey, it's a very unique expectationas your lead for what he does in
this show and a naked gun andan airplane. Frankly, it's kind of
(10:52):
Leslie Nielsen's I would say, claimto fame for how his comedy worked.
I think is if you knew howto write for him, this is how
you right for him. It's justdon't sell the jokes, Yea, you
don't sell them either. Yeah,even if you're writing jokes, it's like
you can't laugh, dude, it'snot funny, like this is sell it
straight, do not break. Evenwhen it's in the first movie and Nordberg
(11:13):
is you know, he's essentially killingNordberg over and over again by accident.
It's not funny. He's not laughinglike it's but it is funny what he's
doing. And that when the showtaps into that idea, and the show,
I think is doing a very goodjob of tapping into it. It
really works. We already mentioned theon the waterfront thing. I do really
(11:37):
appreciate that Cassalis's joke joke that hiscoat says Penn State and then on the
back it's a state pen, whichis nice. Well, and I like
that they do on the waterfront gagthree times in the movie at least,
and they already made an on thewaterfront gag in the second episode. Well,
I'm just talking about in this episodeitself that they do it towards the
(12:00):
end, right right, because he'slike, where were you? And he's
like, well, that's not whatyour wife said. But I guess they
don't stay on the waterfront at thatpoint though he wasn't seeing the movies.
He was over watching a baseball game, breaking his parole. Guess that makes
sense. I want to know whatthe hell Olsen is doing to that cat.
(12:24):
He is talking about gills and lungsand the difference and how it is
he's trying to show how cats can'tbreathe underwater. Yes, that's what it
seems like. Yes, would youlike to keep them next week, I'll
show you why women can't play professionalfootball. Oddly consistently misogynistic, yes,
(12:45):
but not pervy this time. No, not pervy, just misogynist. They
got some angry letters, might getangry letters about the pasties on Mimi's door.
There were some good visual gags inthis episode. That was one of
(13:05):
them, for sure, Yes,which I don't think at twelve years old
I probably got so. Also,like the gag at the end of all
right, We've caught her now runnerin Yeah, that was one of those,
like the Model prisoner one where youknow, joke is going as soon
as he says it's like, ohwell they're gonna run nice edition of the
(13:30):
starter blocks. But still oh yeah. But that's I mean, that's what
makes it a good gag. Thatin The gag of the guy in the
tree is another good which is justyou know that I like that again,
they're not like, oh my god, there's a guy in the tree,
there's his watch. It's just hejust checks the watch in his face.
That that for me, that kindof joke, that kind of approach to
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telling that joke is the za Zway of doing it. Oh yeah,
it's just it's just part of theworld. There's no lantern hanging. We're
not knowledging that this is a gagor a joke. And that's when these
kinds of projects that they work onwork the best is when they don't acknowledge
that it's a gag. Like anairplane, they weren't like, holy shit,
(14:11):
it's an inflatable autopilot. It's justan autopilot and you got to blow
it up, and it's blowtube happensto be right where it's dick is,
because of course it is. Othertelegraph jokes, the radio announcer choking out
the smoke from the car bomb.I was like, okay, yeah,
I knew that was going to happen. But then you get some great visual
gags like the tow truck is oneof my favorites. And then the other
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one is the club Flamingo, whichit took me a few minutes to figure
out that the man was clubbing theFlamingo. A club Flamingo joke is fucking
great. And what do you say, like, she told me to come
to the club tonight or something,but right away, come to the club
right away. Yeah, but therewas no clubway, there was no glob
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right away. Toe truck was agroner for me. I was like,
Oh, it's gonna be a bigtoe. Yeah, yeah, there it
is. And it wasn't even reallya truck, No, it was more
of a car, the toe vehicle. It was a golf Kurt. You
don't know how hard it is rattingout the guy that you love. And
I was waiting for him to justbe like, hell, you know,
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and start telling that whole next storyabout how he had to do that once.
I was expecting an actual rat tofactor into it somehow, just given
this show's literalism. Yeah. Yeah, there was a repeat gag from the
last episode in this one where theydo the let's say bit oh boy a
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lot. Yeah, And they didit two or three times in the last
episode and two or three times inthis one. And I was like,
hmmm, you know, like yousay, Mike watching stuff back to back,
Yeah, with intent. It probablywouldn't strike you if you're just watching
it on a weekly basis, oryou want to start watching the show on
(16:03):
March and you have to return toit in July. Bad breaks and all
that. But I was like,oh, that's the exact same gag.
We didn't mention in the last episodewhen he's talking about what a cesspool the
city is, and the one guy'slike, Frank, I'm trying to eat
a fish sandwich. I'm talking tomy mom. The club Famingo comes up
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again with Al wearing the shirt.I loved that little bit too. I
never picked that up. Yeah,because he's like a lot of guys from
the Force go there and then hejust like walks into frame, stands there
and then just walks back out.That's the only gag. That's the only
Al gag in this entire episode.I thought this was the long hair This
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is the long hair one. Yeah, it's trying something new, guys.
It's against regulations. You were talkingabout the eating gag. Yeah, the
eating gag with how loud though,Yeah, smack their lips and everything.
It's hilarious. So gross. Yeah. I have a thing about eating noises
though, so that kind of droveme nuts. But I did appreciate the
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humor of it. It made melaugh really hard because they again, they
don't draw any attention to it otherthan the fact that they're doing it right
and the fact that the cart isreally loud too. That's it. It's
just them. I want they're eatinglike it sounds like they're drinking putting from
a cup, is what it soundslike. Yeah, yeah, it's real,
(17:29):
is that they're eating donuts and drinkingcoffee. But it sounds like they're
just I don't know what the hellthey're doing, but it's it's so exaggerated
in the I think, yeah,other than maybe you know it triggering you.
I mean, the jokes are comingvery fast and furious in this one,
the old mug file and then thephone cord that's super long, and
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then I think the eating gag comesup, and I think right before that
we had Johnny and we have ofcourse he's right right on top of everything,
and then doctor Joyce brothers right becausewhy not. I remember more celebrity
cameos for the Johnny gags, andI'm like, oh, this is our
first one. Yeah, I knowthere's at least one more, because I
(18:17):
know who it is. I canthink of it. But I'm curious if
there's if we go back to anormal person or the last three? Will
these celebrities or the last two?I should say, if I had to
guess right offhand, I would saymel Tourmey. I know Tommy Lasorda is
one, and I don't know whothe other one was, and I could
mention Mel Tormey. Yes, DickClark shows up at one point. Oh
(18:40):
god, maybe it's Dick Clark.Then is it Dick Clark and the Johnny
gag? I think it might be. The Johnny gag goes on for quite
some time this time around. Youalast got to explain the cinema, I
know. I mean I apprecated thatit was. I appreciated that it just
kept going. She was another mainstayon daytime TV back in the day,
on every talk show and whatever else. What I think she would show up
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even on like Happy Days and stuff, make weird random cameo appearances whenever anybody
needed to help. Yeah, whichdoesn't really make sense. Was she doing
it in the fifties and early sixties? I don't know. Maybe she was.
I just remember her from my childhood. Yeah, I know, to
your point, she's an anachronism.Wasn't there a show at some point or
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was that after this The Doctor JoyceBrothers show is a thing. Oh,
I don't know. I think itcame after this show though. I just
think it's funny that she shows up. It's just so goddamn nonchalant. I
needed to tell me about the Cinderellacomplex. He just goes rattles it all
off, Johnny the Alleyway expert.Women are afraid of their own success.
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Well, let's see, she wasdoctor Joyce Brothers in Taxi. She was
Doctor Joyce Brothers and this of course, Oh she wasn't Doctor Joyce Brothers to
w KRP in Cincinnati, I meanwow. Yeah, her philmography. Yes,
Spunkless Spunky. The episode of HappyDays, she was in that as
doctor Joyce Brothers Spunkless Spunky. Yes, I don't know what that means.
(20:15):
Think that one through. Yeah,friends try to dig up what's depressing his
faithful canine companions, Spunky, whileHoward saddles marrying with a hundred pounds of
potatoes to peel for his Leopard Lodgespicnic potato salad. Oh Howard, Hey,
(20:36):
we're going to be seeing Doctor JoyceBrothers again in the original Naked Gun.
That makes sense, it does,Like it's fucking wild. She was
in Loaded Weapon one earlier this time. Oh yeah, yeah, She's in
so much stuff in the nineties,in the eighties, Like that's you mentioned
She's an anachronism, but not ananachronism enough, I don't think. And
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she was also in Spy Hard.I mean she shows up in all these
things. This is crazy. Here'ssomething I never knew existed, police Academy
in the series. Who wants that? I mean? How many police academies
are there? Is it just twentyminutes of Michael Winslow going for twenty minutes?
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Because I would watch that in aheartbeat, I would not watch Who
wouldn't even be Steve Gutenberg. It'dbe like what bobcat golfweight that he is?
He in it? Who plays theGutenberg character in the show. It's
not Steve Gutenberg. David McNaughton.What was his character's name? Maybe he's
not in the show. Yeah,wasn't it like Steve Steve? Steve make
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it easy for me? Just callme my name, Carrie Mahoney. There
is a brand new class of screwupsat the police Academy. They faced danger
and trying not to let their stupidityget in the way as a fight crime.
It sounds like police squad. Yeah, Joe Flaherty is in this,
Michael Winslow is in it. Shockingshocking. Yeah, not saying Michael Winslow
(22:14):
needs to get paid. But thisshow was in nineteen ninety seven. Tim
Kazarinsky even shows up for one appearance. Who in nineteen ninety seven was like,
yes, the characters of Police Academy. I mean, Paul mes Lansky
still trying to get a reboot offthe ground. There were twenty five episodes.
(22:38):
This thing ran an hour an episodeshow. No, Oh, you'res
god. Neil Israel and Pat Proftwere two of the big writers. Yeah,
there's the next limited series, rightsaid, sign up guys today at
nine. And the fact that itcame out of ninety seven because the first
(23:00):
Police Academy came out in what thelate eighties? Oh boy, I mean
there's a reason. I will saythat there is kind of a reason the
Naked Gun movies work. They areof a certain time and of a certain
place. I've only seen the firstof Police Academy, and it kind of
(23:22):
works because it's a mid eighties movie. I can't imagine that formula working,
just like I really can't imagine tobring it back to Naked Gun, and
I kind of mentioned it last coupleof times. I can't really imagine a
new version of Naked Gun working atall, even though I'm interested because it's
Liam Neeson who could have that energy, and I've seen him do in the
(23:42):
in the What's the What's the Warwith? Ye Oh my god, he's
so good at it. He's alists he's really funny. But that style
of humor I think was of acertain time and place, the mid mid
(24:03):
eighties to mid nineties. Like Mafiais kind of the tail end of that
scary movie kind of reboots it alittle bit. I don't see the need
for Naked Gun anymore the way itwas. Maybe they'd do something different,
But this kind of comedy kind ofonly worked when you could look at the
show that it was referencing and belike, all right, enough people know
(24:25):
what this is, that we canparody this and people will get it.
Well. The original Police Academy wasnineteen eighty four, by the way,
so I think that this kind ofpaved the way for that even earlier.
Yeah, yeah, would that beunder the category of boner comedy? I
get a boner while watching it?But the go is it the first one
(24:51):
at John Hughes movie? No,No, am I crazy? No,
it's not right? No, no, no, I know miss Lanski was
behind the whole thing. I can'tremember who directed that that first one.
Man, Why did I think itwas a John Hughes movie. I'm not
sure. I'm trying to think ifhe's done anything in a similar vein,
but I don't. I can't.Yeah, it was Hugh Wilson that directed
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it, and it was Pat Proftand Neil Israel that wrote it. Were
they responsible for Bachelor Party? Ibelieve yes, yes, they were,
as well as at least one ofthe look Who's talking movies? And you
mentioned Real Genius as well, becauseI actually listened to that episode of your
(25:33):
show and then watched Bachelor Party laterthat day, totally by coincidence. I
haven't seen Bachelor Party since it wasout originally, and I remember not liking
it, but that was I wastwelve years old. It's not my favorite.
That's the one that has Tom Hanksin Aaron. Yes, he's playing
a heel which, oh, okay, Tom Hanks work even now it doesn't
(25:56):
work. He was in the Elvismovie as Colonel Tom Parker and he's fucking
atrocious. It's like, Tom Hanks, you're too lovable, man, You're
just you're too much of a niceguy, like I'm sorry. I mean
he was a pretty good murderer inRoad to Perdition. That's mob stuff.
You could always be sympathetic for thefor the mobsters. I know, all
(26:19):
your life, all you ever wantedto be able as a gangster shookie lumps
shinookie loves. Yeah. Now I'mjust a schnookie lumps. So do you
guys recognize the guy that plays isit Eddie Kassalis? Are that name?
Herrings a Bell? I was like, I know this actor, and so
(26:42):
I had to look him up.He was the dad character in Land of
the Lost is a fucking Alzheimer forme back then, back in the seventies,
Oh yeah, I used to watchthat pretty religiously. I want you
talking about the two thousand and nineWill Farrell film. No, there was
a TV show in the second rememberthat movie? Holy just watch part of
(27:07):
it on an airplane. Airplane viewing. I saw it in theaters. Oh
boy, yeah, man, anotherjoke that I think they reuse. And
maybe it's one of the naked gunsand might be in a scary movie as
the whole there's nothing to see here. Please disperse where it's just two people
in Norberg using the loudspeaker right attheir faces in the crowd of two.
(27:33):
Right. I think that might bethe second one. I guess that makes
sense because that's also where the isthis some kind of a bust. I
think that's in the second movie aswell. Yeah, because the first movie
is the one with the nice beaver, right and thanks, I just had
it stuffed, which is like,that's an all time gag. Oh god,
Yes, and I'd like this onetoo, when the captain is chasing
(27:56):
all the people out onto the streetbecause there's the bomb, and then you
hear the car crash and all ofthe Detroit this coming back up will that
leads to a great gag with thediscovery of who the mad bomber is.
Yes, the gag isn't who itis, but how they're dressed. Because
(28:19):
every time prior to this you seethe suit legs and the dress shoes,
the suit arms as well, andshe has that's Lanta, the ex wife
has that over her dress. Ilove the sleep. I had to say
that was an LOL for me.That is when this show for me,
(28:40):
really hits it out of the park, because when it does stuff like that,
where it's like, we're going todo it throughout the entire episode and
pay it off in the end inthe most ridiculous way possible, because that
is the most ridiculous outcome for herto have. Just yeah, exactly what
it looks like, exactly what itlooks like, suit, sleeves and legs,
so good dress shoes men, stressshoes. Right, another gag.
(29:04):
It's a literalism gag, but Ithink it kind of works here, is
all right, let the bomber takeoff right. Stupid. It's so fucking
stupid when they don't do it.Every other gag is a literalism gag.
They work. But if they dothe Robert Wools school of writing where it's
(29:25):
every other or every single gag,you gotta space it out even more than
every other gag. It's got tobe like every couple gags. You can't
just do literalism every time. Likethen you'll get episode two of the show
where it was a literalism buffet.Well, the best jokes for you are
the ones that are plays on word, you know, oh piece of cake
for lieutenant, Oh no thanks,I just eight, or like a mug
(29:45):
file like stuff like that, whereit's it's a word gag, but it's
not even front and center in thescene. Like I appreciate where there's stuff
going on and there are word basedgags or the things going on in the
background, it's I appreciate that morethan and dad, and then cut to
the thing or shift to pan thecamera to the ride and well there it
(30:06):
is, like, can't do thatevery gag, because even the movie doesn't
do I mean, that's what makesthe movie like Airplane so good, is
it's not just they're on instruments thatgag over and over. They break it
up with some different styles of jokes. I do like that the mug file
is just a strip of paper onthe one cabinet. Nothing else has label
(30:27):
top notch set design, guys.And in this one, you know,
this picks up like I was sayingin the very first episode. Now we've
got the references to Sally Decker toMartin from I think the second or third
movie or episode, and then Gunderson. So we hear about the criminals.
(30:47):
We're in the fourth episode and wehear about the first three criminals all up
at Statesville Prison. You mentioned that, and that was one of the confusing
things about the order that they aired, and have they done that in each
log because I don't remember. Obviouslythey wouldn't have done it on the first
episode, it wasn't in the thirdepisode, but it was definitely in the
Gunderson Was that was that's fake Blowfield? Yeah? That was Dutch gun.
(31:12):
His name was Gunderson. Okay,I think I assumed he was Italian.
I'm sorry, So I think that'sthe joke is that he looks so Italian,
talks so Italian, but his nameis Dutch Gunderson. It's a good
name. It's a good fake name. And I missed that gag completely.
(31:33):
Well. I like how they hadthose little reoccurring gags at the end of
the episode. They don't really goanywhere. Well, that whole thing of
she's gonna have to build her bombsup at the Statesville prison or he's gonna
have to run his crime ring fromStatesville Prison. This one was another freeze
(31:56):
frame gag that I so remembered ofNorberg coming in and realizing that he's in
the freeze frame and then trying topose with them. The whole posing with
the cup of coffee is one ofmy favorite gags. Was this the one
that had a noticeable cut right beforethey did the freeze frame. They all
do. They all have like alittle like brit Oh, okay, it
(32:19):
cuts because they do the freeze frameand then they cut and then they pick
it back up with them freeze framing. Again. I hadn't noticed it before
this. It's really pronounced in thisone. Yeah, I haven't noticed it
before this one either or not.Gonna have to go back and watch all
the other ones. The one thingthat jumped out at me was similar to
the what's on first or who's onfirst type of gag that they did in
(32:43):
the first episode where Norberg brings inthe lunch order and you've got them interrogating
Eddie, but it's matching up withhis lunch order. That was pretty good.
Out. I'll eat it, butI don't think I should be expected
to pay for it. Fine,I'll cover the coffees. I never picked
(33:06):
up on this, which is theline they got ran out of town like
common pigmies. Yeah, fucking wildepisode. Yeah, I guess, Yeah
that's what I said. I meansaid, what a wild callback? Right?
Yeah. See that's the kind ofthing I appreciate, where like I'm
(33:28):
not even really cognizant of it beinga gag. Unlike the cigarette gag,
it's going to be the phone.On my side of this whole thing is
that it's like, oh, everytime, we got to have the fucking
cigarette gag. Well, the thingis it's the cigarette gag, but it's
not the cigarette gag like the owlgag where it's transformed even a little bit.
It's just it's just the cigarette gag. That's I think that's the problem.
(33:52):
If if it's like the owl gag, at least they're trying stuff and
maybe it doesn't work. But thecigarette gag is just the same thing every
time. Was it part of thestyle bible? You gotta do it once?
Well that's why I'm like, Iguess that's the gag though it's the
exact same gag every time, andit's always him too, a female either
(34:13):
witness or in a suspect and badwigs again and all we didn't talk about
her outfit and the last episode whereit looks like she's dressed like a show
girl would be flousy. Yeah,the flousy with the red stella. Was
that her name? Yeah? Ofcourse another on the waterfront reference. Yeah,
(34:36):
yeah, well that one's actually streetCar was that episode? No,
that was this episode? This episode? Wasn't it on the Waterfront was?
Yeah, but they said Stella inthe last episode that street right right wrong?
Brando movie, yeah, Brando movie. Nonetheless, though exactly, I
know that we like the act tobrute joke, but act to Richard the
(35:00):
third is also a very funny title. Gag I like to act to bless
you quite a bit is a goodone. I read. Look, that's
the kind of joke that I ama fan of, I know, and
like I'm a huge homer for thatkind of ship. But it always makes
me laugh harder than most everything else. All those gags and the Simpsons the
(35:22):
same thing, like any of thevisual word play or like word driven gags
are always the things in the Simpsonsthat stand out to me that I remember
over everything else. Well, I'malways looking at the signs and the backgrounds
and stuff, like in the lastepisode, at one point it says an
abandoned locksmith, right, yeah,yeah yeah. Also in that one,
(35:47):
like the first guy to get shakendown was a butcher, and so I'm
looking at all the things on thebutcher shop seeing if some of those were
jokes. I didn't notice any jokes, but I'm just like, I think
there were any. Are there jokesback there? Like the mug file thing,
right, like, oh yeah,mug file and yeah he's got the
four coffee cups like that. Youknow, again it's a little on the
nose, but that don't see anyother show doing that. Even again,
(36:10):
it's a different kind of comedy.This is exhaustive comedy. To pack every
scene with something, because otherwise you'renot doing your job. That's what it
feels like, Honest to god.I think if the three of us sat
down and try to write one ofthese movies, we would fucking lose our
minds. Oh yeah, yeah Icould. It would be fun to try
(36:30):
to write one of these movies tosee if you could hack it like za
Z. But I just don't knowis if audiences are receptive to this kind
of comedy anymore, because it's whenit's done right, it's done really well,
but it's done so poorly so frequentlythat at this point it's kind of
you could parody the movies that areparading those movies, You could, you
(36:51):
know, you could really met atextually parody how bad those movies are at
paroting the other movies that they're paroting. I almost want to go back and
try to watch sledge Hammer from eightysix, because that was another police farce.
But I don't think I ever watchedan episode sledge Hammer. Huh oh,
(37:12):
like Mike Hammer like that. Yeah, it was Alan Spencer I think
did that one. And I can'tremember who was the titular Sledgehammer David Rash.
I think it is Harrison Pagees andthat he was in a Carnosaur.
That's super weird. Do you knowthat movie? Do you know what what
(37:32):
we're talking about? Wasn't that aCorman movie? Yeah? I saw that
theatrically Thank You Carnosaurs has birthed outof them, I think is what happened
at one point. That came outlike two weeks before Jurassic Park. Wow,
I mean, I can tell youwhich of the two is better.
He did that as an episode onthe Culture Cast in the first year of
the show. I remember enjoying howfucking weird it was there. It is
(37:58):
a bunch of John Carl Beekler puppets. Oh yeah, those puppets are amazing.
Those puppets wild. I think ClintHoward. Isn't that he is?
So is Raphael sparge Nice. Iwill tell you that the kind of parody
that this does, I can't eventhink of a contemporary example anymore. That's
(38:19):
how like weird it is to thinkabout. These things were so popular for
a while and then like the womanin the window who was wearing white or
whatever, like does the most recentone it was a show like, oh
my god, I'm gonna watch becausewe talked about that on that episode of
the Culture Cast, Like Jesus Christ, they had a show parody, but
it wasn't funny. That's what Iheard kept hearing, Like even when I
(38:40):
watched a trailer, I was like, wait a minute, are these jokes?
Yes, by the title, it'sapparent that they're spoofing those the movie
you had to watch for that episodewith Amy Adams, they're doing those rear
window gas lighting the main character thing, and it's on my watch list to
(39:06):
watch. But that's what I kepthearing, was like, it's hard to
tell if they're jokes. I keptwaiting, and in this you know you
can't wait twenty seconds. You can'tturn away, or you'll miss five jokes
greatly, Like that's almost a negativeeven for the show. I mean again,
it's the show hasn't let it's footoff the gas. Not all the
jokes land, but they haven't stoppedbombarding us with the jokes. So apparently
(39:32):
the garbage cans that he hits aresupposed to relate to the episode number.
Really, so I was paying attentionto that on that out of order episode,
the third, and they don't showthe cans in that one, You're
right, they just have the audio. Yeah, and they do in this
(39:53):
one, and it's four cans.It's four cans. Yeah, I distinctly
remember how many cans there are.That's I'm assuming they cut it or cropped
it, so we didn't see howmany cans he hit in the third episode
that was aired fifth, I'm assuming, so we'll see what happens with the
rest of the episodes. Interesting.It's kind of weird that they were so
(40:15):
particular that they made sure to cropthat out. That's what I'm assuming happened.
I mean, that's must have beenwhat happened. I mean, it
was very odd that they just hadhim hit the cans and you just hear
the cans. Yeah, why wouldyou do that? That makes sense now,
never picked up on that before.There's a lot of weird little things
(40:36):
hidden in this show. I meanagain, there's a lot of jokes hidden
in each scene. But oh yeah, that alone is just bizarre. That
makes sense though, makes sense.Now. I'm curious to read that seventh
episode script and see if they evensay, like, he hits seventh Yeah,
we will see if it continues,because they'll probably have to change it
(40:58):
for the other one that was outof order as well. Yeah, it'll
just be him hitting the cans again. Just the sound, right, Frank
hits cans. He hits these cansin certain number dependent on what episode this
shows up him. Well, we'llfind out how many garbage cans that is
when we come back next. Wecan talk about the butler did it,
which was the fifth episode shot butthe third episode shown. Yeah, yeah,
(41:27):
yeah, yeah, Stanford Brown wentimmediately from the cameo seat into the
director's seat. We saw it lateron. Yeah, however that goes until
then, Chris, do you wantto tell us where we're all at right
now? In Hell? Yes,I do know. We the three of
us are all on weird Ingwaymedia dotCom, Mike Show, the Projection Booth,
(41:51):
Mark show Wake Up Heavy, andmy show, The Culture Cast can
be found there, along with thisshow, the show that we're all collaborating
on that you're listening to right now, along with a whole host of other
shows, with new shows being addedwell seemingly monthly, so that's where you
can find this show and more showsweirdingwaymedia dot com. Be sure to tune
(42:31):
in next week for another exciting storyfrom the files of Police Squad
Police Squad in Color, starring LeslieNielsen, also starring Alan North and Rex
(00:29):
Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln. The night'sspecial guest starter William Shatner. Ay you
(00:50):
the night's episode The Guilty Allaby,Welcome to from the files of Police Squad
in Color. I'm your host.Mike White joined me, of course.
Is mister Chris Stashue. I wentto the movies on the Waterfront. Also
with us, is mister Mark Begley. Is this some kind of bust?
(01:12):
Yes? Very impressive. On thisepisode we are talking about revenge and remorse.
It was the fourth episode shot.The fourth episode aired, though it
aired before the third episode. Wecould just go crazy with house, just
like the Prisoner, Just like thePrisoner. The Prisoner was gladly those two
(01:37):
that are swapped, though, becauseI would have a real hard time keeping
track of things if anymore had beenswapped. Special guest star William Shatner,
who avoids getting shot, but thenhe ends up either choking or getting poisoned.
I imagine it's poison but I kindof wish that he had just like
taken a bite and then he chokeson the food. But it was a
drink that he drinks and then heis that great thing in slow motion for
(02:02):
you as well. Yeah, yeah, oh okay, all right, the
post production slow motion which I absolutelyhate. Yeah that was weird drink poisoned
by Leonard Nimoy. Coincidentally, Ohokay makes sense, you know, yeah,
it definitely makes sense. Directed byPaul Krasny, written again by Nancy
(02:23):
Stein and Neil Thompson. I'm notsure if Pat Proft was involved with this
one or not, but yes,this is the fourth episode, and this
one is all about a mad bomberwho is going around killing all of the
people involved in a particular court case. And I think it is the core
case of mister Casalis, whose namereally rings a bell. I wanted to
(02:50):
mention something that I don't think we'vetalked about. Part of the credits that
confuse me as a kid and confusesme to this day is the Abraham Lincoln
it And I think Mike early onyou mistakenly said Rex Harrison, who is
who I always thought it was becauseI knew that name, And then I'm
(03:10):
like, well, wait, no, who's Rex Hamilton because I don't I'm
not familiar with this guy. What'sthe joke here? And so I looked
finally looked him up, and he'dnever done anything except be Abraham Lincoln and
the opening credits of Police Squad.Shouldn't it be someone familiar like Rex Harrison?
I don't know. Well, that'sthe gag. That guy is an
Abraham Lincoln impersonator in real life.That the whole that makes sense. I
(03:38):
guess it'd be if they were likeand how Holbrook has Mark Twain, but
how Holbrook has the whole career apartfrom Mark Twain. Yeahs fdr. Yeah,
that's a deeper cut. Yeah.I thought it was Alan Rickman as
Richard Nixon? Or is it whohe plays in that movie? Or does
(03:59):
he play j was that w orsomething else? No, it's that Forrest
Whittaker movie where he plays the butlerin the White House. Oh okay,
gosh, man, I remember whenthat was supposed to be a big deal.
Is that Lee Daniels directing that?I think so. I don't even
know who Lee Daniels is, butit was all over like Lee Daniels the
(04:21):
Butler. Okay, a movie tochange the time, Yes, all right,
I don't know what I'm getting confusedwith. But there's this whole gag
in here of these walking feet,and we start off the episode with these
walking feet, and we get thewalking feet three times. I think again
(04:41):
the law of threes when it comesto comedy. I kept writing in my
notes hop scotch, like I keptwaiting for those walking feet to hit a
hot scotch thing and then do hopscotch. I don't know if that's an
in another episode or if it's inthe movie. It's going to be in
the movie. Okay, that's it'sthe whole and Where the Hell was I?
(05:03):
It's that whole thing where it's likehe's voice over ring and it shows
him walking and then shows him doinghopscotch, and it shows him walking off
the end of the sidewalk, whichis one of my favorite gags the whole
movies, like and Where the Hellwas I? And he's like essentially overlooking
la at the Hollywood side. Butyeah, that's no, you're remembering it
from the movie. I was expectingit in the episode too. Yeah.
(05:25):
I wasn't expecting it, but Idid like what we got going over the
chair, yes, inexplicably, thenover the table, and that was pretty
good. Replacing the gavel with theexploding gavel. That was good. And
we've got Frank back in his car. At the beginning of this he was
getting his car washed. So we'vegot the guy in the back still washing
(05:47):
his car that he got pulled awayfrom goes to headquarters. My boss was
already on the scene, and thiswhole thing of coffee Frank don't have Frank.
And then the way that they walkthrough that commissary line and they just
pick out prime rib and all thatsitting there eating a slice of prime rib
(06:10):
Leslie Nielsen is throughout the entire scene. Yes, he is just muncheon down
on that slice of prime rib thewhole scene. I appreciate because again we've
talked about the lack of continuity,and there's a there's a continuity gag in
this episode where it's check your jacketand you know, check your jacket,
but and that disappears immediately. ButI appreciate that they leave it with them
(06:32):
eating food and he's just sitting eatinga slice of prime rib for like damn
near two or three minutes. Theygo through all the suspects and they're listening
off all of these names until theyget to Salis Salus and Nam rings a
bell in all of the different bellsthat are going off typewriter. Such a
(06:53):
stupid gag, but I fucking loveit. It's like the on the Waterfront
gag. It's like it's that literalinterpretation thing, but done in the right
way. There's no movie theaters downat the waterfront. I liked early on
when that we see those feet andthen we see the gloved hands, and
(07:13):
again cop show type stuff. You'reyou're scrolling down the directory to find what
you want to find, but theperson's like dragging all the letters and numbers
off. That was good. Youdon't usually see stuff like that. I
like that. I appreciated that youcan see some of these jokes coming a
mile away. He was a modelprisoner. And then yes, yeah,
(07:35):
or the whole thing of his wife, La Lana Casalis, the way that
she's boxing up all the stuff forthe widows and orphans and then taking all
of their clothes and then they cutto them walking out and they're just in
their shirts and underwear. That stuffworks. I actually really like the gag
where they're in the dressing room ofhis wife. She's like, let me
(07:57):
go change. She goes behind thething and comes out, it's a different
actress. The rest of the episode. The rest of the entire episode,
it's somebody else. Well. Itwas weird because when she starts to talk,
I was like, that doesn't soundlike her voice. So I think
they adyard the original actress, youknow, the second actress over the first
(08:18):
actress. Her voice doesn't change whenshe comes out from behind that changing panel.
Even that's a really good gag though, like it just that one is
a and it stays throughout the entireepisode. They don't walk it back,
which again, for all the continuityproblems that they do on purpose, there
are some things that they don't walkback. Oh yeah, I was expecting
(08:41):
a third actress when they met upwith her again. Yeah, I kind
of was expecting there to be afurther twisting of the dial and there wasn't,
which I don't know. That's showingsome restraint maybe or maybe they just
couldn't come up with another funny gag. I don't know, maybe a little
bit of both. I think itwould have with a completely different actress.
(09:03):
Again, maybe not going back tothe original gal That's what I was expecting
and hope. Yeah, I thinkI think it could have worked pretty well.
I mean, her name is Mimide Jour, but now she goes
by Mimi Coffee, isn't What doesdo your mean of the day of the
day. I think it's just toget to the coffee gag. So it's
(09:24):
maybe now it's Mimi coffee, coffee, no thank you. It's kind of
like the cigarette gag. That's howI saw it. Yeah, I mean
that is as far as it endsup going. We've got another coffee gag
in this one, which is talkingabout coffee commercials. My doctor says,
I have to switch to decaf,and this is I think maybe somebody was
(09:48):
referring to him lugging in the nextepisode. Yes, yeah, this coffee
commercial bit when they bring it backis part of that mugging that And I
don't know if it'll continue into fiveand six, but you know, definitely
we get there eventually in the moviesfor sure, pretty quickly into that second
(10:09):
one, and probably in the firstone a lot as well. Even there's
a lot of mugget for the cameras. Again, there are a few people
who do the mugging as well asLeslie Nielsen funny Face as they would call
him. That's not what makes thiscomedy funny for me at least, it's
the fact that he has to bethe straight man while delivering the jokes.
(10:31):
That's the thing, Like he's thestraight man and he's the comedian, and
that's what's always worked for me withLeslie Nielsen. And there are very few,
if any, other actors who cando it as well as him.
Hey, it's a very unique expectationas your lead for what he does in
this show and a naked gun andan airplane. Frankly, it's kind of
(10:52):
Leslie Nielsen's I would say, claimto fame for how his comedy worked.
I think is if you knew howto write for him, this is how
you right for him. It's justdon't sell the jokes, Yea, you
don't sell them either. Yeah,even if you're writing jokes, it's like
you can't laugh, dude, it'snot funny, like this is sell it
straight, do not break. Evenwhen it's in the first movie and Nordberg
(11:13):
is you know, he's essentially killingNordberg over and over again by accident.
It's not funny. He's not laughinglike it's but it is funny what he's
doing. And that when the showtaps into that idea, and the show,
I think is doing a very goodjob of tapping into it. It
really works. We already mentioned theon the waterfront thing. I do really
(11:37):
appreciate that Cassalis's joke joke that hiscoat says Penn State and then on the
back it's a state pen, whichis nice. Well, and I like
that they do on the waterfront gagthree times in the movie at least,
and they already made an on thewaterfront gag in the second episode. Well,
I'm just talking about in this episodeitself that they do it towards the
(12:00):
end, right right, because he'slike, where were you? And he's
like, well, that's not whatyour wife said. But I guess they
don't stay on the waterfront at thatpoint though he wasn't seeing the movies.
He was over watching a baseball game, breaking his parole. Guess that makes
sense. I want to know whatthe hell Olsen is doing to that cat.
(12:24):
He is talking about gills and lungsand the difference and how it is
he's trying to show how cats can'tbreathe underwater. Yes, that's what it
seems like. Yes, would youlike to keep them next week, I'll
show you why women can't play professionalfootball. Oddly consistently misogynistic, yes,
(12:45):
but not pervy this time. No, not pervy, just misogynist. They
got some angry letters, might getangry letters about the pasties on Mimi's door.
There were some good visual gags inthis episode. That was one of
(13:05):
them, for sure, Yes,which I don't think at twelve years old
I probably got so. Also,like the gag at the end of all
right, We've caught her now runnerin Yeah, that was one of those,
like the Model prisoner one where youknow, joke is going as soon
as he says it's like, ohwell they're gonna run nice edition of the
(13:30):
starter blocks. But still oh yeah. But that's I mean, that's what
makes it a good gag. Thatin The gag of the guy in the
tree is another good which is justyou know that I like that again,
they're not like, oh my god, there's a guy in the tree,
there's his watch. It's just hejust checks the watch in his face.
That that for me, that kindof joke, that kind of approach to
(13:50):
telling that joke is the za Zway of doing it. Oh yeah,
it's just it's just part of theworld. There's no lantern hanging. We're
not knowledging that this is a gagor a joke. And that's when these
kinds of projects that they work onwork the best is when they don't acknowledge
that it's a gag. Like anairplane, they weren't like, holy shit,
(14:11):
it's an inflatable autopilot. It's justan autopilot and you got to blow
it up, and it's blowtube happensto be right where it's dick is,
because of course it is. Othertelegraph jokes, the radio announcer choking out
the smoke from the car bomb.I was like, okay, yeah,
I knew that was going to happen. But then you get some great visual
gags like the tow truck is oneof my favorites. And then the other
(14:35):
one is the club Flamingo, whichit took me a few minutes to figure
out that the man was clubbing theFlamingo. A club Flamingo joke is fucking
great. And what do you say, like, she told me to come
to the club tonight or something,but right away, come to the club
right away. Yeah, but therewas no clubway, there was no glob
(14:58):
right away. Toe truck was agroner for me. I was like,
Oh, it's gonna be a bigtoe. Yeah, yeah, there it
is. And it wasn't even reallya truck, No, it was more
of a car, the toe vehicle. It was a golf Kurt. You
don't know how hard it is rattingout the guy that you love. And
I was waiting for him to justbe like, hell, you know,
(15:20):
and start telling that whole next storyabout how he had to do that once.
I was expecting an actual rat tofactor into it somehow, just given
this show's literalism. Yeah. Yeah, there was a repeat gag from the
last episode in this one where theydo the let's say bit oh boy a
(15:41):
lot. Yeah, And they didit two or three times in the last
episode and two or three times inthis one. And I was like,
hmmm, you know, like yousay, Mike watching stuff back to back,
Yeah, with intent. It probablywouldn't strike you if you're just watching
it on a weekly basis, oryou want to start watching the show on
(16:03):
March and you have to return toit in July. Bad breaks and all
that. But I was like,oh, that's the exact same gag.
We didn't mention in the last episodewhen he's talking about what a cesspool the
city is, and the one guy'slike, Frank, I'm trying to eat
a fish sandwich. I'm talking tomy mom. The club Famingo comes up
(16:26):
again with Al wearing the shirt.I loved that little bit too. I
never picked that up. Yeah,because he's like a lot of guys from
the Force go there and then hejust like walks into frame, stands there
and then just walks back out.That's the only gag. That's the only
Al gag in this entire episode.I thought this was the long hair This
(16:47):
is the long hair one. Yeah, it's trying something new, guys.
It's against regulations. You were talkingabout the eating gag. Yeah, the
eating gag with how loud though,Yeah, smack their lips and everything.
It's hilarious. So gross. Yeah. I have a thing about eating noises
though, so that kind of droveme nuts. But I did appreciate the
(17:07):
humor of it. It made melaugh really hard because they again, they
don't draw any attention to it otherthan the fact that they're doing it right
and the fact that the cart isreally loud too. That's it. It's
just them. I want they're eatinglike it sounds like they're drinking putting from
a cup, is what it soundslike. Yeah, yeah, it's real,
(17:29):
is that they're eating donuts and drinkingcoffee. But it sounds like they're
just I don't know what the hellthey're doing, but it's it's so exaggerated
in the I think, yeah,other than maybe you know it triggering you.
I mean, the jokes are comingvery fast and furious in this one,
the old mug file and then thephone cord that's super long, and
(17:52):
then I think the eating gag comesup, and I think right before that
we had Johnny and we have ofcourse he's right right on top of everything,
and then doctor Joyce brothers right becausewhy not. I remember more celebrity
cameos for the Johnny gags, andI'm like, oh, this is our
first one. Yeah, I knowthere's at least one more, because I
(18:17):
know who it is. I canthink of it. But I'm curious if
there's if we go back to anormal person or the last three? Will
these celebrities or the last two?I should say, if I had to
guess right offhand, I would saymel Tourmey. I know Tommy Lasorda is
one, and I don't know whothe other one was, and I could
mention Mel Tormey. Yes, DickClark shows up at one point. Oh
(18:40):
god, maybe it's Dick Clark.Then is it Dick Clark and the Johnny
gag? I think it might be. The Johnny gag goes on for quite
some time this time around. Youalast got to explain the cinema, I
know. I mean I apprecated thatit was. I appreciated that it just
kept going. She was another mainstayon daytime TV back in the day,
on every talk show and whatever else. What I think she would show up
(19:04):
even on like Happy Days and stuff, make weird random cameo appearances whenever anybody
needed to help. Yeah, whichdoesn't really make sense. Was she doing
it in the fifties and early sixties? I don't know. Maybe she was.
I just remember her from my childhood. Yeah, I know, to
your point, she's an anachronism.Wasn't there a show at some point or
(19:27):
was that after this The Doctor JoyceBrothers show is a thing. Oh,
I don't know. I think itcame after this show though. I just
think it's funny that she shows up. It's just so goddamn nonchalant. I
needed to tell me about the Cinderellacomplex. He just goes rattles it all
off, Johnny the Alleyway expert.Women are afraid of their own success.
(19:51):
Well, let's see, she wasdoctor Joyce Brothers in Taxi. She was
Doctor Joyce Brothers and this of course, Oh she wasn't Doctor Joyce Brothers to
w KRP in Cincinnati, I meanwow. Yeah, her philmography. Yes,
Spunkless Spunky. The episode of HappyDays, she was in that as
doctor Joyce Brothers Spunkless Spunky. Yes, I don't know what that means.
(20:15):
Think that one through. Yeah,friends try to dig up what's depressing his
faithful canine companions, Spunky, whileHoward saddles marrying with a hundred pounds of
potatoes to peel for his Leopard Lodgespicnic potato salad. Oh Howard, Hey,
(20:36):
we're going to be seeing Doctor JoyceBrothers again in the original Naked Gun.
That makes sense, it does,Like it's fucking wild. She was
in Loaded Weapon one earlier this time. Oh yeah, yeah, She's in
so much stuff in the nineties,in the eighties, Like that's you mentioned
She's an anachronism, but not ananachronism enough, I don't think. And
(21:00):
she was also in Spy Hard.I mean she shows up in all these
things. This is crazy. Here'ssomething I never knew existed, police Academy
in the series. Who wants that? I mean? How many police academies
are there? Is it just twentyminutes of Michael Winslow going for twenty minutes?
(21:21):
Because I would watch that in aheartbeat, I would not watch Who
wouldn't even be Steve Gutenberg. It'dbe like what bobcat golfweight that he is?
He in it? Who plays theGutenberg character in the show. It's
not Steve Gutenberg. David McNaughton.What was his character's name? Maybe he's
not in the show. Yeah,wasn't it like Steve Steve? Steve make
(21:47):
it easy for me? Just callme my name, Carrie Mahoney. There
is a brand new class of screwupsat the police Academy. They faced danger
and trying not to let their stupidityget in the way as a fight crime.
It sounds like police squad. Yeah, Joe Flaherty is in this,
Michael Winslow is in it. Shockingshocking. Yeah, not saying Michael Winslow
(22:14):
needs to get paid. But thisshow was in nineteen ninety seven. Tim
Kazarinsky even shows up for one appearance. Who in nineteen ninety seven was like,
yes, the characters of Police Academy. I mean, Paul mes Lansky
still trying to get a reboot offthe ground. There were twenty five episodes.
(22:38):
This thing ran an hour an episodeshow. No, Oh, you'res
god. Neil Israel and Pat Proftwere two of the big writers. Yeah,
there's the next limited series, rightsaid, sign up guys today at
nine. And the fact that itcame out of ninety seven because the first
(23:00):
Police Academy came out in what thelate eighties? Oh boy, I mean
there's a reason. I will saythat there is kind of a reason the
Naked Gun movies work. They areof a certain time and of a certain
place. I've only seen the firstof Police Academy, and it kind of
(23:22):
works because it's a mid eighties movie. I can't imagine that formula working,
just like I really can't imagine tobring it back to Naked Gun, and
I kind of mentioned it last coupleof times. I can't really imagine a
new version of Naked Gun working atall, even though I'm interested because it's
Liam Neeson who could have that energy, and I've seen him do in the
(23:42):
in the What's the What's the Warwith? Ye Oh my god, he's
so good at it. He's alists he's really funny. But that style
of humor I think was of acertain time and place, the mid mid
(24:03):
eighties to mid nineties. Like Mafiais kind of the tail end of that
scary movie kind of reboots it alittle bit. I don't see the need
for Naked Gun anymore the way itwas. Maybe they'd do something different,
But this kind of comedy kind ofonly worked when you could look at the
show that it was referencing and belike, all right, enough people know
(24:25):
what this is, that we canparody this and people will get it.
Well. The original Police Academy wasnineteen eighty four, by the way,
so I think that this kind ofpaved the way for that even earlier.
Yeah, yeah, would that beunder the category of boner comedy? I
get a boner while watching it?But the go is it the first one
(24:51):
at John Hughes movie? No,No, am I crazy? No,
it's not right? No, no, no, I know miss Lanski was
behind the whole thing. I can'tremember who directed that that first one.
Man, Why did I think itwas a John Hughes movie. I'm not
sure. I'm trying to think ifhe's done anything in a similar vein,
but I don't. I can't.Yeah, it was Hugh Wilson that directed
(25:12):
it, and it was Pat Proftand Neil Israel that wrote it. Were
they responsible for Bachelor Party? Ibelieve yes, yes, they were,
as well as at least one ofthe look Who's talking movies? And you
mentioned Real Genius as well, becauseI actually listened to that episode of your
(25:33):
show and then watched Bachelor Party laterthat day, totally by coincidence. I
haven't seen Bachelor Party since it wasout originally, and I remember not liking
it, but that was I wastwelve years old. It's not my favorite.
That's the one that has Tom Hanksin Aaron. Yes, he's playing
a heel which, oh, okay, Tom Hanks work even now it doesn't
(25:56):
work. He was in the Elvismovie as Colonel Tom Parker and he's fucking
atrocious. It's like, Tom Hanks, you're too lovable, man, You're
just you're too much of a niceguy, like I'm sorry. I mean
he was a pretty good murderer inRoad to Perdition. That's mob stuff.
You could always be sympathetic for thefor the mobsters. I know, all
(26:19):
your life, all you ever wantedto be able as a gangster shookie lumps
shinookie loves. Yeah. Now I'mjust a schnookie lumps. So do you
guys recognize the guy that plays isit Eddie Kassalis? Are that name?
Herrings a Bell? I was like, I know this actor, and so
(26:42):
I had to look him up.He was the dad character in Land of
the Lost is a fucking Alzheimer forme back then, back in the seventies,
Oh yeah, I used to watchthat pretty religiously. I want you
talking about the two thousand and nineWill Farrell film. No, there was
a TV show in the second rememberthat movie? Holy just watch part of
(27:07):
it on an airplane. Airplane viewing. I saw it in theaters. Oh
boy, yeah, man, anotherjoke that I think they reuse. And
maybe it's one of the naked gunsand might be in a scary movie as
the whole there's nothing to see here. Please disperse where it's just two people
in Norberg using the loudspeaker right attheir faces in the crowd of two.
(27:33):
Right. I think that might bethe second one. I guess that makes
sense because that's also where the isthis some kind of a bust. I
think that's in the second movie aswell. Yeah, because the first movie
is the one with the nice beaver, right and thanks, I just had
it stuffed, which is like,that's an all time gag. Oh god,
Yes, and I'd like this onetoo, when the captain is chasing
(27:56):
all the people out onto the streetbecause there's the bomb, and then you
hear the car crash and all ofthe Detroit this coming back up will that
leads to a great gag with thediscovery of who the mad bomber is.
Yes, the gag isn't who itis, but how they're dressed. Because
(28:19):
every time prior to this you seethe suit legs and the dress shoes,
the suit arms as well, andshe has that's Lanta, the ex wife
has that over her dress. Ilove the sleep. I had to say
that was an LOL for me.That is when this show for me,
(28:40):
really hits it out of the park, because when it does stuff like that,
where it's like, we're going todo it throughout the entire episode and
pay it off in the end inthe most ridiculous way possible, because that
is the most ridiculous outcome for herto have. Just yeah, exactly what
it looks like, exactly what itlooks like, suit, sleeves and legs,
so good dress shoes men, stressshoes. Right, another gag.
(29:04):
It's a literalism gag, but Ithink it kind of works here, is
all right, let the bomber takeoff right. Stupid. It's so fucking
stupid when they don't do it.Every other gag is a literalism gag.
They work. But if they dothe Robert Wools school of writing where it's
(29:25):
every other or every single gag,you gotta space it out even more than
every other gag. It's got tobe like every couple gags. You can't
just do literalism every time. Likethen you'll get episode two of the show
where it was a literalism buffet.Well, the best jokes for you are
the ones that are plays on word, you know, oh piece of cake
for lieutenant, Oh no thanks,I just eight, or like a mug
(29:45):
file like stuff like that, whereit's it's a word gag, but it's
not even front and center in thescene. Like I appreciate where there's stuff
going on and there are word basedgags or the things going on in the
background, it's I appreciate that morethan and dad, and then cut to
the thing or shift to pan thecamera to the ride and well there it
(30:06):
is, like, can't do thatevery gag, because even the movie doesn't
do I mean, that's what makesthe movie like Airplane so good, is
it's not just they're on instruments thatgag over and over. They break it
up with some different styles of jokes. I do like that the mug file
is just a strip of paper onthe one cabinet. Nothing else has label
(30:27):
top notch set design, guys.And in this one, you know,
this picks up like I was sayingin the very first episode. Now we've
got the references to Sally Decker toMartin from I think the second or third
movie or episode, and then Gunderson. So we hear about the criminals.
(30:47):
We're in the fourth episode and wehear about the first three criminals all up
at Statesville Prison. You mentioned that, and that was one of the confusing
things about the order that they aired, and have they done that in each
log because I don't remember. Obviouslythey wouldn't have done it on the first
episode, it wasn't in the thirdepisode, but it was definitely in the
Gunderson Was that was that's fake Blowfield? Yeah? That was Dutch gun.
(31:12):
His name was Gunderson. Okay,I think I assumed he was Italian.
I'm sorry, So I think that'sthe joke is that he looks so Italian,
talks so Italian, but his nameis Dutch Gunderson. It's a good
name. It's a good fake name. And I missed that gag completely.
(31:33):
Well. I like how they hadthose little reoccurring gags at the end of
the episode. They don't really goanywhere. Well, that whole thing of
she's gonna have to build her bombsup at the Statesville prison or he's gonna
have to run his crime ring fromStatesville Prison. This one was another freeze
(31:56):
frame gag that I so remembered ofNorberg coming in and realizing that he's in
the freeze frame and then trying topose with them. The whole posing with
the cup of coffee is one ofmy favorite gags. Was this the one
that had a noticeable cut right beforethey did the freeze frame. They all
do. They all have like alittle like brit Oh, okay, it
(32:19):
cuts because they do the freeze frameand then they cut and then they pick
it back up with them freeze framing. Again. I hadn't noticed it before
this. It's really pronounced in thisone. Yeah, I haven't noticed it
before this one either or not.Gonna have to go back and watch all
the other ones. The one thingthat jumped out at me was similar to
the what's on first or who's onfirst type of gag that they did in
(32:43):
the first episode where Norberg brings inthe lunch order and you've got them interrogating
Eddie, but it's matching up withhis lunch order. That was pretty good.
Out. I'll eat it, butI don't think I should be expected
to pay for it. Fine,I'll cover the coffees. I never picked
(33:06):
up on this, which is theline they got ran out of town like
common pigmies. Yeah, fucking wildepisode. Yeah, I guess, Yeah
that's what I said. I meansaid, what a wild callback? Right?
Yeah. See that's the kind ofthing I appreciate, where like I'm
(33:28):
not even really cognizant of it beinga gag. Unlike the cigarette gag,
it's going to be the phone.On my side of this whole thing is
that it's like, oh, everytime, we got to have the fucking
cigarette gag. Well, the thingis it's the cigarette gag, but it's
not the cigarette gag like the owlgag where it's transformed even a little bit.
It's just it's just the cigarette gag. That's I think that's the problem.
(33:52):
If if it's like the owl gag, at least they're trying stuff and
maybe it doesn't work. But thecigarette gag is just the same thing every
time. Was it part of thestyle bible? You gotta do it once?
Well that's why I'm like, Iguess that's the gag though it's the
exact same gag every time, andit's always him too, a female either
(34:13):
witness or in a suspect and badwigs again and all we didn't talk about
her outfit and the last episode whereit looks like she's dressed like a show
girl would be flousy. Yeah,the flousy with the red stella. Was
that her name? Yeah? Ofcourse another on the waterfront reference. Yeah,
(34:36):
yeah, well that one's actually streetCar was that episode? No,
that was this episode? This episode? Wasn't it on the Waterfront was?
Yeah, but they said Stella inthe last episode that street right right wrong?
Brando movie, yeah, Brando movie. Nonetheless, though exactly, I
know that we like the act tobrute joke, but act to Richard the
(35:00):
third is also a very funny title. Gag I like to act to bless
you quite a bit is a goodone. I read. Look, that's
the kind of joke that I ama fan of, I know, and
like I'm a huge homer for thatkind of ship. But it always makes
me laugh harder than most everything else. All those gags and the Simpsons the
(35:22):
same thing, like any of thevisual word play or like word driven gags
are always the things in the Simpsonsthat stand out to me that I remember
over everything else. Well, I'malways looking at the signs and the backgrounds
and stuff, like in the lastepisode, at one point it says an
abandoned locksmith, right, yeah,yeah yeah. Also in that one,
(35:47):
like the first guy to get shakendown was a butcher, and so I'm
looking at all the things on thebutcher shop seeing if some of those were
jokes. I didn't notice any jokes, but I'm just like, I think
there were any. Are there jokesback there? Like the mug file thing,
right, like, oh yeah,mug file and yeah he's got the
four coffee cups like that. Youknow, again it's a little on the
nose, but that don't see anyother show doing that. Even again,
(36:10):
it's a different kind of comedy.This is exhaustive comedy. To pack every
scene with something, because otherwise you'renot doing your job. That's what it
feels like, Honest to god.I think if the three of us sat
down and try to write one ofthese movies, we would fucking lose our
minds. Oh yeah, yeah Icould. It would be fun to try
(36:30):
to write one of these movies tosee if you could hack it like za
Z. But I just don't knowis if audiences are receptive to this kind
of comedy anymore, because it's whenit's done right, it's done really well,
but it's done so poorly so frequentlythat at this point it's kind of
you could parody the movies that areparading those movies, You could, you
(36:51):
know, you could really met atextually parody how bad those movies are at
paroting the other movies that they're paroting. I almost want to go back and
try to watch sledge Hammer from eightysix, because that was another police farce.
But I don't think I ever watchedan episode sledge Hammer. Huh oh,
(37:12):
like Mike Hammer like that. Yeah, it was Alan Spencer I think
did that one. And I can'tremember who was the titular Sledgehammer David Rash.
I think it is Harrison Pagees andthat he was in a Carnosaur.
That's super weird. Do you knowthat movie? Do you know what what
(37:32):
we're talking about? Wasn't that aCorman movie? Yeah? I saw that
theatrically Thank You Carnosaurs has birthed outof them, I think is what happened
at one point. That came outlike two weeks before Jurassic Park. Wow,
I mean, I can tell youwhich of the two is better.
He did that as an episode onthe Culture Cast in the first year of
the show. I remember enjoying howfucking weird it was there. It is
(37:58):
a bunch of John Carl Beekler puppets. Oh yeah, those puppets are amazing.
Those puppets wild. I think ClintHoward. Isn't that he is?
So is Raphael sparge Nice. Iwill tell you that the kind of parody
that this does, I can't eventhink of a contemporary example anymore. That's
(38:19):
how like weird it is to thinkabout. These things were so popular for
a while and then like the womanin the window who was wearing white or
whatever, like does the most recentone it was a show like, oh
my god, I'm gonna watch becausewe talked about that on that episode of
the Culture Cast, Like Jesus Christ, they had a show parody, but
it wasn't funny. That's what Iheard kept hearing, Like even when I
(38:40):
watched a trailer, I was like, wait a minute, are these jokes?
Yes, by the title, it'sapparent that they're spoofing those the movie
you had to watch for that episodewith Amy Adams, they're doing those rear
window gas lighting the main character thing, and it's on my watch list to
(39:06):
watch. But that's what I kepthearing, was like, it's hard to
tell if they're jokes. I keptwaiting, and in this you know you
can't wait twenty seconds. You can'tturn away, or you'll miss five jokes
greatly, Like that's almost a negativeeven for the show. I mean again,
it's the show hasn't let it's footoff the gas. Not all the
jokes land, but they haven't stoppedbombarding us with the jokes. So apparently
(39:32):
the garbage cans that he hits aresupposed to relate to the episode number.
Really, so I was paying attentionto that on that out of order episode,
the third, and they don't showthe cans in that one, You're
right, they just have the audio. Yeah, and they do in this
(39:53):
one, and it's four cans.It's four cans. Yeah, I distinctly
remember how many cans there are.That's I'm assuming they cut it or cropped
it, so we didn't see howmany cans he hit in the third episode
that was aired fifth, I'm assuming, so we'll see what happens with the
rest of the episodes. Interesting.It's kind of weird that they were so
(40:15):
particular that they made sure to cropthat out. That's what I'm assuming happened.
I mean, that's must have beenwhat happened. I mean, it
was very odd that they just hadhim hit the cans and you just hear
the cans. Yeah, why wouldyou do that? That makes sense now,
never picked up on that before.There's a lot of weird little things
(40:36):
hidden in this show. I meanagain, there's a lot of jokes hidden
in each scene. But oh yeah, that alone is just bizarre. That
makes sense though, makes sense.Now. I'm curious to read that seventh
episode script and see if they evensay, like, he hits seventh Yeah,
we will see if it continues,because they'll probably have to change it
(40:58):
for the other one that was outof order as well. Yeah, it'll
just be him hitting the cans again. Just the sound, right, Frank
hits cans. He hits these cansin certain number dependent on what episode this
shows up him. Well, we'llfind out how many garbage cans that is
when we come back next. Wecan talk about the butler did it,
which was the fifth episode shot butthe third episode shown. Yeah, yeah,
(41:27):
yeah, yeah, Stanford Brown wentimmediately from the cameo seat into the
director's seat. We saw it lateron. Yeah, however that goes until
then, Chris, do you wantto tell us where we're all at right
now? In Hell? Yes,I do know. We the three of
us are all on weird Ingwaymedia dotCom, Mike Show, the Projection Booth,
(41:51):
Mark show Wake Up Heavy, andmy show, The Culture Cast can
be found there, along with thisshow, the show that we're all collaborating
on that you're listening to right now, along with a whole host of other
shows, with new shows being addedwell seemingly monthly, so that's where you
can find this show and more showsweirdingwaymedia dot com. Be sure to tune
(42:31):
in next week for another exciting storyfrom the files of Police Squad
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