May 20, 2020 • 50 mins
Ben Mankiewicz is the host of TCM and “The Plot Thickens” podcast about the life and career of director Peter Bogdanovich. He’s telling stories about the famous director, along with what it was like growing up in a storied family of politicians, journalists, and filmmakers. Ben’s dad was press secretary to Robert Kennedy, his grandfather wrote “Citizen Kane,” and his brother is a reporter for NBC “Dateline.” Ben shares his own journey to Hollywood, his favorite TV shows, and whether directing or producing might be in his future. Plus, he tells the fab story about getting married on the TCM cruise, and the famous guest who walked his now-wife down the aisle! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, hello, gorgeous, we are back at it again.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Give them la la with rample.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Dude, exciting things today.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, first of all, it is a season finale. Vander
Pomp has happened. Yes, it's over. Let's just take a
minute and celebrate that. You just rock twenty episodes of
vander Pump Rules. Yes, yes, Okay, Now I'm gonna interview
you for a second. Okay, how do you feel about
(00:43):
your season?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I feel absolutely epic. You don't, yeah, because like you know,
here's the thing, and I'm going to really make this
short and sweet.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You get the hands up, so I definitely think it's
gonna be It's going to be intense.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
For me, vander Pump Rules is very much real life, correct,
that's our real lives correct. However, the show is one
hour long. It is a produced show. So for me,
when I have my freakouts or my meltdowns, or I
have a really great scene, like however I feel about it,
I disconnect because I'm like, if I take this home
(01:21):
with me, I'll crawl into a hole.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
No, first of all, we'll back up years before when
we first started dating. You did take this shit home
with you, and it was World War three. Right, what
I'm most proud of is that it really is your
real life and it kind of all blends together. But
I think that when you have tough scenes where it
gets like a little tough for you, I think you're
able to disconnect.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Now, well, you have to. And when I watch it,
when I have to like relive it, I sit there
and I'm like, fuck, this is entertaining, you know, like wow,
look at me go And then I know when it's
like great and I should probably apologize. But in order
for me to maintain like sanity, I have to just
look at it and be like, damn, that's so entertaining,
(02:06):
Like we did a great job. You know. That's how
you have to look at it. Are you gonna freak out?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, now that Astas calls me a Bravo leberty, I'm
gonna say that I just had a season vander promp
as well, so I have something to contribute. I after
my first scene coming out of the gate how to
let it go too, because I felt that they made
me look like I am the only person eating at
that dinner when I had a double chicken.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Sandap Oh, wow, you're really throwing it back to like
episode four.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I only had like two episodes the whole season, so
let me just revel in my one. First of all,
I didn't order two chicken fucking sandwiches. And second of all,
I'll order two more again. And by the way, y'all
ate two? Why was it only me? Why was it
only Randall?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Because it's because it's entertaining, Like that scene there memes about.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It, there's like slow motion to be eating chicken sandwiches.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Which keep in mind, I ordered like five dishes. Right wait, wait,
by the way, you when I know production is paying,
I'm like, bring them out, bring them out, give me
all the goodness.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Off the way you you jacks, you Jacks and Brittany
or multiple dishes and I was a slow motion chicken
sandwich heater. It's bunch of bullshit. I also want to
say that the end of the season was.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Very Yeah, why are you asking me how I feel
about it? How do you feel about it? Your first
your first time ever appearing on Vanner Pump Rules, which
I literally told everybody that will never happen.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Never the way I told everybody will never happen.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
And not only did it happen, your manipulator, absolutely, I
do reality TV. No one is safe.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And you also you also gave me that bullshit when
you're like, you know, this is my real life and
like we need to show this side. And I said,
you know that's not happening, he said, and then you
gave me that look like give me right now. And
then I folded like a like a like a like
a you know, just fold it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Fold is like an envelope, licky lick, throw a stamp
on it, deliver it to Vanner pump rules.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
But I will tell you I didn't film a lot.
Obviously I didn't.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
You didn't, but it was hardcore. You had a scene
with James Kennedy. You're like, not only am I going
to film now, I'm going to have a scene one
on one with James.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Now, hold on a second. I got trapped. They call
me your little producers for they're big producers, but your
big producers call me. They said, will you show up
at the at the season finale? And they said, there's
no reason for me. I'm not relevant to this. I'm
just going to stay home let Lalla do her thing.
They said, no, no, no, you got to be there
for her. It's a last night. We're going to celebrate.
It's a big party. So I come, I get wasted.
(04:22):
I'm having the time of my life. And by the way,
I bring Emma, Martin Scorsese's partner, so she and she's
a fan girl of the show. So she's going crazy
taking selfies and we're having the best time. So I
think this is easy. They're focused on you, guys. I'm
over in the corner with Emma drinking, and all of
a sudden, I get a little tap tap and they say,
when will you come over here for a second. We
(04:43):
just need to shoot one little thing with you. I
was like, oh, this is a good bye randal or
something like that, or maybe they want me to eat
a chicken sandwich again. Long story, short, long story, Well,
I was going to order chicken sandwich. I thought they'd
want a slow motion shot. So they bring me over
and there's James. They say, James wants to say something.
You know. I'm like, these fucking people are good. They
are so but but having said that, now I'm going
(05:04):
to be the serious side. James was sober, and he
came over to me and he was beyond sincere and
very genuine, and it was so endearing and he said,
you know, I want to apologize for all the things
I said and did. It wasn't in my right state.
It doesn't make it okay. I will you, you know,
forgive me. And I said, dude, that is such a
(05:24):
big step and a big so big of you to
do that. Of course I am. I know my fiance,
you know, and you are very good friends, and I
want to have the same friendship. And the fact that
you did this is so honorable and I I forget,
know and I forgive. And you know what since then,
he since he's been our podcast and we text each
(05:46):
other here and there, and it's like, you know what,
he has come so far, and you know, life is
about forgiveness. You know we've done We've forgiven each other
for shit, and we forgive people for doing things to
us that maybe, you know, aren't the kindness. And at
the end of the day, I'm glad I went to
that party. I'm glad I went to that final taping
or filming, whatever you call it. And it was very sweet.
(06:08):
And I watched the episode, which I don't watch a lot,
you know, and the ending was exciting. It was like
music and that exit and Jackson Lisa going at it.
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
We broke the fourth wall on vander Pump Rules, Like
Jax goes crazy and he's talking to Lisa vander Pump
and he's like, this is my show, and she just
was like, oh, it's your show, vander Pump Rules, that's
my name. Like it was crazy. It was amazing, the
first finale episode I've ever like got intery.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Oh when you watched it.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, I thought it was really sweet.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I loved it. I love the music. I loved how
each person or each couple kind of or each cast
member walked out.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Hold on. I have a really fun fact though. So
that night, Danica gets into a little scuffle with like
this new person that hooked up with Max. Her name's Kara,
and Danica shoves Kara, and Danica spills her wine on
my outfit okay, And in the interview process, they wanted
(07:10):
me to talk about the outfit because in their mind
it was like some fabulous outfit.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I was like, I'm not going to talk about it
because that outfit costs me all of like maybe a
hundred bucks for the whole thing, So like we're not
talking about no big deal, you know. The throat in
the wash. It's all good exactly like I come. I'm
a pretender. People think I'm a bougie bitch, but hell no,
I am scrolling the internet for a good deal. What's happening?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Sorry?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Wow, Randall, are you for real?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No? I was trying to do something.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Pull it together. Yeah, hold on, get it to the chorus.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
It's coming.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Turn it to the chorus. It's coming, It's coming. We
free hold. I wait for every young boom. You know that.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
The best day your glasses, Hi, this one's for you
soon night, dude.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It did make me happy. It did make me happy.
You know what, we are fucking young, wild and free man. Yeah, well,
we may have birthdays that make us older. You guys
are young, You're young, wild and free. To age is
just a number. I don't believe in celebrating a birthday
to be like a year older. It's like, no, we're
celebrating this day because without it, I will an exist.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I got to tell you eight years.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
So you're freaking welcome.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You know eight years you were on this show so far?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Only five I've completed five seasons.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
But the show eight years what an epic run so far?
And I know you guys are going to go into
your ninth season, so I get I got to give
you this episode.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I love that you said you know that we're going
into our ninth season, because we don't know that yet.
But put it into the universe. I speak it.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I know you are good, not if when when your
ratings are good, you're going another season.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It was definitely epic, and you know, the just the
cast when I watch them. Some like to blame editing,
which is fine, but it's like if we all just
looked five star like, we wouldn't be eight seasons in,
you know, so just be like, thanks for making a
great scene, even though I look like an asshole. Put
it out. Mention it all, mention it all.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Oh you got the hands up fire today? Holy shit,
I am Yesterday you were like in a hole. Today
you're like, boom, she's away.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Boom baby, Bring on the virtual reunion. I'm about to
slay these hosts. Just kidding a lot at the reunion. Okay,
I cried a lot, a lot of apologies.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
O question, what was your favorite moment of vander Pump
this season and your worst moment of vander Pump this season? Oh,
by the way, don't feel like any pressure to say
me being on the show, but go ahead.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
That was definitely a highlight. Having you on the show
was a highlight because we got to hang out all summer.
It was awesome, which usually we don't get to do that.
But I think that, yeah, what else besides me, I'm
gonna get cheesy again. I think the highlight of this
season was just being so clear and aware and waking
up and not feeling guilty about anything I had done,
you know, being sober. Completing a season of reality TV,
(10:39):
which can be a nightmare. I completed that shit.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Sober and I give you mad props for that.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Thank you, babe.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I agree with you and I support that answer. I
love it. And what was the what was the worst moment?
Because I don't even know what your worst moment was,
So what was the worst moment?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
The worst moment was the way I treated Raquel, for sure,
Like there are a few things that when I watch
I'm like, don't regret it that it was like, oh,
can someone please muzzle you? Like you know, but it
is what it is like again silver Lining. People were entertained.
(11:15):
They had an opinion whether it was good or bad.
People had an opinion.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
By the way, that's what makes you, in my opinion,
why your show is so successful is all of you
have this thing that happens and then everybody just you know,
has an opinion because you drive people and what you
guys do.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yeah, when people when people write me crazy DMS, they're like,
I can't believe you acted that way, all I send
back is thank you so much for watching me. I like,
for real, without you wouldn't be eight seasons in just
saying yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Well, I think the fact that you I have never
seen you have such conflict right over the years I've
been with you, where yeah, that's such conflict and it
be resolved and such amicable and quick way. Like normally
back in the old days, hence, you know, pre sober,
you would just assassinate the world, continue to assassinate, blow
(12:11):
it up three more times, and then eventually start repairing.
Now I see you.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Now what I would do is blow things up. Tornadoes
come through AK forty sevens, and then I'd look behind
me and be like, why is everyone so sad and upset?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
But now but now you handle things so gracefully. I
really give you a lot of props, like something will happen,
and then you'll you'll get home and you'll be like,
you know, I feel bad and I really, you know,
didn't want to do that, and and blah blah blah,
and then you and then on your own, like without
cameras there, I see you sending text saying, look, I
really don't feel that way, and I'm sorry that I
(12:47):
said something. It's just very jack cat.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
My cast members are not just my cast members, that's
my that's my LA family, Like I love them so much,
and I know that we're all always going to go
toes with each other because we're all very strong foreronalities.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
When you go toes, what does it mean exactly?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Step up, bitch? Oh go toes? Toe to toe? Baby.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
So if I'm in a meeting at a studio talking
about a movie and the guy's pissing me off on
a deal, can I be like, let's go to toes, bitch,
I'm just asking you can.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Right because you have done that.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Though, when I say let's go toes, if I know
that that person really is a fighter, like I don't
want to do it. I'm a very fast runner, like.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Let's fight the words, you'll back down, you are.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
You kidding me? Do I look like someone who's gonna
punch anybody?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So just tell me one thing.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I am a classy bitch.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Oh okay, just tell me one thing. Then tell me
one thing. So in the four years when I've got
toes with you, I'll give you a never back down.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Oh the drink. The drink is like like the battery,
you know, the the drink is like a battery, the
little fucking engine that could. We're getting up the hill.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
But you know it's funny. I talk shit and you're
you are a fighter. I pushed in the wrong direction,
but you know what, at the end of the day,
you are way more of a lover than a fighter,
way more, way more.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Of course, I always say like, I hate confrontation, but
I'm extremely good at it. You professional professional. So I'm
excited for our guest today though, because he I'm gonna
be honest. I looked at his resume and was like,
am I up for this challenge? Like he's, you know,
graduating from Columbia, And I'm like, have you ever heard
(14:33):
of slick like Sally Community College? Up in this bitch?
Two years? Oh shit, don't be rude. I attempted.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
You know, if I would have known this when I
met you, I might have diverted.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And then I got all the credits I needed to
transfer to the University of Utah.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
University hardly did you go for one day?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I went for like a month, and I was like
going through from one class to the other in the snow,
and I like literally was like, what am I doing?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
You a work?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Hate this and literally went home and was like, Mom,
by the way, I'm moving to LA.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Can't give you a word advice? Tell me from now
when we lead in about your education, can you just
start with the University of View talents and pretend the
community college thing to happen.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
This is who I am. Randall shit, like, are you crazy?
Why would I ever?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I thought you went to Harvard?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Don't I act like it didn't sound like it.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
They So we have Ben Mankowitz, who is the host
of Turner Classic Movies Channel, the host of screen Time
segment on CBS Sunday Morning show. His grants. He's his
grand sorry, his father was a press secretary to Senator
Bob Kennedy. I mean, this guy is loaded to the girls.
(15:43):
Now I'm gonna say something. I don't get impressed. That
easily takes a lot at my old age, right, this
guy is impressive. And by the way, this and I
want to tell you, Lala, what really is putting us
to the test? This this next guest. This isn't like
a movie guy that I can just kind of like
sit back and have a cigar. Or it's not a
cast memory or is that you could just sit back
(16:04):
and spill the tea as you say this dude, This
dude is the real shit.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So we're not only not only is he like epic
in his family Randall, you're such a rookie. When Ben
gets on the line, you better mute your phone.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Okay for real. But this is what I want to
say about this guest. I feel like this like the
network threw this guest on us to see are we
ready for the next level? Yeah? Because if we fucked
this up, we have to go back to what we
know and we can never get outside our comfort zone.
But if we crush this and I want, I want
(16:38):
your fans and my three fans to write in after
this episode and tell us did we handle ourselves in
a professional, engaging manner or did we flop? And we
need to go back to what we.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
All try try to make the criticism constructive. I don't
really respond well to people telling me I suck.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
You know, well, just give us advice, like did we
handle ourselves? Well, we're did we ask intriguing questions? Was
or were we boring and dismal? Right?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I don't think that's ever going to be a problem.
So let's take a short break, and when we get back,
we have Ben Mancowitz. I won't lie. Our guest is
someone I read your resume, Ben, and I am extremely intimidated,
and I don't get intimidated by many things. We have
(17:28):
Ben Mancowitz on our podcast today.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yes, I'm freaking and you're the man I just want
to say. He is host of the new TCM podcast
The Plot Thickens, about the life and career of one
of my favorite most epic directors, Peter Bugdanovich. This is
the coolest thing ever. I just want to know, Ben,
how do you even come up with the idea to
do that? Because now I want to go do a
(17:52):
podcast about every epic director I've ever loved. So can
you just tell us, like how that even started?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Well, many of them, of course, have lives that are
worthy of being chronicled. But first of all, Peter and
I were friends, and I like Peter. The first time
I met him, as I tell the story in the podcast,
I think in episode one, I was very nervous when
I first met Peter. It was in an event I
think in twenty twelve or thirteen in Toronto where we
in advance to the TCM Festival. We did some events
(18:21):
around the country, and so I was in Toronto with Peter.
We weren to screen the Last Picture Show. And because it's
Peter Bogdanovitch the same reason that you admire him, I
was nervous. This guy. He is an encyclopedia of classic movies,
and I just thought, you know, you know, the way
all of us are frequently where you sort of think
that you've perpetrated your any success you've had in life
(18:42):
is because you've perpetrated some great fraud. And I thought
he'd see right through me. But he had a cold,
pretty bad cold, and he was sniffling and drinking hot
tea at this bar we met in a hotel, and
you know, it just humanized him instantly, and he made
some joke and then Sybil Shepherd, who he hasn't been
(19:02):
linked to romantically since nineteen seventy nine, called him to
check on Hi because she was worried about him traveling
with a WOW And I was like, oh, listen, this
guy's he's still friends with his ex and he's got
a cold just like me. And that began a friendship.
And then so there's a long way of answering your question.
Peter did all these wonderful interviews with classic film directors Hitchcot,
(19:23):
john Ford, Orson Wells, Howard Hawk's, many others, including dating
back to the Silent era before he became a director,
when he was a film writer, a very good one
wrote for Esquire magazine, Most Freak Wow, and he compiled
them into a wonderful book called Who the Devil Made It,
which is a great Howard Hawk's line about how when
you watch a movie, you should know who the devil
(19:44):
made it, like there should be some signature about the
director which you would be able to identify. Peter had
recordings of these interviews, and I thought we should do
a podcast. I wanted to do a podcast for years,
and TCM was interested, but I was pushing, i must say,
and I thought Peter would be a great topic and
we would spend each episode talking about one of these
directors and play clips, and then professional storytellers took over,
(20:09):
namely our executive producer for this podcast, Angela Corone, and
they were like, yeah, that's a great idea. Here's what
we're going to do instead with Peter, And they just
made this whole thing ten thousand times better because Peter's
life is a story worth telling, full of success, failure,
horrible tragedy, hubris with the normal parts of recovery from
(20:31):
a tragedy, and it turned him into a different person
and he is an interesting guy, incredibly funny, incredibly smart,
and I find now incredibly inviting and caring and thoughtful.
So it worked out great, and Peter was so open
with us and willing to tell his crazy, crazy Hollywood story.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Well, it's absolutely fantastic. I found myself listening last night.
It's very well done, and it's such a safe platform,
so people just are feeling comfortable to tell it all.
And I thought that it was you know, the episodes
that you have out are very well done. So again
that is the plot thickens and it's about the life
(21:14):
and career of Peter Bogdanovich amazing. And I have a
question because I know that, you know, you come from
a background of journalism. I mean, your resume as far
as education is incredible. What you've done, you know in
your your what is the word I'm looking for your
career when you, you know, started as the reporter and anchor
(21:35):
for w c SCTV and Charleston, Like, when did you
realize that news journalism wasn't really what you wanted to do? Well?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
You know, first of.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
All, I grew up a Jewish kid in Washington, DC,
you know, in sort of a middle class to upper
middle class upbringing. And you're like, well, I guess I
go to law school. That's what we do, doctor, I'm
a jew from Miami. Well that was or lawyer? Yeah, doctor,
there was no chance of that.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I did not.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
I thought, you know, you can sort of you know,
I have these images of me in front of a jury,
and I'm like, well, I can try to be charming
in front of a jury, but you can't, like be
charming in front of a ruptured spleen. Like I'd actually
have to know what I was talking about. So but
I wasn't really into that, And and my you know
father was in politics and the media, and and you
(22:29):
know he'd sort of been a pre bitnot sort of.
He was press secretary to Robert Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Oh, Ben, Ben, Ben, real quick, Yeah, I heard that.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
He just dropped you.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
But Ben, let me tell you something, the fact that
your father was a press secretary to the center of Robert Kennedy.
Just explain what that was like for a minute, please,
because that's that's epic. Epic. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Well, first of you know, my dad he died six
five and a half years ago and he was ninety
and he led this. He wrote a book called so
As I was saying because everything every story my dad
told is like in the middle of a story, like
he would starting expect you to He's like, you got
to have to catch up, like I.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And so I met.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
But that helped me tell the Peter story. That helps
me in interviews, right, I mean I and it helped
sort of. It helped me even though I'm talking a
lot now. It helped me be a really good listener,
which is definitely a strength that I have when I
do these interviews. But the so he was in the
he was my dad was the Latin American director of the
Peace Corps first Latin American Director of the Peace Corps.
(23:33):
And he met Senator Kennedy first in a phone call
when the Senator was going to come down to Peru
and sort of figure out what was wrong with American
foreign policy in Latin American, and he got this itinerary
to like, you know, go to the American language school
and go to a party at the you know, at
the ambassador's house, and tour the embassy. And my dad
(23:57):
spoke up and he was like, yeah, look, man, you
could do that from Washington, Like that doesn't matter. You
want to meet striking you know, vegetable pickers, right, and
you want to go through the barrios of people living
in incredible poverty in Lima. And my dad was like,
who's this guy? And said, can I meet you? I'm
flying into Panama, come meet me. Who's gonna land in
Panama to refuel like two thirty in the morning.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
So my dad went to Panama to meet him and
they met for like three hours, and Hannity was like, look,
whenever you're done here, come work for me.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Come on.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Yeah, I mean, if you knew my dad, you would
know that story is that makes total sense. He was
just my dad was always the smartest person in the room,
and I wow, other people thought that too, So he
hired him. He was the press secretary in the Senate
and then he ran for president and then famously you
can see my father announcing the senator's death after he
was when he was murdered.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
So I have a question, So growing up with a
father who was the press secretary, I mean, did you
grow up going to the White House like it was
like a regular thing.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
No, of course, all know the uh no, because as
soon as I was of age, Richard Nixon.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Was in the White House.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Oh, my dad very famously was on the White House
enemies List, something he was very proud of till this wow,
till the day he died. He wrote two really good
books on Nixon. His first book was the bestseller, was
called Perfectly Clear. And then after Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon,
my father wrote a book about what the prosecution of
Nixon would have looked like.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Oh, my god was blown. So then, with you know
your dad and what he was doing in his accomplishments,
did you ever feel pressure to be on that same path?
Did he kind of pushed that onto you in any way.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
So my dad was as good a dad as you
can get. So he never he never pushed anything onto me.
He was great, he was supportive. I was a huge
sports fan. He was as he was. He was very
you know, I wanted to go into sports, you know,
when it became clear I couldn't play, I wanted to
be as you know, like a baseball broadcaster.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
That was sort of but.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
I was shy, and so it was hard for me
to sort of do that. I'd go to ball games
and sit up in the you know, behind home plate,
way up in the top deck, and I you know,
broadcast games into a.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Tape recorder, and oh I love this.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
So and then my dad was president of National Public
Radio two for six years. So journalism was just sort
of in my blood. My brother is twelve years older
than I am. He's a correspondent for Dateline NBC. And
so my brother sort of taught me how to be
on TV and you know, how to do all these things.
I mean, you know, he taught me how to be
a reporter, which I was first. And so eventually when
I sort of got and became less shy, I just
(26:29):
sort of thought, well I try and I'll try and
do what my brother does. But politics was always super
important to me also because I grew up with I
grew up in DC, and I grew up where in
a family where were very prominent, and they just they mattered.
They weren't like, they weren't a game. They were about
the future of country, of the country and making people's
(26:50):
lives better. Like That's how it always seemed to me.
So I never had this cynical view of politicians. I
thought the people who many of the people who served most.
And I think it's still true. Most of the people
who serve they get.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Into it because they they want to change the world.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Yeah, because my dad ran George McGovern's campaign in nineteen
seventy two, and so you know, Robert Kennedy and George
mc govern with these sort of like these were guys
who were in it for the right reasons.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
You know, Wow, it's really amazing to hear all of
these things. And then you know, you say, Ben, like, no,
there was no pressure, way could do it. You know,
like it's pretty insane. You would think coming from that background,
that there would be tremendous pressure on you to kind
of stay on the same path. I think that's really beautiful.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Well okay, so now you think it won't be beautiful my.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Dad, Okay, just spill the tea. Spill the tea.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
My dad put note pressure on. But you know, he's
the person I admired most. And you know, boys who
love their dads and admire their dads want to impress
like him. I want to impress him. And the way
to impress him was to try and be as smart
as he is. And so eventually you just give up, like, okay,
he loves me anyway, that's good, but I can't fight
(27:57):
this back. I can't do it. So there was enormous pressure.
You know, my grandfather and my great uncle they you know,
won Oscars for you know, my grandfather wrote Citizen Kane and.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Okay, it's away fen so Ben, you know what, But
you know, I'm a movie nerd. Obviously I've produced a
lot of films. So I read I read this, Just
just take a beat on that he co wrote Citizen Kane.
Come on, I mean that's I mean for me, that
would thrust me into like movie anxiety at the highest level.
Did you like, what was the takeaway you got being around,
(28:29):
you know, this family that has epic oscars and you know,
writer Citizen Kane, the greatest movie of all time period.
Did you get anything out of, you know that, that relationship? Yeah,
of course.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
I mean, you know, it's weird because my dad was this,
you know, mythic figure to me. But again it was
totally normal, dude. I mean, you know, but my so,
my grandfather, who Sherman Manglho by the way, wrote Citizen Kane,
didn't co write it. I know that it says he
co wrote it, but he okay, I the uh so
the uh that was a you know, source of great controversy,
(29:04):
the writing credit for that. Whether it's my grandfather's Orson Wellson,
oh my, but it's.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
A fun story about that.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
We deal with that every hour.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
And by the way, Peter's on the other side, Bogdanovitch,
So that's a fun conversation for me and Peter to
have a good natured conversation. And by the way, just
real quick, doesn't matter. It's Orson Wells's movie, and nobody
should mistake that one hundred percent his movie. He just
didn't write, right, this is great, you know, but like
you know, it's like saying that, you know, I mean
Martin Scorsese. He didn't write screenplay for The Irishman, but
that's a Martin Scorsese movie, and nobody should doubt that
(29:33):
for a second. So the Hollywood part of the family
I knew about, of course, but it didn't mean anything
to me. The politics part mattered. I came out to
La I think when I was twenty one, like before
my senior year of college, and a cousin of mine
who's also a Mankowitz, but he doesn't have the same
last name. I went to a party with him and
(29:54):
I got introduced to the coast of the party because
he was like, I brought my cousin, he's out here,
you know, Ben Mankowitz, and the guy I put his
heels together and bowed and said Hollywood Royalty. And I
literally I just remember thinking, is like, you know, Larry
Spielberg behind me, like what.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
About you know?
Speaker 4 (30:12):
So it just was then I was like, oh, like,
I mean, of course I knew it. We have you know,
Joe Maco, who's one of the great writer directors of
all time, and Herman's brother, my great uncle, and and
other cousins who you know, my cousin Tom Mancowitz, you
know wrote three Bond movies, Superman one and two. But
I didn't know that it like to the people who
(30:33):
love movies, right, that it mattered to them like that,
and so and that was nice, of course, you know.
But so yeah, there's pressure to make sure you're not
the You're not the one in the family who.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Faltered fault right, who screws it up.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
You're the You're the one who didn't. He didn't get
that gene, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I I think I think hosting uh the uh Turner
Classic Movies Channel and doing all the different things that
you do far exceeded all of those, you know, expectations
on you. We're gonna cut to a quick break then,
and we're gonna come right back to talk to you about.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
We are back my Loves with Ben Mankowitz. You're super legendary.
I'm just listening to you. My mind is blown. And
I'm actually really curious because Randall just said earlier, you know,
like he's over here making movies and then he sees
you know that you come from a line of family
that's I don't know, just writing citizens Kane, Do you
(31:36):
have any interest in ever directing or producing films?
Speaker 4 (31:41):
I have some you know, I'm not a director, and
I'm really appreciative of the I love artists, man, and
I you know, admire what they do. I'm not I
would never be a director. First of I don't. I
don't really think visually, guys. Wife, you could literally hang
a new painting or poster in front of me in
my home office and nine months later I'll be like,
when'd you put that up? It's ten feet from your face,
(32:04):
and I put it up in twenty eighteen. But I'm
not a bad writer, and you know, a storyteller, So
I mean, if I ever got the courage, it would
probably be to right. And you know, producing, I love
that producing can mean ten billion things. I have come
to meet some producers who are so hands on. I mean,
I you know Irwin Winkler, of course, who you know
(32:24):
worked on the on the Irishman, and but who had
produced you know, some of the Seminals Corsese movies earlier, earlier.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I've known Irwin forever. I produced. I produced the movie
that Irwin directed. That's how he met.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
What movie was that Home of the.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Brave, Home of the Brave? Well, yeah, sure, a while back,
but that was how I met Irwin yeah, and Irwin
is uh so like and Irwin. You know, Irwin's not
the kind of producer who you know, just puts up
money and then you know, has his name on the credits.
At least he wasn't.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Then you know producers who who.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Now he's his hands on?
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Yeah, and and sort of and you protect the director
from the studio that's who have the money, right, That's
a big part of it. And I admire that part too,
and that that has always struck me as something that
but I don't do it. I mean, the fact is
I don't so I you know, I think we have
our answer.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I don't do it. I have a question. So so
now we know how you know, TV has become epic
and huge and really gone to another level today. I'm
just curious on your take with film versus TV today.
You know, how do you feel and what are your
favorite TV shows, if any that you watch?
Speaker 4 (33:35):
I know I watch a lot of television. I mean,
I've been so busy the last few years that I've
watched less. But I still manage with a you know,
young daughter and fairly busy schedule, which I'm grateful for
to to get a fair amount of shows in. I
love that we're at this sort of you know this,
what is it be third Golden age for for television.
(33:57):
I don't see television and movies competing. I just think
they're all this visual storytelling. And I hope we never
lose the theater experience. I don't think we will. I
think it'll come back. You know, it's going to change
and maybe there won't be as many, but you'll still
be able to go to a theater. It's still a
night out. It's still a social connection, and I think
(34:18):
we all realize now how valuable that is, how much
we miss it. So I think as soon as it's safe,
it will come back. I don't think people will be like,
oh great, I never have to leave my I think
it'll be the opposite. But that's okay. It's also okay
to have movies show up on streaming services. There's no
it's all good. But you know, I mean, I have saved.
(34:41):
I have not watched this season A Better Call Saul.
I wanted to watch it all at once. It became
easier during this to do that because nobody was spoiling
it for me. I love Better Call Saw, I love
the Americans. I love succession of.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Our favorite show, our.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Favorite successions, maybe a top ten. That's season two of
Succession one of the best seasons.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
To tell it was unbelievable, unbelieved.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
I watched Homeland, you know, I mean it sort of
run its course, but I watched it all. I watched
you know, Ray Donovan.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
And Billions are are two of my favorite I love.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
Well a dollar Bill on bill the great an actor
named Kelly o'coyney's one of my best friends. Oh really, guy, yeah,
and would be a great guest for you guys.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
He would love wait wait, not only hold on, not
only will I kiss his ass on the show, but
tell him that I am a fan, and if he
wants to reach out to me through you, I would
love when he's off the show to put him in
one of my films. He is. What a great actor,
What a great actor.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
I don't know if you guys watched The Americans, which is,
by the way, the show totally worth seeing.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
It's great.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
It's not rand on FX, it's done, it's phenomenal. It's
as good as TV can be. And but Kelly played
a character there that is so dramatically different than Dollar Bill,
so it buttresses your point. Kelly is a really skilled actor.
I went to high school with him, were on a
basketball team. He's one of my closest friends.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yes, thout my the Americans. That's on the list.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
We're going to watch Americans and we have to get
him in.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
And since we're talking about guests that we should have on,
I want to know, Ben, who have been some of
the favorites of yours that you've interviewed this year?
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Well this year, I mean obviously Peter. You know that
was fifteen hours of interviews Peter Bogdanovich. Wow, And you know,
interviewing for a podcast where you're trying to get somebody
to sort of tell their life story to take you
through the highest point. You know, he was at the
top of the world nineteen seven. He was Scorsese and
Coppola and Friedkin and Mike Nichols. In the early seventies
he was as big as any of them. And then
(36:40):
he had some flops and people didn't like Peter. He
was perceived as arrogant in part because he was arrogant,
but that's sort of his his his but his arrogance
is like it's the right kind of arrogance in that.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
It's his genius. It's probably his genius, right.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
Yeah, And he's not putting it on. It's sort of
just the way he talks. He doesn't look down on people. Well,
he just he's very smart about the things he knows
and he wants to talk about them. And anyway, he
was he and Sybil were so perfect together and on
the cover of Magazinis and so so his fall was
his fall. Hollywood sort of took lee in his fall.
(37:17):
Billy Wilder, the great director, great writer, director, said I'm
gonna paraphrase it here, but he basically said that, you know,
everyone says that that Hollywood is a splintered town, that
we're all, you know, in this for ourselves and we
never look after each other. He goes, that's nonsense. We
all come together to celebrate a Peter Bogdanovich flop.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
So that's sort of what Peter was up against. And then,
you know, and then is the woman he loved, the
woman who's going to marry, was murdered and he went
into a five year depression, tail spend, lost all his money.
So that's a challenging interview and a great interview. But
TCM is fort you got.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
No, I just want to say I agree with you.
By the I was just thinking about Hollywood. It's like
they lift you up, they build you up, they build
you up, they build you up here the underdog. Once
you get there, then they want to see you fall.
And it's just this weird, weird, bad thing. And yeah,
I hope that through this pandemic that we're in, and
I feel like people really come together and I feel
(38:19):
like the world is changing for the best. I mean,
I'm an optimist, you know, Ben, So I don't know
if I'm delusional, but I do feel that people are
really leaning on each other right now, more than I've
ever seen, you know, versus like a hurricane or a tornado.
You know, maybe they'll come together and then once it's
kind of gets better, everybody goes back to their regular lives.
(38:39):
This is effect that the entire universe all at the
same time, and we've never experienced this. So I'm hoping.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Well, the silver lining is, you know, we have to
figure out how we can do better.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, I agree, Yeah, I hope.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
So I'm not as I'm pretty optimistic. We know, we
started talking about my father, and my father's the most
optimistic person in the world. So in a sense, I'm
glad he's not living through the last few years politically
because it would really have distressed him. But I hope
we come back together. I certainly do. Hollywood, though, is
a there's a and I love Hollywood and I love
the people and yeah, I just meet Yeah, I like,
(39:14):
you know, I had this reputation when I came out
to l A about you know, what kind of town
it was going to be, and you know, it's superficial
and that's all horseship.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
I mean it can be and it can like it
can be and yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
I'm sorry, no, yeah, of course we could have that
idea where, you know, where people celebrate other people's failures.
And there is a slightly weird thing when a friend says, hey, man,
they bought my screenplay that you think, why did they
buy my screenplay?
Speaker 2 (39:40):
You know, for an.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Instant that that that's that's sort of unique to LA.
But the flip side is, man, I would you know,
I'd play poker and I'd meet some guy.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Oh, hold on, we're super time out.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Then you keep dropping things like, you know, Robert Kennedy
than poker, like your.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
You know, I don't know what they call it, semi
professional poker player. I live for poker. I play on
television on a regular basis up until COVID. I am obsessed.
If you google me, you'll see my poker antics. I
play in the World Series. I go for the entire month,
play all the events. I live for poker. So if
you love poker, when I wherever you where are you based?
(40:24):
Oh you're based there? Okay, So when when COVID goes away,
I'm gonna invite you over to my poker game so
we can hang out and play poker.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
You know, by the way, we have the same birthday.
I just want to point that out.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Oh this is getting better by the minute. This is
just getting better. We're gonna party together next year, and
we're gonna have poker together. This is great.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
Most of my gambling is a sports gambling. I mean,
I love gambling. I just you know, it's part of mine.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
That makes two of us funny, two of.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
But you know, you'd go and you so you'd be
I just playing poker with friends and they some friend,
some guy somebody there would bring a guy. And you know,
I met a couple of incredibly successful writer producers on
big s and comedies, and like the whole night he
would you know, the guy would like, never say anything
remotely funny. He tried and I and he didn't seem
(41:09):
and I'd be like, how's this possible? And then the
next week somebody else would come and it's a bartender, right,
and a waiter and a guy working hard to make it,
and I would think, this is the most talented person
I've ever seen in my time, Like, how how is
this guy not? You know? So I love that And
I love meeting creative people. You know, every time I
(41:29):
run into somebody you can make fun of writers at Starbucks,
but then you have a conversation with him and it's
incredibly interesting. Like I love artists, man, I like being around.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
I do to not only that, I want to say everyone,
my guy, oh on, my, my producer Timmy, who was
sitting here too. I found him at Starbucks. He was
a a barista, then he became an intern, then he
became an assistant, then he became a junior development executive,
and now he's the president of the company.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Wow, Hollywood dreams come true?
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah right, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Working at Starbucks one day filmmaker the next So yeah,
of course you touched on how your wife sometimes decorates
your office and you don't notice, which I love that.
How did you meet this epic woman who was just
like putting fabulous art in your office.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
We met at the TCM Film Festival, the first ever
TCM Film Festival. She was like, she's a big movie fan,
she loves TCM, and she tried to get she was
working in the city. She was in New York, and
she wanted to get a bunch of her girlfriends to
come out with her to the our first ever film festival.
(42:40):
And you know, they were like, oh, we don't want
to go to a film festival black and white movies
or whatever, whatever dumb thing they said.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
And so she's cool, and.
Speaker 4 (42:48):
She was like she loves architecture too, so she's like,
screw it, I'm going. So she went herself, why don't
you take a week a week afterwards in la and
Palm Springs to tour to just look at great houses,
look at you know, Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses, and
like she was just she was like, I'll take a
ten day vacation by myself. And we met at the festival.
I had a girlfriend at the time, but we met
(43:08):
and then you know, I broke up with my girlfriend
like three months later, and I met Lee Lee again
then at a TCM event in Atlanta where she was
with girlfriends and I was hosting some event and we
hung out. And then you know, over the next like
year and a half, she lived out of town. She
lived in New York and then moved briefly to Saint
Louis and we you know, she'd come into town a lot,
(43:31):
and we'd see each other and it's just sort of
and then one because again she takes charge. It's like
two Christmas seasons later, she was like, yeah, I got
work to let me come to LA for two months.
I'm going to rent a small little house in LA
for two months and let's just see how this goes. Wow,
and now we have, you know, dogs and a family
and a daughter.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
How many years have you guys been together since then?
Speaker 4 (43:54):
So we've been sort of like seeing each other since
like twenty eleven, and we got married in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Okay, Now I have one other question. You got married
on a cruise for the same festival, is that or
explain it?
Speaker 4 (44:09):
The festival is here in LA like at those great
theaters at the Chinese and the Egyptian sort of in Hollywood.
That's where were the base at the Roosevelt Hotel. We
of course had to cancel it this year, but it'll
be back, you know, hopefully in twenty twenty one. We're
working on it. So, but that's here, that's where we met.
But then we also have a cruise and so you know,
(44:30):
we were seeing each other and we were on the
cruise and I proposed to her and we thought, oh,
this will be fun since we met at TCM, like,
let's get married on the cruise and have you know
Gavin McLeod marius, you know, and oh wow, and you
know it wasn't Captain Steuben, but it was. And then
(44:52):
of course it turns out it turns out you get
married in the Caribbean on a cruise, it doesn't really count,
right because.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
You have to have allasis of the piece in the city. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
Mostly you have to pay for a marriage license. That's
what that's what California wants.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (45:06):
We came back and got married again, and but do
we count the real date is that one of the crews.
That's our anniversary was fun. Robert Wagner, who was a
guest on the cruise. He walked, he walked my wife
down the aisle.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Come on, I mean, you just live. You live. Honestly,
we are definitely playing poker together. You live the coolest life.
I'm dead serious. As soon as this shit's over, where
you're coming to a poker game because I think you
and I have a lot more in common. Even though
I am not as highly educated as you, I'm a
film school education. I definitely can relate to the gambling
(45:40):
and the fun that I think you are.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Just the story like I want to come to just
hear everything.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah, I have one last question question. I know you're like,
you know, you're a phenomenal interviewer and you've interviewed pretty
much everybody on the planet. What interview tips would you
give us young ones who are only like twelve episodes in?
What what? What? What? What?
Speaker 1 (46:05):
What?
Speaker 2 (46:05):
What do we need.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
To give used?
Speaker 4 (46:08):
So the best thing that I look first of all,
I paid attention to Howard Stern, David Letterman, and Dan Patrick,
who I think is actually a really good interview interviewer.
They're all different, but the most important thing, you know,
prepare right, like, don't get caught up because the preparation
helps you, and it helps it also helps them, but
it helps you. You don't need to memorize it. But
(46:31):
when you feel secure that you're not going to get blindsided,
that you're not afraid to figure out how to pronounce
somebody's name or what movies they did or who directed
those movies, it just gives you confidence. It gives you
confidence to then be funny because you're not scared. So
the preparation, it's not so much that you need to
recall what you prepared. It's fine if you can't remember something.
But when I realized that if I prepped and I
(46:54):
felt confident, then when I couldn't think of something, I
didn't have to pretend I could day. You know, when
you were doing oh for crying out loud the Hitchcock
movie with Carrie Grant Ingrid Bergmann had come down the stairs,
you know, you know, and then the person go notorious.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
I go right notorious.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
Whereas if I weren't prepared, I'd be terrified of that moment.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
So it's really just doing your homework, like, really do
your homework.
Speaker 4 (47:18):
So they do two things, Okay, two things real quick,
So yes, do your homework because it lets you be
funny and spontaneous, which you might be afraid to do.
And then secondly, this is obvious, but it's really hard
to do. It took me a long time. Don't worry
about your questions. Think about what you want to ask,
but then just listen. If you're really listening, you will
(47:39):
ask something different. And frequently the best questions are really
because then there's some personal just because then the person
will just go on or huh, and I didn't know
that really those three things that just gets people talking,
and they like it when people are interested in what
they had to say. And if you avoid the cliches
(47:59):
of in an interview, and don't fake laugh, and don't
you know these little things. I learned all that stuff
from being on local TV. And I'd see myself fake laugh.
If I recorded a and i'd cringe.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
I'd be like, you knew it was a fake laugh.
You're like, oh, that's the time that I pretended super hard, right.
Speaker 4 (48:14):
You could you know you're an ankor you're an anchor
and the weather person says, you know, you'd say to Sherry,
you'd be like, you know, our weather person, you know.
I'd be like Sherry, what's our Sunday looking like? Like,
why a laughing laugh?
Speaker 2 (48:28):
That's not kidding, I'm kidding. It's not even a joke.
That's right.
Speaker 4 (48:32):
Well that no, right, My laugh is like now you know,
because it's so absurd, you know. Okay, Sherry, great stuff,
thanks you, Thanks for the good weather today.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
This is good. Honestly, Ben, that is really good advice
because number one, I need to shut up a lot.
You can see that, so I'm going to get better
at that. But two, I do like the preparation because
I feel like in the twelve episodes we've done, when
we're prepared, baby, we we are really like on point.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
But we'll be honest though, Ben. Sometimes I'm interviewing, you know,
like people on vander Pump Rules, which you probably don't
even know. That is easy. When I look at a
resume like yours, I'm like, what's my name again?
Speaker 2 (49:12):
I feel like I feel like I'm talking to a
colleague versus having no clue. When we bring on the
vanderfug people and I'm like, who did you beat the
shit out of last episode? I have no clue. So
this has actually been really enjoyable, Ben, and very appreciative
and I'm a huge fan of yours now and we
could go on for another hour, but they're telling us
(49:34):
we got to wrap it up, which Ben, is there
anything else I can say or or let people know
where to find you besides the new podcast? Is there
any other things? Sure?
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Definitely check out Definitely check out the block thickens. I'm
still Peter Bugdanovich. Wherever you get podcasts. We've had four episodes,
we got I think the three or three more and
you can on Twitter's really the only place I am.
Ben MANK seven seven perfect.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
Thank you so much, Ben, I'm so appreciative your your
story is epic. Plus you gave us advice. I feel
like I should be paying person.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Thank you, it was fun.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
Thanks for having me guys.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Thank you, Ben.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
Hi, this is Kim.
Speaker 3 (50:10):
I love, love, love your podcast.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
And just to let Randall know he does have fans
because he is the number one guy.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Thank you, my loves to everyone who has already left
us epic messages and keep.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Them coming because we love hearing from you. Guys.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Call us anytime at eight sixty six La La Pod.
That's eight sixty six La La Pod.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yes, thank you for listening.
Well, hello, gorgeous, we are back at it again.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Give them la la with rample.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Dude, exciting things today.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, first of all, it is a season finale. Vander
Pomp has happened. Yes, it's over. Let's just take a
minute and celebrate that. You just rock twenty episodes of
vander Pump Rules. Yes, yes, Okay, Now I'm gonna interview
you for a second. Okay, how do you feel about
(00:43):
your season?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I feel absolutely epic. You don't, yeah, because like you know,
here's the thing, and I'm going to really make this
short and sweet.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You get the hands up, so I definitely think it's
gonna be It's going to be intense.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
For me, vander Pump Rules is very much real life, correct,
that's our real lives correct. However, the show is one
hour long. It is a produced show. So for me,
when I have my freakouts or my meltdowns, or I
have a really great scene, like however I feel about it,
I disconnect because I'm like, if I take this home
(01:21):
with me, I'll crawl into a hole.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
No, first of all, we'll back up years before when
we first started dating. You did take this shit home
with you, and it was World War three. Right, what
I'm most proud of is that it really is your
real life and it kind of all blends together. But
I think that when you have tough scenes where it
gets like a little tough for you, I think you're
able to disconnect.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Now, well, you have to. And when I watch it,
when I have to like relive it, I sit there
and I'm like, fuck, this is entertaining, you know, like wow,
look at me go And then I know when it's
like great and I should probably apologize. But in order
for me to maintain like sanity, I have to just
look at it and be like, damn, that's so entertaining,
(02:06):
Like we did a great job. You know. That's how
you have to look at it. Are you gonna freak out?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, now that Astas calls me a Bravo leberty, I'm
gonna say that I just had a season vander promp
as well, so I have something to contribute. I after
my first scene coming out of the gate how to
let it go too, because I felt that they made
me look like I am the only person eating at
that dinner when I had a double chicken.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Sandap Oh, wow, you're really throwing it back to like
episode four.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I only had like two episodes the whole season, so
let me just revel in my one. First of all,
I didn't order two chicken fucking sandwiches. And second of all,
I'll order two more again. And by the way, y'all
ate two? Why was it only me? Why was it
only Randall?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Because it's because it's entertaining, Like that scene there memes about.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It, there's like slow motion to be eating chicken sandwiches.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Which keep in mind, I ordered like five dishes. Right wait, wait,
by the way, you when I know production is paying,
I'm like, bring them out, bring them out, give me
all the goodness.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Off the way you you jacks, you Jacks and Brittany
or multiple dishes and I was a slow motion chicken
sandwich heater. It's bunch of bullshit. I also want to
say that the end of the season was.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Very Yeah, why are you asking me how I feel
about it? How do you feel about it? Your first
your first time ever appearing on Vanner Pump Rules, which
I literally told everybody that will never happen.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Never the way I told everybody will never happen.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
And not only did it happen, your manipulator, absolutely, I
do reality TV. No one is safe.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And you also you also gave me that bullshit when
you're like, you know, this is my real life and
like we need to show this side. And I said,
you know that's not happening, he said, and then you
gave me that look like give me right now. And
then I folded like a like a like a like
a you know, just fold it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Fold is like an envelope, licky lick, throw a stamp
on it, deliver it to Vanner pump rules.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
But I will tell you I didn't film a lot.
Obviously I didn't.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
You didn't, but it was hardcore. You had a scene
with James Kennedy. You're like, not only am I going
to film now, I'm going to have a scene one
on one with James.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Now, hold on a second. I got trapped. They call
me your little producers for they're big producers, but your
big producers call me. They said, will you show up
at the at the season finale? And they said, there's
no reason for me. I'm not relevant to this. I'm
just going to stay home let Lalla do her thing.
They said, no, no, no, you got to be there
for her. It's a last night. We're going to celebrate.
It's a big party. So I come, I get wasted.
(04:22):
I'm having the time of my life. And by the way,
I bring Emma, Martin Scorsese's partner, so she and she's
a fan girl of the show. So she's going crazy
taking selfies and we're having the best time. So I
think this is easy. They're focused on you, guys. I'm
over in the corner with Emma drinking, and all of
a sudden, I get a little tap tap and they say,
when will you come over here for a second. We
(04:43):
just need to shoot one little thing with you. I
was like, oh, this is a good bye randal or
something like that, or maybe they want me to eat
a chicken sandwich again. Long story, short, long story, Well,
I was going to order chicken sandwich. I thought they'd
want a slow motion shot. So they bring me over
and there's James. They say, James wants to say something.
You know. I'm like, these fucking people are good. They
are so but but having said that, now I'm going
(05:04):
to be the serious side. James was sober, and he
came over to me and he was beyond sincere and
very genuine, and it was so endearing and he said,
you know, I want to apologize for all the things
I said and did. It wasn't in my right state.
It doesn't make it okay. I will you, you know,
forgive me. And I said, dude, that is such a
(05:24):
big step and a big so big of you to
do that. Of course I am. I know my fiance,
you know, and you are very good friends, and I
want to have the same friendship. And the fact that
you did this is so honorable and I I forget,
know and I forgive. And you know what since then,
he since he's been our podcast and we text each
(05:46):
other here and there, and it's like, you know what,
he has come so far, and you know, life is
about forgiveness. You know we've done We've forgiven each other
for shit, and we forgive people for doing things to
us that maybe, you know, aren't the kindness. And at
the end of the day, I'm glad I went to
that party. I'm glad I went to that final taping
or filming, whatever you call it. And it was very sweet.
(06:08):
And I watched the episode, which I don't watch a lot,
you know, and the ending was exciting. It was like
music and that exit and Jackson Lisa going at it.
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
We broke the fourth wall on vander Pump Rules, Like
Jax goes crazy and he's talking to Lisa vander Pump
and he's like, this is my show, and she just
was like, oh, it's your show, vander Pump Rules, that's
my name. Like it was crazy. It was amazing, the
first finale episode I've ever like got intery.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Oh when you watched it.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, I thought it was really sweet.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I loved it. I love the music. I loved how
each person or each couple kind of or each cast
member walked out.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Hold on. I have a really fun fact though. So
that night, Danica gets into a little scuffle with like
this new person that hooked up with Max. Her name's Kara,
and Danica shoves Kara, and Danica spills her wine on
my outfit okay, And in the interview process, they wanted
(07:10):
me to talk about the outfit because in their mind
it was like some fabulous outfit.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I was like, I'm not going to talk about it
because that outfit costs me all of like maybe a
hundred bucks for the whole thing, So like we're not
talking about no big deal, you know. The throat in
the wash. It's all good exactly like I come. I'm
a pretender. People think I'm a bougie bitch, but hell no,
I am scrolling the internet for a good deal. What's happening?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Sorry?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Wow, Randall, are you for real?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No? I was trying to do something.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Pull it together. Yeah, hold on, get it to the chorus.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
It's coming.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Turn it to the chorus. It's coming, It's coming. We
free hold. I wait for every young boom. You know that.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
The best day your glasses, Hi, this one's for you
soon night, dude.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It did make me happy. It did make me happy.
You know what, we are fucking young, wild and free man. Yeah, well,
we may have birthdays that make us older. You guys
are young, You're young, wild and free. To age is
just a number. I don't believe in celebrating a birthday
to be like a year older. It's like, no, we're
celebrating this day because without it, I will an exist.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I got to tell you eight years.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
So you're freaking welcome.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You know eight years you were on this show so far?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Only five I've completed five seasons.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
But the show eight years what an epic run so far?
And I know you guys are going to go into
your ninth season, so I get I got to give
you this episode.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I love that you said you know that we're going
into our ninth season, because we don't know that yet.
But put it into the universe. I speak it.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I know you are good, not if when when your
ratings are good, you're going another season.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It was definitely epic, and you know, the just the
cast when I watch them. Some like to blame editing,
which is fine, but it's like if we all just
looked five star like, we wouldn't be eight seasons in,
you know, so just be like, thanks for making a
great scene, even though I look like an asshole. Put
it out. Mention it all, mention it all.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Oh you got the hands up fire today? Holy shit,
I am Yesterday you were like in a hole. Today
you're like, boom, she's away.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Boom baby, Bring on the virtual reunion. I'm about to
slay these hosts. Just kidding a lot at the reunion. Okay,
I cried a lot, a lot of apologies.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
O question, what was your favorite moment of vander Pump
this season and your worst moment of vander Pump this season? Oh,
by the way, don't feel like any pressure to say
me being on the show, but go ahead.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
That was definitely a highlight. Having you on the show
was a highlight because we got to hang out all summer.
It was awesome, which usually we don't get to do that.
But I think that, yeah, what else besides me, I'm
gonna get cheesy again. I think the highlight of this
season was just being so clear and aware and waking
up and not feeling guilty about anything I had done,
you know, being sober. Completing a season of reality TV,
(10:39):
which can be a nightmare. I completed that shit.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Sober and I give you mad props for that.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Thank you, babe.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I agree with you and I support that answer. I
love it. And what was the what was the worst moment?
Because I don't even know what your worst moment was,
So what was the worst moment?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
The worst moment was the way I treated Raquel, for sure,
Like there are a few things that when I watch
I'm like, don't regret it that it was like, oh,
can someone please muzzle you? Like you know, but it
is what it is like again silver Lining. People were entertained.
(11:15):
They had an opinion whether it was good or bad.
People had an opinion.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
By the way, that's what makes you, in my opinion,
why your show is so successful is all of you
have this thing that happens and then everybody just you know,
has an opinion because you drive people and what you
guys do.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yeah, when people when people write me crazy DMS, they're like,
I can't believe you acted that way, all I send
back is thank you so much for watching me. I like,
for real, without you wouldn't be eight seasons in just
saying yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Well, I think the fact that you I have never
seen you have such conflict right over the years I've
been with you, where yeah, that's such conflict and it
be resolved and such amicable and quick way. Like normally
back in the old days, hence, you know, pre sober,
you would just assassinate the world, continue to assassinate, blow
(12:11):
it up three more times, and then eventually start repairing.
Now I see you.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Now what I would do is blow things up. Tornadoes
come through AK forty sevens, and then I'd look behind
me and be like, why is everyone so sad and upset?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
But now but now you handle things so gracefully. I
really give you a lot of props, like something will happen,
and then you'll you'll get home and you'll be like,
you know, I feel bad and I really, you know,
didn't want to do that, and and blah blah blah,
and then you and then on your own, like without
cameras there, I see you sending text saying, look, I
really don't feel that way, and I'm sorry that I
(12:47):
said something. It's just very jack cat.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
My cast members are not just my cast members, that's
my that's my LA family, Like I love them so much,
and I know that we're all always going to go
toes with each other because we're all very strong foreronalities.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
When you go toes, what does it mean exactly?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Step up, bitch? Oh go toes? Toe to toe? Baby.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
So if I'm in a meeting at a studio talking
about a movie and the guy's pissing me off on
a deal, can I be like, let's go to toes, bitch,
I'm just asking you can.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Right because you have done that.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Though, when I say let's go toes, if I know
that that person really is a fighter, like I don't
want to do it. I'm a very fast runner, like.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Let's fight the words, you'll back down, you are.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
You kidding me? Do I look like someone who's gonna
punch anybody?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So just tell me one thing.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I am a classy bitch.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Oh okay, just tell me one thing. Then tell me
one thing. So in the four years when I've got
toes with you, I'll give you a never back down.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Oh the drink. The drink is like like the battery,
you know, the the drink is like a battery, the
little fucking engine that could. We're getting up the hill.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
But you know it's funny. I talk shit and you're
you are a fighter. I pushed in the wrong direction,
but you know what, at the end of the day,
you are way more of a lover than a fighter,
way more, way more.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Of course, I always say like, I hate confrontation, but
I'm extremely good at it. You professional professional. So I'm
excited for our guest today though, because he I'm gonna
be honest. I looked at his resume and was like,
am I up for this challenge? Like he's, you know,
graduating from Columbia, And I'm like, have you ever heard
(14:33):
of slick like Sally Community College? Up in this bitch?
Two years? Oh shit, don't be rude. I attempted.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
You know, if I would have known this when I
met you, I might have diverted.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And then I got all the credits I needed to
transfer to the University of Utah.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
University hardly did you go for one day?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I went for like a month, and I was like
going through from one class to the other in the snow,
and I like literally was like, what am I doing?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
You a work?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Hate this and literally went home and was like, Mom,
by the way, I'm moving to LA.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Can't give you a word advice? Tell me from now
when we lead in about your education, can you just
start with the University of View talents and pretend the
community college thing to happen.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
This is who I am. Randall shit, like, are you crazy?
Why would I ever?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I thought you went to Harvard?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Don't I act like it didn't sound like it.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
They So we have Ben Mankowitz, who is the host
of Turner Classic Movies Channel, the host of screen Time
segment on CBS Sunday Morning show. His grants. He's his
grand sorry, his father was a press secretary to Senator
Bob Kennedy. I mean, this guy is loaded to the girls.
(15:43):
Now I'm gonna say something. I don't get impressed. That
easily takes a lot at my old age, right, this
guy is impressive. And by the way, this and I
want to tell you, Lala, what really is putting us
to the test? This this next guest. This isn't like
a movie guy that I can just kind of like
sit back and have a cigar. Or it's not a
cast memory or is that you could just sit back
(16:04):
and spill the tea as you say this dude, This
dude is the real shit.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So we're not only not only is he like epic
in his family Randall, you're such a rookie. When Ben
gets on the line, you better mute your phone.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Okay for real. But this is what I want to
say about this guest. I feel like this like the
network threw this guest on us to see are we
ready for the next level? Yeah? Because if we fucked
this up, we have to go back to what we
know and we can never get outside our comfort zone.
But if we crush this and I want, I want
(16:38):
your fans and my three fans to write in after
this episode and tell us did we handle ourselves in
a professional, engaging manner or did we flop? And we
need to go back to what we.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
All try try to make the criticism constructive. I don't
really respond well to people telling me I suck.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
You know, well, just give us advice, like did we
handle ourselves? Well, we're did we ask intriguing questions? Was
or were we boring and dismal? Right?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I don't think that's ever going to be a problem.
So let's take a short break, and when we get back,
we have Ben Mancowitz. I won't lie. Our guest is
someone I read your resume, Ben, and I am extremely intimidated,
and I don't get intimidated by many things. We have
(17:28):
Ben Mancowitz on our podcast today.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yes, I'm freaking and you're the man I just want
to say. He is host of the new TCM podcast
The Plot Thickens, about the life and career of one
of my favorite most epic directors, Peter Bugdanovich. This is
the coolest thing ever. I just want to know, Ben,
how do you even come up with the idea to
do that? Because now I want to go do a
(17:52):
podcast about every epic director I've ever loved. So can
you just tell us, like how that even started?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Well, many of them, of course, have lives that are
worthy of being chronicled. But first of all, Peter and
I were friends, and I like Peter. The first time
I met him, as I tell the story in the podcast,
I think in episode one, I was very nervous when
I first met Peter. It was in an event I
think in twenty twelve or thirteen in Toronto where we
in advance to the TCM Festival. We did some events
(18:21):
around the country, and so I was in Toronto with Peter.
We weren to screen the Last Picture Show. And because it's
Peter Bogdanovitch the same reason that you admire him, I
was nervous. This guy. He is an encyclopedia of classic movies,
and I just thought, you know, you know, the way
all of us are frequently where you sort of think
that you've perpetrated your any success you've had in life
(18:42):
is because you've perpetrated some great fraud. And I thought
he'd see right through me. But he had a cold,
pretty bad cold, and he was sniffling and drinking hot
tea at this bar we met in a hotel, and
you know, it just humanized him instantly, and he made
some joke and then Sybil Shepherd, who he hasn't been
(19:02):
linked to romantically since nineteen seventy nine, called him to
check on Hi because she was worried about him traveling
with a WOW And I was like, oh, listen, this
guy's he's still friends with his ex and he's got
a cold just like me. And that began a friendship.
And then so there's a long way of answering your question.
Peter did all these wonderful interviews with classic film directors Hitchcot,
(19:23):
john Ford, Orson Wells, Howard Hawk's, many others, including dating
back to the Silent era before he became a director,
when he was a film writer, a very good one
wrote for Esquire magazine, Most Freak Wow, and he compiled
them into a wonderful book called Who the Devil Made It,
which is a great Howard Hawk's line about how when
you watch a movie, you should know who the devil
(19:44):
made it, like there should be some signature about the
director which you would be able to identify. Peter had
recordings of these interviews, and I thought we should do
a podcast. I wanted to do a podcast for years,
and TCM was interested, but I was pushing, i must say,
and I thought Peter would be a great topic and
we would spend each episode talking about one of these
directors and play clips, and then professional storytellers took over,
(20:09):
namely our executive producer for this podcast, Angela Corone, and
they were like, yeah, that's a great idea. Here's what
we're going to do instead with Peter, And they just
made this whole thing ten thousand times better because Peter's
life is a story worth telling, full of success, failure,
horrible tragedy, hubris with the normal parts of recovery from
(20:31):
a tragedy, and it turned him into a different person
and he is an interesting guy, incredibly funny, incredibly smart,
and I find now incredibly inviting and caring and thoughtful.
So it worked out great, and Peter was so open
with us and willing to tell his crazy, crazy Hollywood story.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Well, it's absolutely fantastic. I found myself listening last night.
It's very well done, and it's such a safe platform,
so people just are feeling comfortable to tell it all.
And I thought that it was you know, the episodes
that you have out are very well done. So again
that is the plot thickens and it's about the life
(21:14):
and career of Peter Bogdanovich amazing. And I have a
question because I know that, you know, you come from
a background of journalism. I mean, your resume as far
as education is incredible. What you've done, you know in
your your what is the word I'm looking for your
career when you, you know, started as the reporter and anchor
(21:35):
for w c SCTV and Charleston, Like, when did you
realize that news journalism wasn't really what you wanted to do? Well?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
You know, first of.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
All, I grew up a Jewish kid in Washington, DC,
you know, in sort of a middle class to upper
middle class upbringing. And you're like, well, I guess I
go to law school. That's what we do, doctor, I'm
a jew from Miami. Well that was or lawyer? Yeah, doctor,
there was no chance of that.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I did not.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
I thought, you know, you can sort of you know,
I have these images of me in front of a jury,
and I'm like, well, I can try to be charming
in front of a jury, but you can't, like be
charming in front of a ruptured spleen. Like I'd actually
have to know what I was talking about. So but
I wasn't really into that, And and my you know
father was in politics and the media, and and you
(22:29):
know he'd sort of been a pre bitnot sort of.
He was press secretary to Robert Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Oh, Ben, Ben, Ben, real quick, Yeah, I heard that.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
He just dropped you.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
But Ben, let me tell you something, the fact that
your father was a press secretary to the center of Robert Kennedy.
Just explain what that was like for a minute, please,
because that's that's epic. Epic. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Well, first of you know, my dad he died six
five and a half years ago and he was ninety
and he led this. He wrote a book called so
As I was saying because everything every story my dad
told is like in the middle of a story, like
he would starting expect you to He's like, you got
to have to catch up, like I.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And so I met.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
But that helped me tell the Peter story. That helps
me in interviews, right, I mean I and it helped
sort of. It helped me even though I'm talking a
lot now. It helped me be a really good listener,
which is definitely a strength that I have when I
do these interviews. But the so he was in the
he was my dad was the Latin American director of the
Peace Corps first Latin American Director of the Peace Corps.
(23:33):
And he met Senator Kennedy first in a phone call
when the Senator was going to come down to Peru
and sort of figure out what was wrong with American
foreign policy in Latin American, and he got this itinerary
to like, you know, go to the American language school
and go to a party at the you know, at
the ambassador's house, and tour the embassy. And my dad
(23:57):
spoke up and he was like, yeah, look, man, you
could do that from Washington, Like that doesn't matter. You
want to meet striking you know, vegetable pickers, right, and
you want to go through the barrios of people living
in incredible poverty in Lima. And my dad was like,
who's this guy? And said, can I meet you? I'm
flying into Panama, come meet me. Who's gonna land in
Panama to refuel like two thirty in the morning.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
So my dad went to Panama to meet him and
they met for like three hours, and Hannity was like, look,
whenever you're done here, come work for me.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Come on.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Yeah, I mean, if you knew my dad, you would
know that story is that makes total sense. He was
just my dad was always the smartest person in the room,
and I wow, other people thought that too, So he
hired him. He was the press secretary in the Senate
and then he ran for president and then famously you
can see my father announcing the senator's death after he
was when he was murdered.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
So I have a question, So growing up with a
father who was the press secretary, I mean, did you
grow up going to the White House like it was
like a regular thing.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
No, of course, all know the uh no, because as
soon as I was of age, Richard Nixon.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Was in the White House.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Oh, my dad very famously was on the White House
enemies List, something he was very proud of till this wow,
till the day he died. He wrote two really good
books on Nixon. His first book was the bestseller, was
called Perfectly Clear. And then after Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon,
my father wrote a book about what the prosecution of
Nixon would have looked like.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Oh, my god was blown. So then, with you know
your dad and what he was doing in his accomplishments,
did you ever feel pressure to be on that same path?
Did he kind of pushed that onto you in any way.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
So my dad was as good a dad as you
can get. So he never he never pushed anything onto me.
He was great, he was supportive. I was a huge
sports fan. He was as he was. He was very
you know, I wanted to go into sports, you know,
when it became clear I couldn't play, I wanted to
be as you know, like a baseball broadcaster.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
That was sort of but.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
I was shy, and so it was hard for me
to sort of do that. I'd go to ball games
and sit up in the you know, behind home plate,
way up in the top deck, and I you know,
broadcast games into a.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Tape recorder, and oh I love this.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
So and then my dad was president of National Public
Radio two for six years. So journalism was just sort
of in my blood. My brother is twelve years older
than I am. He's a correspondent for Dateline NBC. And
so my brother sort of taught me how to be
on TV and you know, how to do all these things.
I mean, you know, he taught me how to be
a reporter, which I was first. And so eventually when
I sort of got and became less shy, I just
(26:29):
sort of thought, well I try and I'll try and
do what my brother does. But politics was always super
important to me also because I grew up with I
grew up in DC, and I grew up where in
a family where were very prominent, and they just they mattered.
They weren't like, they weren't a game. They were about
the future of country, of the country and making people's
(26:50):
lives better. Like That's how it always seemed to me.
So I never had this cynical view of politicians. I
thought the people who many of the people who served most.
And I think it's still true. Most of the people
who serve they get.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Into it because they they want to change the world.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Yeah, because my dad ran George McGovern's campaign in nineteen
seventy two, and so you know, Robert Kennedy and George
mc govern with these sort of like these were guys
who were in it for the right reasons.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
You know, Wow, it's really amazing to hear all of
these things. And then you know, you say, Ben, like, no,
there was no pressure, way could do it. You know,
like it's pretty insane. You would think coming from that background,
that there would be tremendous pressure on you to kind
of stay on the same path. I think that's really beautiful.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Well okay, so now you think it won't be beautiful my.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Dad, Okay, just spill the tea. Spill the tea.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
My dad put note pressure on. But you know, he's
the person I admired most. And you know, boys who
love their dads and admire their dads want to impress
like him. I want to impress him. And the way
to impress him was to try and be as smart
as he is. And so eventually you just give up, like, okay,
he loves me anyway, that's good, but I can't fight
(27:57):
this back. I can't do it. So there was enormous pressure.
You know, my grandfather and my great uncle they you know,
won Oscars for you know, my grandfather wrote Citizen Kane and.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Okay, it's away fen so Ben, you know what, But
you know, I'm a movie nerd. Obviously I've produced a
lot of films. So I read I read this, Just
just take a beat on that he co wrote Citizen Kane.
Come on, I mean that's I mean for me, that
would thrust me into like movie anxiety at the highest level.
Did you like, what was the takeaway you got being around,
(28:29):
you know, this family that has epic oscars and you know,
writer Citizen Kane, the greatest movie of all time period.
Did you get anything out of, you know that, that relationship? Yeah,
of course.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
I mean, you know, it's weird because my dad was this,
you know, mythic figure to me. But again it was
totally normal, dude. I mean, you know, but my so,
my grandfather, who Sherman Manglho by the way, wrote Citizen Kane,
didn't co write it. I know that it says he
co wrote it, but he okay, I the uh so
the uh that was a you know, source of great controversy,
(29:04):
the writing credit for that. Whether it's my grandfather's Orson Wellson,
oh my, but it's.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
A fun story about that.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
We deal with that every hour.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
And by the way, Peter's on the other side, Bogdanovitch,
So that's a fun conversation for me and Peter to
have a good natured conversation. And by the way, just
real quick, doesn't matter. It's Orson Wells's movie, and nobody
should mistake that one hundred percent his movie. He just
didn't write, right, this is great, you know, but like
you know, it's like saying that, you know, I mean
Martin Scorsese. He didn't write screenplay for The Irishman, but
that's a Martin Scorsese movie, and nobody should doubt that
(29:33):
for a second. So the Hollywood part of the family
I knew about, of course, but it didn't mean anything
to me. The politics part mattered. I came out to
La I think when I was twenty one, like before
my senior year of college, and a cousin of mine
who's also a Mankowitz, but he doesn't have the same
last name. I went to a party with him and
(29:54):
I got introduced to the coast of the party because
he was like, I brought my cousin, he's out here,
you know, Ben Mankowitz, and the guy I put his
heels together and bowed and said Hollywood Royalty. And I
literally I just remember thinking, is like, you know, Larry
Spielberg behind me, like what.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
About you know?
Speaker 4 (30:12):
So it just was then I was like, oh, like,
I mean, of course I knew it. We have you know,
Joe Maco, who's one of the great writer directors of
all time, and Herman's brother, my great uncle, and and
other cousins who you know, my cousin Tom Mancowitz, you
know wrote three Bond movies, Superman one and two. But
I didn't know that it like to the people who
(30:33):
love movies, right, that it mattered to them like that,
and so and that was nice, of course, you know.
But so yeah, there's pressure to make sure you're not
the You're not the one in the family who.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Faltered fault right, who screws it up.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
You're the You're the one who didn't. He didn't get
that gene, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I I think I think hosting uh the uh Turner
Classic Movies Channel and doing all the different things that
you do far exceeded all of those, you know, expectations
on you. We're gonna cut to a quick break then,
and we're gonna come right back to talk to you about.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
We are back my Loves with Ben Mankowitz. You're super legendary.
I'm just listening to you. My mind is blown. And
I'm actually really curious because Randall just said earlier, you know,
like he's over here making movies and then he sees
you know that you come from a line of family
that's I don't know, just writing citizens Kane, Do you
(31:36):
have any interest in ever directing or producing films?
Speaker 4 (31:41):
I have some you know, I'm not a director, and
I'm really appreciative of the I love artists, man, and
I you know, admire what they do. I'm not I
would never be a director. First of I don't. I
don't really think visually, guys. Wife, you could literally hang
a new painting or poster in front of me in
my home office and nine months later I'll be like,
when'd you put that up? It's ten feet from your face,
(32:04):
and I put it up in twenty eighteen. But I'm
not a bad writer, and you know, a storyteller, So
I mean, if I ever got the courage, it would
probably be to right. And you know, producing, I love
that producing can mean ten billion things. I have come
to meet some producers who are so hands on. I mean,
I you know Irwin Winkler, of course, who you know
(32:24):
worked on the on the Irishman, and but who had
produced you know, some of the Seminals Corsese movies earlier, earlier.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I've known Irwin forever. I produced. I produced the movie
that Irwin directed. That's how he met.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
What movie was that Home of the.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Brave, Home of the Brave? Well, yeah, sure, a while back,
but that was how I met Irwin yeah, and Irwin
is uh so like and Irwin. You know, Irwin's not
the kind of producer who you know, just puts up
money and then you know, has his name on the credits.
At least he wasn't.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Then you know producers who who.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Now he's his hands on?
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Yeah, and and sort of and you protect the director
from the studio that's who have the money, right, That's
a big part of it. And I admire that part too,
and that that has always struck me as something that
but I don't do it. I mean, the fact is
I don't so I you know, I think we have
our answer.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I don't do it. I have a question. So so
now we know how you know, TV has become epic
and huge and really gone to another level today. I'm
just curious on your take with film versus TV today.
You know, how do you feel and what are your
favorite TV shows, if any that you watch?
Speaker 4 (33:35):
I know I watch a lot of television. I mean,
I've been so busy the last few years that I've
watched less. But I still manage with a you know,
young daughter and fairly busy schedule, which I'm grateful for
to to get a fair amount of shows in. I
love that we're at this sort of you know this,
what is it be third Golden age for for television.
(33:57):
I don't see television and movies competing. I just think
they're all this visual storytelling. And I hope we never
lose the theater experience. I don't think we will. I
think it'll come back. You know, it's going to change
and maybe there won't be as many, but you'll still
be able to go to a theater. It's still a
night out. It's still a social connection, and I think
(34:18):
we all realize now how valuable that is, how much
we miss it. So I think as soon as it's safe,
it will come back. I don't think people will be like,
oh great, I never have to leave my I think
it'll be the opposite. But that's okay. It's also okay
to have movies show up on streaming services. There's no
it's all good. But you know, I mean, I have saved.
(34:41):
I have not watched this season A Better Call Saul.
I wanted to watch it all at once. It became
easier during this to do that because nobody was spoiling
it for me. I love Better Call Saw, I love
the Americans. I love succession of.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Our favorite show, our.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Favorite successions, maybe a top ten. That's season two of
Succession one of the best seasons.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
To tell it was unbelievable, unbelieved.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
I watched Homeland, you know, I mean it sort of
run its course, but I watched it all. I watched
you know, Ray Donovan.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
And Billions are are two of my favorite I love.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
Well a dollar Bill on bill the great an actor
named Kelly o'coyney's one of my best friends. Oh really, guy, yeah,
and would be a great guest for you guys.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
He would love wait wait, not only hold on, not
only will I kiss his ass on the show, but
tell him that I am a fan, and if he
wants to reach out to me through you, I would
love when he's off the show to put him in
one of my films. He is. What a great actor,
What a great actor.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
I don't know if you guys watched The Americans, which is,
by the way, the show totally worth seeing.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
It's great.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
It's not rand on FX, it's done, it's phenomenal. It's
as good as TV can be. And but Kelly played
a character there that is so dramatically different than Dollar Bill,
so it buttresses your point. Kelly is a really skilled actor.
I went to high school with him, were on a
basketball team. He's one of my closest friends.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yes, thout my the Americans. That's on the list.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
We're going to watch Americans and we have to get
him in.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
And since we're talking about guests that we should have on,
I want to know, Ben, who have been some of
the favorites of yours that you've interviewed this year?
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Well this year, I mean obviously Peter. You know that
was fifteen hours of interviews Peter Bogdanovich. Wow, And you know,
interviewing for a podcast where you're trying to get somebody
to sort of tell their life story to take you
through the highest point. You know, he was at the
top of the world nineteen seven. He was Scorsese and
Coppola and Friedkin and Mike Nichols. In the early seventies
he was as big as any of them. And then
(36:40):
he had some flops and people didn't like Peter. He
was perceived as arrogant in part because he was arrogant,
but that's sort of his his his but his arrogance
is like it's the right kind of arrogance in that.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
It's his genius. It's probably his genius, right.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
Yeah, And he's not putting it on. It's sort of
just the way he talks. He doesn't look down on people. Well,
he just he's very smart about the things he knows
and he wants to talk about them. And anyway, he
was he and Sybil were so perfect together and on
the cover of Magazinis and so so his fall was
his fall. Hollywood sort of took lee in his fall.
(37:17):
Billy Wilder, the great director, great writer, director, said I'm
gonna paraphrase it here, but he basically said that, you know,
everyone says that that Hollywood is a splintered town, that
we're all, you know, in this for ourselves and we
never look after each other. He goes, that's nonsense. We
all come together to celebrate a Peter Bogdanovich flop.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
So that's sort of what Peter was up against. And then,
you know, and then is the woman he loved, the
woman who's going to marry, was murdered and he went
into a five year depression, tail spend, lost all his money.
So that's a challenging interview and a great interview. But
TCM is fort you got.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
No, I just want to say I agree with you.
By the I was just thinking about Hollywood. It's like
they lift you up, they build you up, they build
you up, they build you up here the underdog. Once
you get there, then they want to see you fall.
And it's just this weird, weird, bad thing. And yeah,
I hope that through this pandemic that we're in, and
I feel like people really come together and I feel
(38:19):
like the world is changing for the best. I mean,
I'm an optimist, you know, Ben, So I don't know
if I'm delusional, but I do feel that people are
really leaning on each other right now, more than I've
ever seen, you know, versus like a hurricane or a tornado.
You know, maybe they'll come together and then once it's
kind of gets better, everybody goes back to their regular lives.
(38:39):
This is effect that the entire universe all at the
same time, and we've never experienced this. So I'm hoping.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Well, the silver lining is, you know, we have to
figure out how we can do better.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, I agree, Yeah, I hope.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
So I'm not as I'm pretty optimistic. We know, we
started talking about my father, and my father's the most
optimistic person in the world. So in a sense, I'm
glad he's not living through the last few years politically
because it would really have distressed him. But I hope
we come back together. I certainly do. Hollywood, though, is
a there's a and I love Hollywood and I love
the people and yeah, I just meet Yeah, I like,
(39:14):
you know, I had this reputation when I came out
to l A about you know, what kind of town
it was going to be, and you know, it's superficial
and that's all horseship.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
I mean it can be and it can like it
can be and yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
I'm sorry, no, yeah, of course we could have that
idea where, you know, where people celebrate other people's failures.
And there is a slightly weird thing when a friend says, hey, man,
they bought my screenplay that you think, why did they
buy my screenplay?
Speaker 2 (39:40):
You know, for an.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Instant that that that's that's sort of unique to LA.
But the flip side is, man, I would you know,
I'd play poker and I'd meet some guy.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Oh, hold on, we're super time out.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Then you keep dropping things like, you know, Robert Kennedy
than poker, like your.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
You know, I don't know what they call it, semi
professional poker player. I live for poker. I play on
television on a regular basis up until COVID. I am obsessed.
If you google me, you'll see my poker antics. I
play in the World Series. I go for the entire month,
play all the events. I live for poker. So if
you love poker, when I wherever you where are you based?
(40:24):
Oh you're based there? Okay, So when when COVID goes away,
I'm gonna invite you over to my poker game so
we can hang out and play poker.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
You know, by the way, we have the same birthday.
I just want to point that out.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Oh this is getting better by the minute. This is
just getting better. We're gonna party together next year, and
we're gonna have poker together. This is great.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
Most of my gambling is a sports gambling. I mean,
I love gambling. I just you know, it's part of mine.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
That makes two of us funny, two of.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
But you know, you'd go and you so you'd be
I just playing poker with friends and they some friend,
some guy somebody there would bring a guy. And you know,
I met a couple of incredibly successful writer producers on
big s and comedies, and like the whole night he
would you know, the guy would like, never say anything
remotely funny. He tried and I and he didn't seem
(41:09):
and I'd be like, how's this possible? And then the
next week somebody else would come and it's a bartender, right,
and a waiter and a guy working hard to make it,
and I would think, this is the most talented person
I've ever seen in my time, Like, how how is
this guy not? You know? So I love that And
I love meeting creative people. You know, every time I
(41:29):
run into somebody you can make fun of writers at Starbucks,
but then you have a conversation with him and it's
incredibly interesting. Like I love artists, man, I like being around.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
I do to not only that, I want to say everyone,
my guy, oh on, my, my producer Timmy, who was
sitting here too. I found him at Starbucks. He was
a a barista, then he became an intern, then he
became an assistant, then he became a junior development executive,
and now he's the president of the company.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Wow, Hollywood dreams come true?
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah right, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Working at Starbucks one day filmmaker the next So yeah,
of course you touched on how your wife sometimes decorates
your office and you don't notice, which I love that.
How did you meet this epic woman who was just
like putting fabulous art in your office.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
We met at the TCM Film Festival, the first ever
TCM Film Festival. She was like, she's a big movie fan,
she loves TCM, and she tried to get she was
working in the city. She was in New York, and
she wanted to get a bunch of her girlfriends to
come out with her to the our first ever film festival.
(42:40):
And you know, they were like, oh, we don't want
to go to a film festival black and white movies
or whatever, whatever dumb thing they said.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
And so she's cool, and.
Speaker 4 (42:48):
She was like she loves architecture too, so she's like,
screw it, I'm going. So she went herself, why don't
you take a week a week afterwards in la and
Palm Springs to tour to just look at great houses,
look at you know, Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses, and
like she was just she was like, I'll take a
ten day vacation by myself. And we met at the festival.
I had a girlfriend at the time, but we met
(43:08):
and then you know, I broke up with my girlfriend
like three months later, and I met Lee Lee again
then at a TCM event in Atlanta where she was
with girlfriends and I was hosting some event and we
hung out. And then you know, over the next like
year and a half, she lived out of town. She
lived in New York and then moved briefly to Saint
Louis and we you know, she'd come into town a lot,
(43:31):
and we'd see each other and it's just sort of
and then one because again she takes charge. It's like
two Christmas seasons later, she was like, yeah, I got
work to let me come to LA for two months.
I'm going to rent a small little house in LA
for two months and let's just see how this goes. Wow,
and now we have, you know, dogs and a family
and a daughter.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
How many years have you guys been together since then?
Speaker 4 (43:54):
So we've been sort of like seeing each other since
like twenty eleven, and we got married in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Okay, Now I have one other question. You got married
on a cruise for the same festival, is that or
explain it?
Speaker 4 (44:09):
The festival is here in LA like at those great
theaters at the Chinese and the Egyptian sort of in Hollywood.
That's where were the base at the Roosevelt Hotel. We
of course had to cancel it this year, but it'll
be back, you know, hopefully in twenty twenty one. We're
working on it. So, but that's here, that's where we met.
But then we also have a cruise and so you know,
(44:30):
we were seeing each other and we were on the
cruise and I proposed to her and we thought, oh,
this will be fun since we met at TCM, like,
let's get married on the cruise and have you know
Gavin McLeod marius, you know, and oh wow, and you
know it wasn't Captain Steuben, but it was. And then
(44:52):
of course it turns out it turns out you get
married in the Caribbean on a cruise, it doesn't really count,
right because.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
You have to have allasis of the piece in the city. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
Mostly you have to pay for a marriage license. That's
what that's what California wants.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (45:06):
We came back and got married again, and but do
we count the real date is that one of the crews.
That's our anniversary was fun. Robert Wagner, who was a
guest on the cruise. He walked, he walked my wife
down the aisle.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Come on, I mean, you just live. You live. Honestly,
we are definitely playing poker together. You live the coolest life.
I'm dead serious. As soon as this shit's over, where
you're coming to a poker game because I think you
and I have a lot more in common. Even though
I am not as highly educated as you, I'm a
film school education. I definitely can relate to the gambling
(45:40):
and the fun that I think you are.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Just the story like I want to come to just
hear everything.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah, I have one last question question. I know you're like,
you know, you're a phenomenal interviewer and you've interviewed pretty
much everybody on the planet. What interview tips would you
give us young ones who are only like twelve episodes in?
What what? What? What? What?
Speaker 1 (46:05):
What?
Speaker 2 (46:05):
What do we need.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
To give used?
Speaker 4 (46:08):
So the best thing that I look first of all,
I paid attention to Howard Stern, David Letterman, and Dan Patrick,
who I think is actually a really good interview interviewer.
They're all different, but the most important thing, you know,
prepare right, like, don't get caught up because the preparation
helps you, and it helps it also helps them, but
it helps you. You don't need to memorize it. But
(46:31):
when you feel secure that you're not going to get blindsided,
that you're not afraid to figure out how to pronounce
somebody's name or what movies they did or who directed
those movies, it just gives you confidence. It gives you
confidence to then be funny because you're not scared. So
the preparation, it's not so much that you need to
recall what you prepared. It's fine if you can't remember something.
But when I realized that if I prepped and I
(46:54):
felt confident, then when I couldn't think of something, I
didn't have to pretend I could day. You know, when
you were doing oh for crying out loud the Hitchcock
movie with Carrie Grant Ingrid Bergmann had come down the stairs,
you know, you know, and then the person go notorious.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
I go right notorious.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
Whereas if I weren't prepared, I'd be terrified of that moment.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
So it's really just doing your homework, like, really do
your homework.
Speaker 4 (47:18):
So they do two things, Okay, two things real quick,
So yes, do your homework because it lets you be
funny and spontaneous, which you might be afraid to do.
And then secondly, this is obvious, but it's really hard
to do. It took me a long time. Don't worry
about your questions. Think about what you want to ask,
but then just listen. If you're really listening, you will
(47:39):
ask something different. And frequently the best questions are really
because then there's some personal just because then the person
will just go on or huh, and I didn't know
that really those three things that just gets people talking,
and they like it when people are interested in what
they had to say. And if you avoid the cliches
(47:59):
of in an interview, and don't fake laugh, and don't
you know these little things. I learned all that stuff
from being on local TV. And I'd see myself fake laugh.
If I recorded a and i'd cringe.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
I'd be like, you knew it was a fake laugh.
You're like, oh, that's the time that I pretended super hard, right.
Speaker 4 (48:14):
You could you know you're an ankor you're an anchor
and the weather person says, you know, you'd say to Sherry,
you'd be like, you know, our weather person, you know.
I'd be like Sherry, what's our Sunday looking like? Like,
why a laughing laugh?
Speaker 2 (48:28):
That's not kidding, I'm kidding. It's not even a joke.
That's right.
Speaker 4 (48:32):
Well that no, right, My laugh is like now you know,
because it's so absurd, you know. Okay, Sherry, great stuff,
thanks you, Thanks for the good weather today.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
This is good. Honestly, Ben, that is really good advice
because number one, I need to shut up a lot.
You can see that, so I'm going to get better
at that. But two, I do like the preparation because
I feel like in the twelve episodes we've done, when
we're prepared, baby, we we are really like on point.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
But we'll be honest though, Ben. Sometimes I'm interviewing, you know,
like people on vander Pump Rules, which you probably don't
even know. That is easy. When I look at a
resume like yours, I'm like, what's my name again?
Speaker 2 (49:12):
I feel like I feel like I'm talking to a
colleague versus having no clue. When we bring on the
vanderfug people and I'm like, who did you beat the
shit out of last episode? I have no clue. So
this has actually been really enjoyable, Ben, and very appreciative
and I'm a huge fan of yours now and we
could go on for another hour, but they're telling us
(49:34):
we got to wrap it up, which Ben, is there
anything else I can say or or let people know
where to find you besides the new podcast? Is there
any other things? Sure?
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Definitely check out Definitely check out the block thickens. I'm
still Peter Bugdanovich. Wherever you get podcasts. We've had four episodes,
we got I think the three or three more and
you can on Twitter's really the only place I am.
Ben MANK seven seven perfect.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
Thank you so much, Ben, I'm so appreciative your your
story is epic. Plus you gave us advice. I feel
like I should be paying person.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Thank you, it was fun.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
Thanks for having me guys.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Thank you, Ben.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
Hi, this is Kim.
Speaker 3 (50:10):
I love, love, love your podcast.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
And just to let Randall know he does have fans
because he is the number one guy.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Thank you, my loves to everyone who has already left
us epic messages and keep.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Them coming because we love hearing from you. Guys.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Call us anytime at eight sixty six La La Pod.
That's eight sixty six La La Pod.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yes, thank you for listening.
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