Space Jam (1996)! Plus, Rachel Olson!

Summary

Dear Movies, I Love You – Episode Summary

Episode: Space Jam (1996)! Plus, Rachel Olson!
Release Date: April 7, 2026
Hosts: Millie de Chirico & Casey O'Brien
Special Guest: Rachel Olson

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Episode Overview

In this energetic and nostalgia-tinged episode, Millie de Chirico and Casey O'Brien dive deep into the cultural phenomenon that is Space Jam (1996), unpacking its legacy, quirks, and questionable logic nearly 30 years after its release. Millie watches the film for the very first time, bringing a fresh (and critical) lens, while Casey revisits it with the full force of childhood adoration. The conversation touches on everything from ‘90s NBA stardom, cartoon crossovers, and pop soundtracks, to the peculiarities of animation/live-action hybrids, and even gender/sexuality coding in Looney Tunes.

Later, filmmaker and comedy executive Rachel Olson joins for the “My Area of Expertise” segment, sharing insights on improvisation in movie comedy and her own journey from network exec to director, with plenty of behind-the-scenes anecdotes.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

Opening Banter: Birthdays, Surprise Parties & Dim Sum (04:51)

• Millie and Casey start with reflections on birthdays, surprise parties, and evolving adult social habits.
  • Millie observes: “the worst thing that can happen to you on your birthday is … nobody wants to come or nobody can. And then you're just left there humiliated and unloved.” (05:39)
  • She describes the “cart-style” dim sum birthday she hosted instead—relaxed, obligation-free, and focused on enjoyment, not grand gestures.

Pranks, Pick-Me Girls, and BTS (08:06)

• The hosts riff on "pick me girls" via the sitcom My Boys.

  • Millie: “Just because you have things in common with men … I don't think makes you a pick me girl. I think it's when you are like, ‘other women suck and I'm the queen bee,’ or something like that.” (09:47)

• Quick tangent as Millie gushes over BTS’s new “grown and sexy” album, vowing to livestream from their concerts. Casey jokes: “You're not true ARMY then, Millie, I hate to say.” (12:04)

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Transition to Space Jam: Expectations & Cultural Flashpoints (13:19)

• Millie, a Space Jam newcomer, expresses bewilderment:
  • “This is one of those movies where I have never seen something and it's like a cultural flashpoint moment for this entire generation ... this very strange movie.” (15:51)
• Casey’s reverence:
  • "This is my Casablanca ... I don't think I've ever been as amped up watching a movie in the theater as I was when the opening credits of this movie started." (35:30)

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Space Jam (1996) Deep Dive

Generational Divide & Context (32:19)

• Millie admits by 1996, she was “in shithead waters,” moving past childhood but fond of both Michael Jordan (“who wasn’t?”) and Looney Tunes, even if the Space Jam collaboration left her cold at first.
  • “If it had come out in '91, then I would have been like, this movie should have won an Academy Award.”
• Casey recalls the hype for MJ’s return from baseball, the soundtrack’s cultural domination (“I Believe I Can Fly”), and being “so unbelievably hyped,” he was shaking in the theater (36:23).

Plot Recap & Commentary (45:51)

• Casey provides a play-by-play of the wild plot, highlighting tonal and narrative chaos, from real-life retirements to the cartoon planet "Moron Mountain."
• The hosts puzzle over the movie’s internal logic:
  • Millie: “I was having a Mandela effect ... everything that I remembered about this movie is either wrong or maybe is not even in the same world.” (48:12)
  • Marvin the Martian’s minimal role prompts more confusion—“Maybe he's the conduit between these aliens and the Looney Tunes, but then he doesn't really show up ... so what do I remember about Space Jam? Nothing.” (49:44)

NBA, Looney Tunes, and '90s Pop Culture Crossroads (54:05)

• The hosts delight in cameos from NBA icons—particularly Charles Barkley (“the funniest, most hilarious dude ever”) and Grandmama/Larry Johnson.
• Millie: “It just looked like ... amazed me to see the old players kind of back in this movie, in this era.” (56:19)
• Quick nostalgia hit for Charlotte Hornets Starter jackets and Looney Tunes on hip-hop era streetwear.

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Character Debates

Michael Jordan's Acting (57:50)

• Millie: “Is he a bad actor or is he just bad because he doesn't know how to act with cartoons that are being drawn in later?”
• Both agree he’s reserved but serviceable—Casey: “They're asking him to do very little and I actually think it kind of works because he's such a stoic straight man against the insanity.”

Wayne Knight’s Role

• Sympathy for the eternal sidekick: “Imagine going to the premiere ... you’re sitting in the audience ... and I am a humongous fucking blimp in the air, and then a cartoon forces me to fart …” (62:08)

Lola Bunny & Looney Tunes Sexuality Coding (67:02)

• Millie questions the entire premise of Bugs Bunny being straight:
  • “Bugs Bunny does not feel 100% straight to me ..."
  • “When Lola Bunny comes on the scene … I don't know if I'm really as into her as they want us to be.”
• Debate over which Looney Tune is canonically straight—Pepe Le Pew? Yosemite Sam? Porky Pig as southern queer/Truman Capote? Consensus: “everyone is hot for MJ.”

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Final Reflections on the Movie (70:29)

• Millie: “I just misremembered so many things about this movie … all these little flashpoints are not the same memories… That I think is the fascinating part to me.”
• Casey: "I can't not see this movie with my eight year old lens. ... I still am like, this is good. And I can't turn that off." (73:21)
• Both agree the movie is, in hindsight, “weird as fuck”—but revel in its corporate branding mastery and pop culture layering (Pulp Fiction jokes, Mighty Ducks digs).

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Guest Segment: Improvised Comedy in Film with Rachel Olson

Timestamps: 74:42 – 107:12

Background & Improv Discussion

• Rachel Olson, former Comedy Central exec, director, and now Executive Director at UCB LA, joins to discuss her expertise: famous improvised lines in comedy films.
  • Rachel: “Some of the best moments in comedy ... are made up on the spot by performers in the scene... it's like a little peek behind the scenes.” (78:48)
• Notable examples:
  • Jim Carrey in Dumb & Dumber:
    • “Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?” was improvised (84:05)
    • “We landed on the moon!”—a spontaneous reaction to set dressing, not scripted.
  • Bridesmaids airplane scene — Kristen Wiig’s “help me, I’m poor” (91:25) and Melissa McCarthy’s leg on the wall—both improvised.
• Directing tips: Keep the atmosphere fun to encourage improv, but maintain scene focus so movies don’t become “two hours of riffing.”
  • Rachel: “Movies need to be as short as possible ... sometimes if it’s building morale, let them riff ... but you have to steer the ship back.” (86:41)
  • Stepbrothers cut hours of Adam Scott riffs for pacing (89:00)

Rachel’s Journey in Comedy: Behind and in Front of the Camera (95:28)

• Rachel’s film school to executive trajectory, then pivot back to directing, highlighted by:
  • Her shorts Homebodies (sci-fi comedy about LA "outside tolls") and The Nickname (improv-heavy, featuring UCB friends).
  • On improv casting: “If you have improvisers … the natural chemistry on set is ... so much more fun to shoot.” (78:48)
  • Details about collaborating with UCB alums, working with Sam Richardson and Martha Kelly, and building comedy from lived inconvenience and organic chemistry.
• She reveals she’s writing a feature: “It's not greedy of you—I do have a feature screenplay that I'm almost done writing...” (105:09)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Casey on kid logic:
  • "I don't think I've ever been as amped up watching a movie ... as I was when the opening credits of this movie started." (35:30)
• Millie, on Michael Jordan’s surprisingly modest movie house:
  • “He would be in, like, a gated community ... he’s too famous to live in this neighborhood. What the fuck?” (60:37)
• Rachel Olson (on improv):
  • “It just tells you exactly how much of a perfectionist and overthinker you are and, like, how not present you are. ... I think everyone should do it.” (77:51)
• On Lola Bunny:
  • Millie: "Bugs Bunny does not feel 100% straight to me… I think he’s a little more fluid." (67:28)
  • Casey: "He's constantly in drag. He's constantly kissing men."
• On memory and pop culture confusion, Millie:
  • “...all these little flashpoints of, of memories are not the same memories. They’re actually like different things.” (70:50)

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Employee Picks (107:19)

• Casey’s Pick: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) as the best example of live-action/animation hybrid and noir send-up.
• Millie’s Pick: Air Bud (1997):
  • "All the great weird basketball movies came out in the mid-90s."

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Birthday/Surprise Party Talk: 04:51–07:43
• Pick-Me Girls & BTS: 08:06–13:19
• Space Jam First Impressions/Generational Divide: 13:19–32:19
• Deep Dive—Plot, Logic, NBA Cast, Looney Tunes: 45:51–71:48
• Lola Bunny & Looney Tunes Sexuality: 67:02–70:15
• Final Reflections & 90s Nostalgia: 70:29–74:21
• Guest Segment—Improv in Comedy/Rachel Olson: 74:42–107:12
• Employee Picks: 107:12–113:03

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Closing Thoughts

This episode is both a loving tribute and a wry dissection of Space Jam as a relic of ‘90s maximalist pop culture and commercial synergy. The hosts’ blend of sincerity and cynicism (“This movie is weird as fuck ... but good for the kids, right?” – Millie, 72:26) keeps things lively and honest for fans and newbies alike. Rachel Olson’s improv segment adds a smart, behind-the-scenes counterpoint, revealing the calculated chaos that gives great movie comedies their spark.
Whether you grew up in awe of MJ dunking with Bugs or are seeing it for the first time, this conversation is for anyone who loves to fall (and occasionally cringe) for movies.

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Find more from Dear Movies, I Love You on Instagram @dearmoviesiloveyou

Transcript

[Rachel Olson]

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[Millie de Chirico]

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[Rachel Olson]

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[Millie de Chirico]

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[Rachel Olson]

5. City hall building.

[Casey O'Brien]

How could this have happened in City Hall?

[Millie de Chirico]

Somebody tell me that. A shocking public murder.

[Casey O'Brien]

This is one of the most Dr. Events that really ever happened in New York City politics.

[Millie de Chirico]

I screamed, get down.

[Casey O'Brien]

Get down.

[Millie de Chirico]

Those are shots. A tragedy that's now forgotten and a mystery that may or may not have

[Casey O'Brien]

been political, that may have been about sex. Listen to Rorschach Murder at City hall

[Millie de Chirico]

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

[Casey O'Brien]

wherever you get your podcasts.

[Millie de Chirico]

Then she says, have you seen a photo of my son? And I'm like, who is this person?

[Boys and Girls Podcast Host]

Welcome to the boys and Girls podcast. Arrange Marriage is basically a reality show and you're auditioning for your soulmate. And who's judging? Only your entire family. I sacrificed myself to this ancient tradition, hoping to find love the right way. And instead I found chaos, comedy, and a lot of cringe. Listen to boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Millie de Chirico]

Casey Dunks o'. Brien. Millie.

[Casey O'Brien]

Pick and roll the Chairico. What's up?

[Millie de Chirico]

Not much. Happy April.

[Casey O'Brien]

Thank you. Happy April to you too. Did you get fooled? Did anyone fool you on April Fool's Day?

[Millie de Chirico]

No, thank God. I think people in my life know better than to try to fool me. I don't like pricks.

[Casey O'Brien]

You know, I think we've been over that. I feel this. I'm getting deja vu. I feel like we talked about this last year. We don't like pranks.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, I think we're both too control freaky to allow ourselves to be pranked. We don't wanna be unaware of the situation at all times.

[Casey O'Brien]

Well, do you like a surprise party if someone threw a surprise party for you?

[Millie de Chirico]

Actually, somebody did throw a surprise party for me many years ago when I was in college. And I gotta tell you, it was packed in a way. Like, I was really like, I can't believe this many people are here. Like, I don't even know. I don't even know if half these people even really like me that much. I think that they came at the insistence of someone who's very popular and interesting and has a lot of friends.

[Casey O'Brien]

Oh, you think there was, like, a hotter, cooler person that was really bringing these people In. Is that what you're saying?

[Millie de Chirico]

Absolutely. The person who organized it was just way more in the mix than me, you know, and. But also has the power of persuasion. I know this person. I've known this person since college, and I'm like, oh, yeah, she. She's like a politician. She can get anybody to come this party. And it was at a bar. It was in a back room of a bar, and there were so many people there that I was, like, overwhelmed by what was going on. And I. I had, like, a very weird reaction in the sense that I felt like. I did feel panicked. I felt like I was like, oh, my God, somebody did something and I didn't know about it. And now I'm feeling weird about it.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

Which should be the reaction. I didn't want to be paranoid.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah. So it wasn't an overwhelmingly positive sensation.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, and then. But I think it's like, as the day, like, night kind of started going, I started relaxing about it. But then I also felt, like, weird that I had to, like, go around to, like, each table and be like, hi. Like, I was holding court. Yeah. I mean, this is. This is why I probably could never be married and have, like, a wedding. I could be married, but I don't want a wedding because I feel like I'm. I would. I feel responsible for, like, making sure everybody's having a good time or something. Even though. Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

You really do have to kind of glad hand a little bit. You have to walk around. Hi, thanks so much for coming. And then have a little spiel with everybody and keep. Keep moving around. That can take up a lot of time at a wedding, and you want to be cutting it up on the dance floor.

[Millie de Chirico]

And then normally it's like, if you're in a situation like that, you'd really just want to find her, like, one or two good friends to go, like, smoke cigarettes and have a shot with. But instead, you're in this, like, weird space of, like, all these different interests and all these different people. It's kind of. I don't know. It was a. It was an awkward feeling. I was very appreciative of it. Like, I love being thought of in that very positive way, but I think practically a surprise party is not probably my favorite thing in the world.

[Casey O'Brien]

And you just had a birthday, too, so I.

[Millie de Chirico]

Surprise party this year certainly did. Yeah. No, it was. I kind of did my own stuff.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

Have I talked to you about, like, my new thing when it comes to birthdays, which is that as I've gotten older, you know, there are no surprise party crews like that anymore. Like, I couldn't get together. I have a hard time getting together, like five people, let alone a room full of people. Right. So, you know, I think the worst thing you. That can happen to you on your birthday is like, you crawl out of your hole. You want to maybe like, celebrate your birthday, and then nobody wants to come or nobody can.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

And then you're just left there humiliated and unloved. And I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to have to try to get people to come to things. I don't want to make people feel obligated to, like, get me presents and to pay for stuff. So I just organize a thing, I pay for everything, and then you just come. That's your only responsibility, is to show up for a couple hours. You don't have to get me anything. You don't have to venmo me anyone. You don't have to, you know, put on an old razzle dazzle, just show up in your clothes and eat with me. And that's what happened was I was basically just like, you know what? I want to go to a dim sum place here in Atlanta. That does it. Cart style. Have you ever had dim sum by the cart? Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

Oh, hell yeah. I've eaten chicken feet.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, I tried chicken feet. I did not like them.

[Casey O'Brien]

Trisha's grandma used to love chicken feet. And we'd bring some home from dim sum.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

And I would say the texture is disturbing. I couldn't quite get past how hard you have to chew on those fuckers.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. And it's kind of gelatinous on the outside.

[Casey O'Brien]

It's gelatinous on the outside and then bone on the inside. And I. I wasn't loving that.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. I gotta say, like, everybody at the table was staring at me as I choked them down. And I was like, okay, did my. Did my thing. I tried new things, which is all I want to do in life. But anyway, I was just like, hey, come to this dim sum place. We all ate dim sum and everybody went home and it was great. But that's the thing, is that I don't want to have big birthday parties anymore. I don't want to have people feel obligated to do big things and spend a lot of money. And, you know, once in a while I'll think about doing a trip. But really it's not about my birthday. It's really just wanting to go out of town, you know, so. But I don't know it just feels like people don't want to do anything anymore, so I lean into that.

[Casey O'Brien]

Well, somebody got you a birthday gift and a few boys actually did, and that's your boys bts.

[Millie de Chirico]

I was like, who are my boy. My boys? Do you remember that show on tbs, My Boys?

[Casey O'Brien]

I think Jim Gaffigan was on that show.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, that's right. That's right.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes, I remember.

[Millie de Chirico]

Would they call. Okay, let me ask you this before we get into BTS talk, obviously. Do you. Do you. Would you consider that woman who starred in My Boys? Is she a pick me girl? Do you know what a pick me girl is?

[Casey O'Brien]

I do know what a pick me girl is, but are you saying the character in My Boys is a pick me girl? I never watched the damn show.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, but you know what the general conceit is, is that she's a baseball girly and then all of her guy. She has like five guy friends or something and they all.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, something like that, I think. I guess I'm. I'm a little fuzzy on what a pick me girl is. I guess I do know what it is, but I. I feel like I wouldn't designate her as a pick me, I guess.

[Millie de Chirico]

Listen, I just. I'm just putting it in Google, and this is what Google is forcing me to tell you. Okay. Pick me girl is a slang term for a woman who seeks male validation by portraying herself as not like other girls, often by belittling feminine traits or other women.

[Casey O'Brien]

Then I would say, yes, the. The. My boys woman is a pick me by that definition. Yes.

[Millie de Chirico]

But, okay, my. This whole pick me girl thing I think is just so bizarre because it's like, I. I feel like just because you do have things in common with men, like interests, I suppose, that I don't think makes you a pick me girl. I think it's when you are like, women, other women suck and I'm the queen bee or something like that.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah. No, I think that. I think it's more like using it as a tool in your toolbox to get the attention of men.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

And it's not authentic.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. Because if. Okay, if you look at somebody like me, I mean, you can look at me and be like, gosh, she's probably the ultimate pick me girl. But guess what? I don't like men, so I can't be a pick me girl.

[Casey O'Brien]

There we go.

[Millie de Chirico]

I think the thing to remember is that BTS did come out with an album for my birthday, and it's grown and sexy. Did you know that? I didn't it's their grown and sexy era, Casey.

[Casey O'Brien]

Wow. It's their. What's an equivalent album for another boy band where they're grown now, you know?

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. Is it. What's the album that came after no Strings Attached?

[Casey O'Brien]

I feel like, you know, I feel like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera had a more defined shift with, you know, I'm a Slave for you. Britney Spears made that song, and then Christina Aguilera had Dirty. You remember that song? So that was where they're like, we're not pop stars anymore and we like sex.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. It's like the Lindsay Lohan rumors thing where she was like, I'm tired of rumors starting. I'm tired of being followed.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes, I forgot about that.

[Millie de Chirico]

See, I don't think that this is. That BTS doesn't seem like they have any spite in that way.

[Casey O'Brien]

Okay.

[Millie de Chirico]

But I think that they're like, we're also grown men now. They're all in their 30s. Like, they're just like. Well, you know, maybe we don't sing

[Rachel Olson]

about,

[Casey O'Brien]

I don't know, like, butter.

[Millie de Chirico]

Butter and dynamites and things of that nature. Now they're sure they're being a little more sensual, I guess. I don't know.

[Casey O'Brien]

And how do you like the album? Is it working fine?

[Millie de Chirico]

I think it's fine. There's like this whole mythology. It's called Arirang. There's like this whole mythology around it. The lead up to the album, there was all these, like, weird fucking hidden messages everywhere. And, like, people were like, you got to go to Spotify and unlock this to get this. This is a secret code to this. And I was like, I can't. I can't keep up with that. That's too much work. What the hell?

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, you're not true army then. Millie, I hate to say.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, listen, I already said that. I've got a record to be like, I just can't get there. But I am going to the shows later in the summer, so let's. Let's fucking go.

[Casey O'Brien]

You need to record, like, live video from the concert and be, like, reporting.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, I'm gonna go live. Casey. No, please.

[Casey O'Brien]

I will definitely make content out of this.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, because especially in la, I'll go. I'll definitely go live in la just because I want to. But, you know, I'm going to see them in another city on the east coast, and who knows? I'll go live there, too.

[Casey O'Brien]

Love it. Mainly we got a big show and we're talking about an important film today. I think

[Millie de Chirico]

I'm like, Loving that. This is, this is like your Casablanca or something.

[Casey O'Brien]

This is my Casablanca. This is my. Yeah, I don't even know my Cinema Paradiso. I don't know. I didn't pick this movie though. Must I might add to watch for the show. But we're talking about space jam from 1996. 30 years. Holy shit.

[Millie de Chirico]

30 years of space Jam.

[Casey O'Brien]

Wow.

[Millie de Chirico]

First time watch for me.

[Casey O'Brien]

So you know how this is going

[Millie de Chirico]

to go this week.

[Casey O'Brien]

Oh boy, oh boy. So that's exciting. But we also have a great guest for my area of expertise is a friend of yours.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yes, yes. We're going to talk to comedy executive writer, filmmaker, all around good gal, Rachel Olson, one of my favorite people in la. And she's going to talk about her area of expertise, which is very unique.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

Wouldn't you say?

[Casey O'Brien]

And it fits her.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yes, it does. I think she's. But she also like we interview her about that. But when we talk about like making movies with comedians, which is actually really, was really interesting to me. So yeah, it'd be really fun.

[Casey O'Brien]

But her area of expertise is improvised comedy lines that made the final cut. So it's kind of fun talking about that. But yeah, we talk a lot about just improvising when making a movie and working with comedians and how to kind of balance out improv versus a scripted scene. So yeah, yeah, it's a great combo.

[Millie de Chirico]

What else, what else do.

[Casey O'Brien]

That's it. That's all we got.

[Millie de Chirico]

That's it, huh? That seems like enough.

[Casey O'Brien]

Sure.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. All right, well, let's get started then. Okay. Just dribbling a basketball in front of your face, like waiting to see what Swish. Yeah. On that note, you're listening to Dear Movies, I love you. Dear Movies, I love you. And I've got got to know if you love me too. Yes or no?

[Casey O'Brien]

Check the box below.

[Millie de Chirico]

All righty, folks. You are listening to Dear Movies, I love you. This is a podcast for those who are in a relationship with movies. My name is Millie de Chico.

[Casey O'Brien]

My name is Casey o' Brien and

[Millie de Chirico]

as we teased you, we are doing space jam from 1996 today. And honestly my idea because it felt very important to my co host. Like I felt like one of those movies that I felt like needed. He needed to be able to like download on uh huh. And

[Casey O'Brien]

keep going.

[Millie de Chirico]

30 years later. What's the take? What's the takeaway? 30 years later and it's an. It's going to be one of those movies where I have never seen something and it's like a cultural flashpoint moment for this entire generation of people. And I just am like, what? Like, doing it at face value. Being like, huh. So this is what everybody's going crazy about, this movie, this very strange movie. It's strange.

[Casey O'Brien]

It is. Yeah, it is. It's. It's just breaking down the plot synopsis. I was like, huh, yeah. This is odd, actually, and confusing. Listen, if I. If you didn't just accept things as they were, which you. Which I did as a child, you might find it even more bizarre, so.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, it was one of those. I do. I don't do this often, but, like, sometimes when a movie is super hard to understand, like, it's. I'm not saying, like, esoteric and like a. But just, like conceptually large. I will. It's like I'm kind of riding along with the Wikipedia entry for the plot. So I'll just, like, watch the movie and then I'll glance at the plot being like, okay, that did happen. Okay, that sort of makes sense now. Now that I'm reading it.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

In a plot synopsis, I feel like I can understand it, but in the movie, it. It was hard. Hard to decipher, so.

[Casey O'Brien]

Well, I'll help you. I'll hold your hand through it. Great. I'll give you an assist. I'll do an alley oop. You can slam dunk it.

[Rachel Olson]

Cool.

[Millie de Chirico]

Cool.

[Casey O'Brien]

All that kind of stuff.

[Boys and Girls Podcast Host]

Ever feel like you're being chased by the marriage police? Welcome to Boys and Girls, the podcast where dating isn't dating. Arranged marriage is basically a reality show, except the contestants are strangers and your entire family is judging. You're sipping coffee with one, maybe grabbing dinner with another, and praying your karmic Ken or Babi appears before your shelf life runs out. Trust me, I've been through this ancient and unshakable tradition. I jumped in hoping to find love the right way, and instead I found chaos, cringe, and comedy. And now I'm looking for healing. Boys and Girls dives into every twist and turn of the arranged marriage carousel. The meet awkward, the near misses, the heartbreak, and let's not forget all the jokes. Listen to boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Millie de Chirico]

Hi, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, here's the thing. I'm speaking with more artists, policymakers, and performers like composer. Once you've established that you have the

[Casey O'Brien]

talent, it's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with

[Millie de Chirico]

the people that you're with. You know, Rob and I was always a great hang.

[Casey O'Brien]

We would sit in kibbutz for hours and then eventually get around to the music. That's what I mostly think of when I think of him, the time together.

[Millie de Chirico]

Laughing Lawyer Robbie Kaplan. The great gift of being a lawyer is the ability to actually change things in our society in a way that very few people can. I mean, you can really make a difference to causes in the United States if you bring the right case at the right time. Marriage equality, yeah, Windsor's the perfect example. And journalist Chris Whipple.

[Casey O'Brien]

Every White House staffer, they work in a bubble called the West Wing. And it's exponentially more so in the Trump White House.

[Millie de Chirico]

Listen to the new season of here's

[Casey O'Brien]

the thing on the iHeartRadio app or

[Millie de Chirico]

wherever you get your podcast guests. I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, host of the Wicked Words podcast. Each week I sit down with the true crime writers behind some of the most compelling true crime stories and discuss their years spent investigating and why it still matters.

[Casey O'Brien]

He sees his father coming out of the woods with his hands over his face and he knows something happened. His father just grabs him and says, she's gone, she's gone.

[Millie de Chirico]

These are the cases that leave survivors, families, and the journalists who cover them changed forever.

[Rachel Olson]

Working in national television, it'll push you

[Millie de Chirico]

to your limits and you'll end up

[Rachel Olson]

doing things you never thought you'd do.

[Millie de Chirico]

You know, you look back at it and you're like, I can't believe that really happened. Join me and step inside the investigation. New episodes drop every Monday on the exactly right network work. Listen to Wicked Words on the iHeartRadio

[Rachel Olson]

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Casey O'Brien]

Millie, should we open up the film diary?

[Millie de Chirico]

You can. I have no film diary this week. Whoa.

[Casey O'Brien]

Let me open up my film diary. Well, I watch two things and maybe you've seen parts or no of these movies. So on the Criterion Channel right now, there's like this VHS classics section because of the release of this documentary. I think you'd call it a documentary or a video essay maybe called Video Heaven by Alex Ross Perry. Have you heard about this?

[Millie de Chirico]

No. I definitely know who Alex Ross Perry is, but I don't know about this.

[Casey O'Brien]

So Video Heaven is this like three hour video essay slash documentary about video stores and kind of the history of video stores and specifically how they're represented in film? Because as the documentary says, the only way that video stores really exist now obviously there are some operating like the one that Luce Tomlin Brenner works at Video Tech in Los Angeles. But, like, for the most part, they're largely gone. The only way they exist is actually in movies, which is sort of interesting and ironic. And so it goes through the representation of video stores in film while kind of going through the history of the video store and the culture of the video store. And, man, did this make me nostalgic and really bring me back to the time of the video store and how it was. Like the height of the video store was actually a pretty short period. You know, it was like maybe 15, 20 years. And then it was kind of gone. You know, even as it talks about in the documentary, even, like, the introduction of DVDs kind of signaled the end of the video store because all of a sudden Best Buy and Walmart were selling DVDs a lot.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

And that became its own thing of people just buying the DVD instead of renting it and. But, yeah, Video Haven Heaven is great. It's on the Criterion Channel right now. And in Video Heaven, it, like, shows clips from a lot of movies in there. And a lot of those films that there are clips of in the documentary are then available to stream on the channel. So one of the movies I talked about in Video heaven was this 1988 movie called Remote Control. Have you ever heard of this movie?

[Millie de Chirico]

I have, and it's not the t. The TV show Remote Control from mtv, which is what? No, where I. I used to get these two confused a lot.

[Casey O'Brien]

So I see Remote Control was hosted by who?

[Millie de Chirico]

Ken Ober?

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, Ken Ober.

[Millie de Chirico]

This was the beginning of Colin Quinn.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes.

[Millie de Chirico]

I was obsessed with this show, by the way, on mtv.

[Rachel Olson]

Yes.

[Casey O'Brien]

But this has nothing to do with what I'm talking about at all. It's just at the same name.

[Millie de Chirico]

Right.

[Casey O'Brien]

But Remote Control is with Kevin Dillon, and he's a video store clerk, and he discovers that aliens have gotten a VHS tape into video stores across the country that make people go insane and violent and murder people. And it is really out of control. And I mean, it's like super sci fi 80s costumes. Like, they go to this place called Club Retro. And people, everyone has, like, pink hair and spandex and looks like they just got off the spaceship. And Earth girls are easy. And I mean, it's. But it's. It's fun. It is a fun movie and you spend a lot of time in video stores. And it also points to the fact, which they say in the documentary, that there was a time when, like, there'd be a lot of video rental stores right next to each other and they would all be Able to survive because in the movie they're like, what's the closest video store? And they're like, it's this one right over here. You know, which is funny because growing up, we would go to Mr. Movies. And then at some point in the 90s, a Hollywood video opened up, like one block away, like, literally around the corner. And they both survived for years simultaneously.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

So anyways, I'm kind of on a video store kick right now, I guess you could say.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, well, good for you. I mean, you know, we all obviously are pro video store here on this podcast. We've talked about them constantly. I. Yeah, I talk about Videodrome, my video store here in Atlanta, all the time. Also, Jeff Lieberman, who directed Remote Control, did Blue Sunshine and Squirm and Just before dawn, slasher stuff. So that's interesting. Yeah, I've never seen it, but it's on my list now.

[Casey O'Brien]

It's good. And I think it was interesting watching Video Heaven because it really did hammer home. I was like, you know, when I think of the video store, I do think of VHS tapes more than DVDs. When I like, think back to like, the height of renting stuff, I do think about VHS is more. But that's neither here nor there. But that's it, Millie. That's all I got for the film diary. Shut it.

[Millie de Chirico]

Damn, son. Why don't you shut that?

[Rachel Olson]

Have you. Were you.

[Millie de Chirico]

Were you into like, Limewire or.

[Casey O'Brien]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bear share. Limewire. And what was the other one? There was another one that I was on all the time. I'm blanking. But anyways, yes, I was.

[Millie de Chirico]

There's this hilarious tick tock that I love. This dude is. It's like the caption is downloading things on Limewire in 2005 or so. You know what I mean? Like, whatever it was. And it's basically like this. Like this, you know, minute long clip of like, you know, it's like, what do you like rap music? And you download rap songs and they have all of these like mixtape tags at the beginning. So it's basically like real trap. You're like, listen to this, you bastards. It's like all these like, mixes, because they. They pull them from mixes. And there's this like, one that I forgot. There was like, this guy's like, damn, son, where'd you find this? And then the guy, this is another one. The other guy comes and he goes, damn, where the did you find this one? And it's like, this guy's just like waiting for the song. To start, and he just has to listen. I gotta. I gotta afford it to you. It cracks me up. So stupid.

[Casey O'Brien]

Oh, the one I used a lot was kaza.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, kaza. That's right.

[Casey O'Brien]

That's what.

[Millie de Chirico]

That's what I used kaza.

[Casey O'Brien]

I used kaza. I used Limewire and I used Bearshare. Those were the ones. I never used Napster, though.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, I was heavy into Napster.

[Casey O'Brien]

Like, you know, it's funny thinking back where, like, Lars Ulrich was like, fuck Napster. Like, I don't want this. And, like, at the time, everyone was like, boo. But, like, looking back, it's like, oh, yeah, you were 100, right?

[Rachel Olson]

Oh, yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

We should have been stealing those songs. Yeah, we were stealing those songs. I'm sorry.

[Casey O'Brien]

I know, but at the time, the narrative was like, those greedy. Yeah, record labels. But anyways, No, I.

[Millie de Chirico]

Listen, I like, I, I. It's the torrent argument. It's basically the same shit. It's like, you know, does help. It. Does torrenting music help you like music? Generally? Yes. Does torting music make you want to eventually buy concert tickets and T shirts and other albums? Yes.

[Casey O'Brien]

I remember downloading it. I remember downloading the song Chop Suey by System of A Down.

[Millie de Chirico]

Fuck, yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

I love that song. On. On Bear Share, when we had dial up and it took two hours to get that song.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, it would take me days. Sometimes you have to go back and make sure that the person seated it is still online or whatever.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

Fucking sucks. You get like. I get like, 40 seconds of a Kelly Clarkson song, and I'm like, fuck, dude.

[Casey O'Brien]

Or I'd be like, oh, it's almost downloaded. And then someone would pick up the phone. That was such a thing in our house. All right, let's move on, Millie. Let's do this thing. All right, Millie, we're talking about, like I said, an important film at the top of the show. We're talking about Space Jam from 1996, directed by Joe Pitka, written by a bunch of people. I'm not even gonna name these. It's, like, clearly written by, like, 800 people. But did you know that Spike Lee wanted to help write this movie? Did you hear about this?

[Millie de Chirico]

No. No.

[Casey O'Brien]

So Spike Lee, this whole. Okay, so Space Jam was sort of created because there were these commercials with Spike Lee and Michael Jordan in the early 90s. Do you remember these commercials?

[Millie de Chirico]

Of course I do.

[Casey O'Brien]

Spike Lee was playing. Oh, what's the character from? She's Got to have It. Do you know what I'm talking about? The Bug eyed guy. He's kind of annoying.

[Millie de Chirico]

Mars. Mars Blackman. Is that his name?

[Casey O'Brien]

So he's basically playing Mars Blackman in the Nike commercials with Michael Jordan. Those were a big hit. And then the ad company was like, you know, it'd be fun if we had one with Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. So then they did all these commercials with Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan and that was a big hit. And so that is sort of what got. That was like the pitch for Space Jam. It's all based off this commercial. But Spike Lee wanted to help with the script. But Warner Brothers was like, stay the fuck away. Because apparently he'd kind of screwed them a little bit with Malcolm X because he. He like filmed like a bunch of the movie and ran out of money and was like, the movie's like 75% done and I need money to finish it. And then he like raised a bunch of money from random other people's and it was like a huge issue. Like they had a big kind of falling out. Warner Brothers and Spike Lee, even though they were producing Malcolm X. But that's why Spike Lee was not allowed to write on this movie. But I just think that's sort of interesting that Spike Lee was trying to get in there. Maybe it would have been a better movie or maybe a worse movie. I don't know.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't. It's hard to say because I have no context for this movie at all.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes.

[Millie de Chirico]

But maybe. Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yep, yep, yep. I don't know. But this is a kids movie, obviously. It's a sports movie. It's a cartoon movie. Standout actors. You know, there's a lot of basketball players in this. Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Mugsy Bogues, Sean Bradley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Larry Bird. It's also got some comedians in there. Wayne Knight, Bill Murray, others. Millie, what is your personal connection to this movie? What was it like when it came out? When you saw it? You're like, I'm not seeing that dumb kids movie.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, because, okay, first of all, I just realized that this movie came out in 96.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes.

[Millie de Chirico]

So I was a shithead. I was in shit. I was in shithead waters. Not full shithead mode, but I was definitely. I had my feet in the shithead one.

[Casey O'Brien]

You had your toes. 10 toes down.

[Millie de Chirico]

So it doesn't surprise me that I did not see this movie when it came out. I will say that I was a huge Michael Jordan person. I mean, who wasn't? If you were a kid in the 90s, there's no way you didn't like the Chicago Bulls and he didn't like Michael Jordan. Okay. I loved Looney Tunes. I still love Looney Tunes. I am not saying I watch every single characters. I have certain faves. Let's just say that. But I think Looney Tunes animation is amazing. It is essential to. To life. So it's like, it didn't really shake me that there would be this collaboration between, like, Looney Tunes and Michael Jordan.

[Casey O'Brien]

Huh.

[Millie de Chirico]

I knew at some point it's probably inevitable that Michael Jordan would make a movie like this.

[Casey O'Brien]

I guess I just.

[Millie de Chirico]

You know what I mean? Like when. When somebody. Okay. It's that feeling of, you know, when something is so popular and famous, it becomes.

[Casey O'Brien]

I mean, Michael Jordan was and maybe is like the most famous athlete of all time.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

I mean, he is like K pop, BTS levels of fame. Like, he is just like an international famous person that we can't even really compare anybody today to, you know?

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. Like, it's. You know, to me, there was. There was all this, like, also, like, weird stuff going on with, like, Michael Jackson doing Jam. Do you remember that song Jam, which I thought was part of Space Jam? Did you not.

[Casey O'Brien]

I don't know.

[Millie de Chirico]

I think it came much earlier. Yeah, that song came out in the, like, early 90s.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, And Michael Jordan is in that music video, right?

[Millie de Chirico]

I believe so. I was like, okay, well, Michael Jordan's in my. In Michael Jackson songs, and he is sort of everywhere. So.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

And there was already, like, stuff happening with, like, to remember that movie Kazam With.

[Casey O'Brien]

Of course I remember. With Shaq. Yes. So, yeah, you're right. I mean, it makes you're. I get what you're saying that it makes sense that he made some sort of movie that was like kind of maybe a kids movie or something that. Yeah, it makes sense that this happened.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. But I think at the time, I think I was just like a little too old to have to have had it grip me. Like, if it had came out in 91, then I would have been like, this is. This movie should have won an Academy Award. Like you would think.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes, yes.

[Millie de Chirico]

So that's all. That's what I'll say. In my defense, I suppose. Okay.

[Casey O'Brien]

No, I mean, you don't have to defend yourself. It makes sense. If you were even close to Shithead Waters, close to waiting in those Shithead Waters, you would have never seen this movie.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, exactly.

[Casey O'Brien]

Like I said on a previous episode, the last episode to be exact, when I saw this movie in the theaters, I remember Thinking, well, that should win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Why wouldn't it? Because I thought it was so incredible. I don't think I've ever been as amped up watching a movie in the theater as I was when the opening credits of this movie started. You know, the. Welcome to the Jam, and then it's showing, like, B roll footage of Michael Jordan slam dunking, you know, And I was just. I was so unbelievably hyped. I think this was the movie where my. I saw this with my grandparents, and I think my grandma turned to me during that part, was like, are you cold? Because I was holding my knees and shaking.

[Millie de Chirico]

Wow.

[Casey O'Brien]

I was, like, so excited.

[Millie de Chirico]

Wow, dude.

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, let me.

[Casey O'Brien]

I just. I thought it was so good.

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

And now I'm like, oh, that's so adorable. I would have, you know, if, like I said, if I was a little bit younger, I think I probably would have had a very similar reaction.

[Casey O'Brien]

I was 8 years old. I mean, I. I was the. I couldn't have been a more perfect age for this movie. And it's funny because this is. I think I've mentioned this on previous podcasts to seeing movies. My grandparents and them always being like, that sucked. And I. It being. It was like the most incredible movie of all time. And this was another one of those movies where they were like, what a waste of time. What a waste of money. I'm, like, riding.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. You're basically. It's like, transcended you into a new stratosphere.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

I will say this now. This. I think this is probably really the only thing that has persisted since this movie came out for me in my consciousness, which is that this was the movie that brought us. I Believe I Can Fly by R. Kelly. Right.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes. Yes. The soundtrack was huge. Everybody had this soundtrack. It was being played in cars all the time. It was played on the radio. So I'd, like. They'd play it when I'd be going on the bus home on the radio. And I played basketball at this time in grade school, and it was always on a boombox in the gym when we were playing basketball. So. Yeah, it was everywhere.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. And the song that you were singing at the beginning that radicalized you was The Quad City DJs. That's like the.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

Because that's the second song that plays in the movie. But that's ultimately. A lot of people remember that Quad City DJ song, too, from the.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah. Back then. Yeah. Yeah. So. Yeah. And it just got me amped up to play basketball what else, Millie? Are you a basketball fan, bruh?

[Millie de Chirico]

What? Bruh?

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, I'm asking for the audience, not. Not my own.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, you're just.

[Casey O'Brien]

I know.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, you're just make, you know, just trying to set it up to be a good podcaster.

[Casey O'Brien]

Sure.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yes, of course. I'm a huge basketball fan. I love my boys, the Atlanta Hawks. My boys. The Atlanta Hawks were in a transition, I think.

[Casey O'Brien]

I think Trey Young's gone, right?

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, yeah. There just like nobody left, really.

[Casey O'Brien]

Damn.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. Damn, son, where'd you f. Where the. Did you find this? Yeah, they just had this big controversy about Magic City. I don't know if you have heard

[Casey O'Brien]

this, but I mean, was that a big controversy? Cuz they had a. They had like a strip club promo night at one of the games and a player on another team was like, I don't think you should do that.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, I mean, I. You can't do that. I mean, if you, if you scope out, you can't really do that. But also, this is Atlanta. Okay. Yeah, this is Atlanta. You could do. There's no rules here. You can do anything here. Okay. Magic City also, I would argue is not just a strip club, but it has transcended into a new realm. Like, I think it's also a cultural center of the city. As much as you don't. If you don't want to admit that, you have to, like, it's not just about, you know, hanging out a strip club, like people, like the food people, you know, rappers get discovered there. It's like. Yeah, yeah, it's almost kind of like a place where it's like a tourist destination at this point. So I see why they would want to do it. I see why with Atlanta thought to do it. But can you do it in the larger context of professional sports? Probably not. But they tried it. They tried it and that's good. That's good for them.

[Casey O'Brien]

There's a strip club in my dad's hometown, Mankato, Minnesota. And a lot of people say the hot beef sandwiches there were like really good because it's a family owned strip club. And so it like also moved beyond strip club identification. But when I went there, there was not one, but two strippers with transition lens glasses on. And I thought that was strange.

[Millie de Chirico]

Wow.

[Casey O'Brien]

Anyways, they gotta see.

[Millie de Chirico]

They gotta see. But you know, I think part of, part of what made Atlanta strip club so famous for so long. And listen, I could be wrong about this. I don't know the history of strip clubs, but I believe from what I understand, the reason why Atlanta strip clubs were so crazy popular is because it was one of the only places in the country where you could have alcohol and full nudity. Where most places you have to choose.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah. I think in California, you can't have full alcohol and nudity.

[Millie de Chirico]

Right.

[Casey O'Brien]

Which is why, like, you can have alcohol at Jumbo's Clown Room, because that's a burlesque bar.

[Millie de Chirico]

Right. But, like, you could be topless.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

With nudity. You just can't be fully nude with booze.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

But I think in Atlanta, you could, which is why all the weird strip club stuff happened here, like the Gold Club and.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

You know, that kind of stuff. So, like, anyway, it's the city that

[Casey O'Brien]

a lot of NBA players get in trouble at. Strip clubs.

[Millie de Chirico]

That's not a surprise, to be honest, having lived here almost my entire life.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

Mm. Anyways, that's great.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

Great to hear. I also. I'm an NBA fan, but we didn't have a team until the 90s. The Timberwolves.

[Rachel Olson]

Right.

[Casey O'Brien]

And then we were so bad. Like, so bad for about 20 years. I don't think we made the playoffs for 20 years that I just sort of, like. I would say basketball lost me a little bit because our team was just so hopelessly bad that it was like. Like, I've never had another sports team like that where I'm like, you're just so bad. You're, like, nowhere close to anything exciting.

[Millie de Chirico]

And.

[Casey O'Brien]

But the last couple of years, we've been really good, but now we're in, like. So we went to the Western Conference finals two years in a row, but now we're in kind of a situation, which is also kind of a bummer situation, where we're, like, really good, and we go far in the playoffs every year, but everyone kind of knows they're not good enough to win the championship, and there's, like, nothing we can do about that. You know? Like, that's kind of a crummy situation, too, a little bit. But anyways, we're much better. It's much more exciting. So I followed the Timberwolves and the NBA a lot in the last couple of years.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, yeah, me too. Except this year has been kind of bad for me. Although I still have my NBA TV pass, I still watch it, so. Yeah, that's great. At vrbo, we understand that even the

[Rachel Olson]

best of plans sometimes need a little support.

[Millie de Chirico]

So we've planned for the plot twists. Every booking is automatically backed by our

[Rachel Olson]

VRBO Care guarantee, giving you confidence from the very start.

[Millie de Chirico]

Whenever you need help it's ready before your stay, through the moments in between and after your trip. Because a great trip starts with peace of mind and maybe a good playlist, but we've got the peace of mind part covered.

[Boys and Girls Podcast Host]

Ever feel like you're being chased by the marriage police? Welcome to Boys and Girls, the Podcast why Dating Isn't Dating. Arranged marriage is basically a reality show, except the contestants are strangers and your entire family is judging. You're sipping coffee with one, maybe grabbing dinner with another, and praying your karmic Ken or Barbie appears before your shelf life runs out. Trust me, I've been through this ancient and unshakable tradition. I jumped in hoping to find love the right way, and instead I found chaos, cringe, and comedy. And now I'm looking for healing. Boys and Girls dives into every twist and turn of the arranged marriage carousel, the meet awkward, the near misses, the heartbreak. And let's not forget all the jokes. Listen to boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Millie de Chirico]

Hi, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast here's the Thing. I'm speaking with more artists, policymakers, and performers like composer Mark Shaiman. Once you've established that you have the

[Casey O'Brien]

talent, it's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with

[Millie de Chirico]

the people that you're with.

[Casey O'Brien]

You know, Rob and I was always a great hang. We would sit in kibbutz for hours and then eventually get around to the music. That's what I mostly think of when I the time together.

[Millie de Chirico]

Laughing Lawyer Robbie Kaplan. The great gift of being a lawyer is the ability to actually change things in our society in a way that very few people can. You can really make a difference to causes in the United States if you bring the right case at the right time. Marriage equality. Yeah, Windsor's the perfect example. And journalist Chris Whipple.

[Casey O'Brien]

Every White House staffer. They work in a bubble called the West Wing. And it's exponentially more so in the Trump White House.

[Millie de Chirico]

Listen to the new season of here's

[Casey O'Brien]

the thing on the iHeartRadio app or

[Millie de Chirico]

wherever you get your podcasts.

[Casey O'Brien]

I'm gonna get into the plot here. A little bit of space jam. Is that all right?

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, I think we have to.

[Casey O'Brien]

The plot is insane. So the movie start. There's a few things that are so insane about this, which I'll get into. The movie starts with real life Michael Jordan retiring from bass, retiring from basketball to play minor league baseball, which is something that happened. And he had only returned to the NBA the year before this movie came back, came out. So it's really interesting that he's, like, kind of making fun of that period of time in this movie because it was, like, only a year or two removed. I don't feel like a basketball player would do that now. They're like. They take themselves too seriously now.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

So I kind of appreciated that about the movie. So then, okay, that happens. Then we go to outer space and we're on some distant planet and this is all animated. Okay. It's a dump of a planet with an amusement park called Moron Mountain. And the owner, Mr. Swackhammer, voiced by Danny DeVito, he needs new attractions. And he gets the idea to kidnap the Looney Tunes to be their attractions at the amusement park, you know? Yeah. So he gets his little employees, the nerd Lux, these little cuties, little cute guys in bow ties to go kidnap the Looney Tunes to bring to the amusement park. Now, this is sort of confusing off the jump because you're like, okay, wait a second. Is this outer space world in the real world, or is it in the Looney Tunes world?

[Millie de Chirico]

Yes, that's what I thought, too. I was like, what is this, like a different animation studio? Or that what we're suggesting, because that's what the Looney Tunes are effectively, is Warner Brothers animation. Right. So I'm like, then who are these fuckers? Where do they come from?

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah. And I feel like the Looney Tunes are sort of meta in that they, like, talk about how they are cartoons and.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

Like, so it was confusing. But I think for the sake of the movie, this alien world takes place in the Looney Tunes universe. Okay.

[Rachel Olson]

Okay.

[Millie de Chirico]

Okay.

[Casey O'Brien]

Anything, any. And when now this movie has started. Where are you mentally when you're watching this here?

[Millie de Chirico]

Lots of questions. I. I started. I started. I was having, like, a Mandela effect, like, crazy during this movie because I was just like, everything that I remembered about this movie is either wrong or maybe is not even in the same world. So I started thinking about Michael Jackson's Jam, which I just told you, or we just discovered came out five years prior, so has nothing to do with this movie. Right. Then I started remembering inaccurately about when Michael Jordan quit basketball to be a baseball player.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

So I was like. I thought that happened a long time ago. I didn't. I didn't realize that it was sort

[Casey O'Brien]

of around this time he'd won three championships.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

And then retired, which is. So I feel like we don't talk about that enough. That's so crazy. That. That happened in his career. Like, that has, like, never happened. No major athletes would do such a thing now or ever.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, it's like. It's like a Shohei Ohtani won another World Series and then was just like, all right, I'm done.

[Casey O'Brien]

But like, I'm done and I'm gonna go play tennis.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, exactly.

[Casey O'Brien]

Very odd.

[Millie de Chirico]

Very odd. But so I started re remembering all these facts, and I was just like. And then maybe this comes up later. But I started thinking about Marvin the Martian.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, he is not in this because he is a Martian in the Looney Tunes realm.

[Millie de Chirico]

Right.

[Casey O'Brien]

But he's not this Martian.

[Millie de Chirico]

So. Because I was like, okay, I remember Marvin the Martian, the character being introduced around this time, around the Space Jam time. And then I was like, well, certainly he's a part. Maybe he's the conduit between these aliens and the Looney Tunes. But then he doesn't really show up until later and he's barely in it. So I was like, well, then what do I remember about Space Jam? Nothing. So.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, it's confusing.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. Yeah, that's it. That's what I'm thinking in this moment. That's what's going on in my brain. Those.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I will also say, being a little kid, I was very aware of Looney Tunes, too. Like, this is another reason it was in my wheelhouse, because Looney Tunes was playing, like, reruns on Nickelodeon. They was just around a lot. So do you remember, like, Tweety Bird was really big in the 90s. I feel like so many girls had, like, Tweety Bird coats and, like, sweatshirts and stuff. It's funny how, like, I'm sure Space Jam is a part of it, but it's like, there'd be more, like, hip hop clothing with Looney Tunes on.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, that was absolutely huge back in. In the 90s, like, where the Looney Tunes were wore, like, Jankos and were. I mean, we're gonna talk about Lola Bunny. Don't get it twisted. But, like, the general branding of the Looney Tunes was much more, like, urban and where they all. They looked like they were in the Fast and Furious or something. And they all had, like, Jinkos and Timber Timberlands, like, all this, like, hip hop clothing. And I was just like, this is interesting. I mean, yeah, certainly you should, like. I mean, if you want to get down to brass tacks, it's like, you can't put Foghorn Leghorn and Yosemite Sam and those dudes into this clothes. They didn't Seem like they would even with this at all, you know, But Tweety Bird. Sures. Tweety Bird.

[Casey O'Brien]

And like, yeah, Tweety Bird, Tasmanian Devil. I'm trying to think of other ones that were, like, prominent in that.

[Millie de Chirico]

Okay. I would say out of the Looney Tunes. It's a three that would not wear Jancos in this era. Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and Foghorn Leghorn. These are three.

[Casey O'Brien]

The racist, the maga coated ones.

[Millie de Chirico]

They're definitely not doing this. I'm surprised that Foghorn Leghorn was even in Space Jam at all with an

[Casey O'Brien]

actual black man next to him.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, it's like I couldn't understand what's going on there.

[Casey O'Brien]

It is. Yeah. I don't know if all of these were taken into account. All these societal, you know. You know, like, things were taken into account when making this movie. So the Nerdlocks, they go to Looney Tunes land and they meet all our pals. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig. And they're like, you guys are coming back with us. We have ray guns and we're kidnapping you and bringing you to Moron Mountain. And through some cartoon logic, he, like, writes up a fake contract that's like, you can't kidnap us unless we beat you. Unless you beat us in a basketball game. And they pick basketball because these little guys are so short and they're like, we'll beat him in basketball. They can't kidnap us. You know, this made sense, right?

[Millie de Chirico]

Sure.

[Casey O'Brien]

So here's where things get a little crazy. The Nerd Lucks go to the real world and they go to the NBA. They go to NBA games and they, through magic, through turning into, like, electrified goo, they steal the basketball abilities of Charles Barkley, Muggsy Bogues, Sean Bradley, Patrick Ewing and Larry Johnson. And by doing so, it transforms these little guys into the Monstars, who are these huge monsters that are now like NBA quality players. And. Yeah, that's about that.

[Millie de Chirico]

Let me tell you something.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes. Are you following?

[Millie de Chirico]

I'm following you big time. Now this is where shit got juiced for me. Because back in the 90s, there was nothing funnier and better to me than Larry Johnson as Grandmama. Do you remember Grandmama? Are you fucking joking? Don't even. Don't even front right now. You don't remember Grandmama, dude.

[Casey O'Brien]

Okay? Yes, I do remember these commercials. Yes.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yes. Because here's the tea. I don't even fucking know nothing about the Charlotte Hornets at all. All. All I know is that everybody was wearing a Charlotte Hornet. Starter jacket.

[Casey O'Brien]

Everybody loved Larry Johnson Starter jacket. Guess who owned a Charlotte Hornets starter jacket? You little. Little Casey o'.

[Millie de Chirico]

Brien. Wow. See, that's what I'm saying. It's like, everybody loved Larry Johnson and the Hornets back in this era. So, of course, when he shows up in Space Jam, I'm like, yes, I gotta go and look up pictures of Grandmama.

[Casey O'Brien]

I would say him and Sean Bradley are the most forgotten. I mean, Larry Johnson was really good, much better than Sean Bradley. But, like, the fact that he was on the Charlotte Hornets, I think, makes people forget.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. And, like, honestly, I love Charles Barkley so fucking much that it was like, I mean, look, RIP Inside the NBA, right? Because that was produced in my town. That was produced in the basement of the building that I worked at for 20 years at Turner Broadcasting. And the. The. The fact that that shit is no more makes me sick. Sick to my stomach. But, like, part of what I love about Charles Barkley is any. Actually anybody on that show. But even Shaq is. Was just the idea that they became, like, personalities outside of the basketball stuff. And so now I look at, you know, when he shows up in Space Jam, I'm like, oh, my God, it's Charles Barkley, who's, like, the funniest, most hilarious dude ever. And this was back in the day when he was a serious basketball player and people were kind of scared of him almost, right?

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah. The round mound of rebound.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. So it's kind of that thing where I'm like, wow. Like, it just looked like. It just kind of, like, amazed me to see the old players kind of back in this movie, in this era when they're like, you know, obviously I have no context for it because I've never seen this movie before. But, you know, like, now that I know it just brought me back to a lot of memories.

[Casey O'Brien]

All right, let's keep getting through this goofy little plot here. So the minor league baseball's not going well for Michael. He's not that good. But the Looney Tunes decide they need Michael's help, so they kidnap him by sucking him into their universe through a golf hole ball. When he's playing golf is that Yosemite Sammy takes a lasso and pulls Michael Jordan into the Looney Tunes realm. This is like, kid logic.

[Millie de Chirico]

Sure.

[Casey O'Brien]

And they're like, we need you to help us beat this team in basketball so that we don't get kidnapped and enslaved in this other planet. And he's like, okay, I'll do it. And he starts whipping them into shape. But everyone Sucks at basketball. Except the very sexy Lola Bunny.

[Millie de Chirico]

Lola Bunny.

[Casey O'Brien]

A frequent Halloween costume of girls when I was in college. Lola Bunny.

[Millie de Chirico]

Wow.

[Casey O'Brien]

Dude, any thoughts there?

[Millie de Chirico]

I'm gonna put a pit in Lola for a second. Okay, I want to ask you straight up. Do you think Michael Jordan is a good actor?

[Casey O'Brien]

Great question. They're asking him to do very little and I actually think it kind of works because he's like such a stoic straight man against the insanity of the animated cartoon characters in this. But it's also like an impossible task, you know, it's like acting with cartoons. That would be tough. So I'm sympathetic. What do you think of him as an actor?

[Millie de Chirico]

Stupid. Why are you throwing this back to me? This was supposed to be a one sided.

[Casey O'Brien]

Okay.

[Millie de Chirico]

No, I honestly. Okay, so another thing that I kept coming up for me in this, in

[Casey O'Brien]

this era is that I'm picturing you watching this alone. I, at your house, being like.

[Millie de Chirico]

I absolutely was during the Oscars, by the way. I didn't watch the Oscars because I was too busy watching fucking Space Jam. I kept thinking about Paula Abdul's Opposites Attract music video. Ever say this?

[Casey O'Brien]

DJ Scat Cat?

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. Which is again another instance of like a live action person mixed with a cartoon. Now in the 90s, this was happening all over, but you know, it was new tech, so it was still like not seamless. Right. And so there were moments where I was watching Michael Jordan being like, okay, is he a bad actor or is he just bad because he doesn't know how to act with cartoons that are being drawn in later? Do you know what I mean? Where it's like he doesn't have the spatial awareness to really be true to the role because he's like, oh, there's supposed to be something flying around my head or something. I don't know. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right that they did not ask much of him. I think there were moments where he was okay. But for the most part I'm like, no, I don't think athletes are not good actors.

[Casey O'Brien]

No, I don't think, I don't think he acted again. So.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, so there, there we go.

[Casey O'Brien]

I mean, he's never played anybody but Michael Jordan, you know, so. Yeah, I don't know. I thought it was funny, the house. I always thought this was funny. I'm like, where he lives in the movie, he lives like in a. Like. Yeah, he would be like my neighbor.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

Like in just like a normal house. And I, I just think that it's like a pretty Modest house. I'm like, this is Michael Jordan. He would be in, like, a gated community.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, yeah. He'd be. He'd be off in a mansion with, like, a security guard station at the top, like, where his, like, neighbor's dog comes in. His neighbor's just like, I'm sorry, Mr. Jordan. I'm like, no, like, he's too famous to live in this neighborhood. What the fuck?

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, I thought that was really funny.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

And Wayne Knight is in this new places, like, assistant kind of man, Wayne Knight.

[Millie de Chirico]

He, like. I just feel like. Like there's always that character. There's always a guy. Yeah, like a funny fat guy that they gotta, like, steamroll constantly in the movie. And I'm like, you know, he was that guy for a long time. And, you know, just. What are you thinking? What are you thinking there? You know, like, they blow him up like a giant fucking blimp at one point, and then they press a button and he, like, farts out all this error, basically. And I'm like, imagine like, going to the premiere of the film and having, like, no context for what's about to happen. And I'm there with my wife. I'm dressed to the nines. I'm wearing a fucking tuxedo with a. With a bow tie. My wife is. Spent thousands of dollars on her look. And we show up and I'm, like, sitting in the audience. I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess I am a humongous fucking blimp in the air. And then a cartoon forces me to fart, and I just, like, sail through the air like a fucking deflated balloon.

[Casey O'Brien]

See, this is the humiliation of being an actor. You're constantly humbled and humiliated. I relate to that, too.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah. Wayne Knight, I love them. I love him in Seinfeld. Love him in Jurassic Park. He's great. But yeah, they. They do him a little dirty in this one.

[Millie de Chirico]

A little bit. A little bit. Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

So Michael and Looney Tunes are gonna play the Monstars. And it's going bad. It's really going bad. But then Bugs Bunny, he writes on a water bottle, secret stuff. And he tells the team, hey, this is the secret stuff that makes you good at basketball. And they drink it, even though it's just water. And they get the confidence and they start using some cartoon antics, and they pull close to winning the game. And then Michael Jordan, he makes a deal with Mr. Swackhammer, voiced by Dan DeVito. He's like, if the Looney Tunes win, the monsters have to return the talent to the NBA players. But if the monsters win, Michael Jordan agrees to be enslaved for the rest of time entertaining people on Moron Mountain. Now I would not have made this deal if I was Michael, but, you know, what are you going to do? They agree. At the last second of the game, Michael uses what he's learned from the cartoons and stretches his body to slam dunk the basketball. They win the nerd Lux. The little guys give up their powers. But before they do that, they put Mr. Swackhammer on a rocket and agree to join the Looney Tunes. They finally stand up to that big jerk at the end. Michael returns the playing powers to the NBA players via a magic basketball. And he decides to return to the NBA. The end. Also, Bill Murray shows up at one point for some reason and plays on the team. And he's wearing a St. Paul Saints hat, which is a minor league baseball team in St. Paul that he owns. So I recognize that.

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

Anyways, I could not understand why he would show up to the game. Part of me is like, is it because we needed some comic relief? Beyond, I think so he, like, he could have been in it more than. I think it's my argument, like, why did you show up towards the end?

[Casey O'Brien]

Apparently he didn't agree to be in the movie until shooting had already started. Ah, well, he was kind of holding out.

[Millie de Chirico]

There we go. Well, that answers my question. Because when he, when he comes in towards the end, because basically they're short a player and they're trying to figure out, everyone's like fucking bruised and battled. Like everyone's got like, you know, teeth missing. And these are the Looney Tunes, by the way. These are not humans. You're like, fuck, who are we gonna get to be our fifth player? And then it's like, here comes Bill Murray out of nowhere.

[Casey O'Brien]

Uh huh.

[Millie de Chirico]

Cracking jokes. Doesn't really strike me as a basketball type.

[Casey O'Brien]

So, you know, but you know, leading up to that, he's like, all of his conversations are like, I want to try to get in the NBA. I think there is, I think I could get in, you know, so he has a, he has the itch to play some basketball. So it's a little laying the groundwork for him playing later in the movie, I guess.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, and then like, then you know, the whole idea of how they actually win the game, which is that Michael Jordan's arm grows the size of half of a basketball court so he can dunk a basket from mid court. Yes, okay.

[Casey O'Brien]

Correct.

[Millie de Chirico]

Why didn't they just do that the entire time? I Think it's kind of my argument.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, I hear you when you say that. I think Michael wasn't able to tap into that until the very end. He wasn't comfortable doing that. And by the end, he was able to express his cartoony side, which he learned from the Looney Tunes.

[Millie de Chirico]

I guess I just don't.

[Casey O'Brien]

I guess.

[Millie de Chirico]

Why don't they. I guess I don't understand why. If the entire game is Looney Tunes rules, why don't they just drop fucking Acme anvils on all of the opposing teams? You know, why don't they just have, you know, Roadrunner drill a hole into the floor for all of those people to fall into? Just use the Looney Tunes logic at the beginning of the game so it doesn't have to be so fucking close. So we're not always, like, so stressing about the score.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah. You know, and we were stressing. Yeah. And I. I. Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know the bad game plan.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, and now we. You. For now. You forced me to go back to talk about Lola Bunny, which, you know. I put a pin in that.

[Casey O'Brien]

I forced you. Sure.

[Millie de Chirico]

So Lola Bunny did I. No idea who she was. When she comes, like, traipsing onto the court, I'm like, oh, well, they have to have a love interest in this movie for someone. Bugs Bunny. To me, I don't think this is actually a new take. I'm gonna throw that out there. This is not a new take. Bugs Bunny does not feel 100% straight to me.

[Casey O'Brien]

I agree.

[Millie de Chirico]

I think he. His. His. Maybe, you know, we'll have he, him pronouns, but I feel like his. I think he's a little bit more fluid.

[Casey O'Brien]

I think so, too. And I feel like he's constantly in drag. He's constantly kissing men. So I think that's a fair assessment of our boy Bugs.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well. And like. So when Lola Bunny comes on the scene, she's supposed to be this, like, hottie or her little, you know, booty short basketball shorts. You know, she's got, like, a teeny tiny waist, but then like, a big a bbl or whatever. And I'm like. And Bugs Bunny goes apeshit bananas. Like, his heart. His eyes turn to hearts, was like, what's up? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if I'm really. I don't think that he's really as into her as. As. As these people want us to do. You know what I mean? Like, I was like, if anything, I Think she had her eyes on MJ versus Bugs? I mean, I don't think she.

[Casey O'Brien]

I kind of feel like Bugs had his eyes on MJ too, you know, I think.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. I mean. Yeah. Let's get down to Brass text. I think it could have. There could have been some polyamory going on between the three of them if they really wanted something to pop off. Sure. But I. I thought the introduction of Lola Bunny as maybe a love interest for Bugs Bunny was a little far fetched.

[Casey O'Brien]

I see. That's. That was a bridge too far for you with Space Jam.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, I just felt like. I don't know if I want Bugs Bunny to. I don't think that she's a good match for him.

[Casey O'Brien]

I see.

[Millie de Chirico]

I think he's a little bit more, again, fluid. I don't think he's like really going for her.

[Casey O'Brien]

I get that. No, I think you might. I think you. You're onto something there.

[Millie de Chirico]

Let me ask you this. Who then? Then if not Bugs? I think who is probably the straightest Looney Tunes character?

[Casey O'Brien]

The straightest Looney Tunes character? I don't know.

[Millie de Chirico]

I guess Pepe Le Pew is probably the most.

[Casey O'Brien]

He's the horniest.

[Millie de Chirico]

Certain manosphere adjacent. Right. Because he's pretty misogynist. Am I right?

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, you're right. I think, you know, like the straightest. I would. It's like the Maga coated guys we already talked about the Elmer Fudd's, the Yosemite Sam guys, you know, but she's not going for those old fogies.

[Millie de Chirico]

No, she doesn't want old man.

[Casey O'Brien]

I don't think there's. I don't think there's just a. You know, Porky Pig is very straight. Or maybe he's not actually.

[Millie de Chirico]

He seems like a southern queer guy to me. Like, he seems like he. I think he feels like a very Truman Capote.

[Casey O'Brien]

Sure, I see that.

[Millie de Chirico]

Right?

[Casey O'Brien]

Yep, yep, yep, yep. Yeah. I don't know. I like. Like you said, I think they're shoes after mj. Bugs is after mj. Everyone is hot for mj. Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

I think he should have kept it like that. That's just what I. What I feel.

[Casey O'Brien]

Well, any other final thoughts? Was there anything you were pleasantly surprised at watching this movie?

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh my God.

[Casey O'Brien]

It seems like this put you into a pit of despair.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, again, I think I just misremembered so many things about this movie. Like, because I think that like this was such a. Such a huge pop culture phenomenon. I think when this came out.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

That it was also tucked in there with like A lot of other things that I remember from the time, which again are Marvin the Martian, Michael, Michael Jackson's Jam video, mc Scat Cat, the Looney Tunes looking like the Fast and the Furious cast. All of these like little flashpoints of, of memories are not the same memories. They're actually like different things. And so that I think is the fascinating part to me is just the idea that I misremembered a lot of stuff about Space Jam. But the other, but again, I think the other thing too is just having the fondness of like seeing the old players like Larry Johnson and Mugsy Bogues. I mean, come on, like that name used to be in the news like constantly. And like, you know, just stuff like that, like all the old basketball stuff.

[Casey O'Brien]

I actually thought some of the basketball player stuff was kind of funny. I was like, yeah, like when Muggsy Bugs was like, I love my mother, I'm a good boy. And the therapist is like, I didn't say you weren't Mugsy. Like I thought that was kind of funny stuff.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, I mean they're honestly like, if I have, if I had been your age when this movie came out, I would have, my mind would have been blown.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

But as a full ass adult watching Space Jam for the first time in 2026, I was like, this movie is weird as fuck.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

You know, yeah, but good for, good for the kids, right? Good for y'. All.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes.

[Millie de Chirico]

I'm glad you have something, you gotta have something extremely commercial. I mean, this is the most blatantly pro Michael Jordan thing to have ever happened. This is like. No, this is like completely his movie. To brand himself, to make himself an absolute star. There's like all these other jokes that are tucked in, by the way. There's a Pulp Fiction joke that's tucked in there. There's also a dig at the Mighty Ducks, which I was like, huh, that's, that's crazy. Which is a Disney property.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes.

[Millie de Chirico]

You know, all these like little 90s things happening.

[Casey O'Brien]

Mm.

[Millie de Chirico]

Just made me feel very old. Very old.

[Casey O'Brien]

I mean, the fact that this came out 30 years ago is crazy. And you know what else is crazy? I can't not see this movie with my eight year old lens. Yeah. Like I still am like, this is good. I get why this is good. And I can't turn that off. And I don't know, maybe that makes me a bad movie watcher, but that's where I'm at. I can't, I can't not see this as like a fabulous movie and maybe I think it should still win Best Picture, frankly.

[Millie de Chirico]

Listen, there's movies that have gripped me similarly, that I feel like I would also argue should have won Oscars. Like, I have to say my favorite three words. The cutting edge. Yeah, I feel that way about that movie. Feel away about a lot of, like, you know, mid. Mid films from my childhood.

[Casey O'Brien]

So totally. Well, that's that on Space Jam.

[Millie de Chirico]

I feel jammed. Big time.

[Casey O'Brien]

I feel jammed.

[Millie de Chirico]

I feel jammed.

[Casey O'Brien]

Well, let's move on to our conversation with the wonderful Rachel Ol.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, we're back here for another installment of the section that we call my area of expertise, which is where we bring on a guest to talk about a little pocket of film that they love and know a lot about or just have a lot of passion about. And I mean, listen, Casey brings on his friends all the time and now it's my turn to bring on a friend.

[Casey O'Brien]

Is that a problem?

[Millie de Chirico]

It's not a problem for me, but I'm just saying it's hit for tat, brother.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

Okay, so this week we have a good friend of mine. She is a filmmaker, producer. She was a former TV executive at Comedy Central, currently the executive director of the UCB in la. Very exciting. So everybody please welcome Rachel Olson. Hello.

[Rachel Olson]

Hi, guys.

[Millie de Chirico]

Hi.

[Casey O'Brien]

Thanks for being here, Rachel.

[Rachel Olson]

Happy to be here. Millie, you're one of the funniest people in the world, and I just need you to know that.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, my God. Shit. I feel like I'm like, I've gotten notes from the top talent executive in the world, and I'm extremely happy. You think that you're just generally hired for funniness.

[Rachel Olson]

You're just hired to be funny.

[Casey O'Brien]

Millie, have you ever taken an improv class?

[Millie de Chirico]

What do you think?

[Casey O'Brien]

Now's the time, Go to uc?

[Millie de Chirico]

What do you think? Do you think that I have. Do I read that, by the way?

[Casey O'Brien]

No, you don't at all. Yeah, you literally, you don't. Not that that's a bad thing. I've taken classes at ucb.

[Rachel Olson]

Really? How far did you get?

[Casey O'Brien]

Oh, I think I only. This is like over 10 years ago. I think I just did the first two. What is it? It's 101 and then 201. I think. I think those are the two I did.

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yes, and Brennan Lee Mulligan was my teacher who's now on the Dropout Network. But anyways, I think that.

[Millie de Chirico]

I mean, if I ever took something like that, it would be to work on, like, my communication skills or something nerdy like that. But I don't think I could do it for comedy's sake. I don't know. I just don't know if that's in

[Rachel Olson]

my future, you guys. I will say it's. I think everyone should do it at least once. And there is, like, there is like, the nerdy, like, we do, like a corporate training. This is not me trying to plug UCB, by the way. I. I took all UCB improv 101 through 401 when I was like, before I ever worked here. But I think everyone should do it because it just tells you exactly how much of a perfectionist and overthinker you are and, like, how not present you are. It, like, really highlighted for me that I'm just like, o. I'm not comfortable with, like, just saying the first thing that pops into my mind. Like, it was good to know about myself. Yeah, I think everyone should do it. You don't have to try to be funny.

[Casey O'Brien]

It does make you evaluate, like, who you are as a person. Definitely.

[Rachel Olson]

Millie will get you in there.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. Like, well, maybe one day, why not start an improv comedy career in my

[Rachel Olson]

50s, I think that's right. That's when you. That's when you stop. That's when you stop caring what people think of you. It sounds. It sounds like the right time to me.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, maybe. Do you have a seniors program? You should start one.

[Rachel Olson]

I will. I'll start one just for you.

[Millie de Chirico]

Good, good, good.

[Casey O'Brien]

The early bird special.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, it happens at like, improv classes. Serves breakfast, continental breakfast. All the things that lure the. Lure the old.

[Rachel Olson]

Yes.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, we brough you on today. Just besides the fact that you're my friend and you're very talented, but I wanted to. We brought you on today to talk about an area of expertise that I think is actually really interesting. It has everything to do with what we just talked about, improv comedy. So your area of expertise is basically films that feature improvised comedy lines that are in the film that made the final cut. Right. Explain that a little bit.

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah, happily so. The I'm so really my area expertise is comedies. I'm really boring. I only ever want to watch comedies and I work in comedy. But one of the things that is always so fascinating to people is like, well, one, if you're not like a film and TV person, you might like, you can sometimes attribute dialogue to the characters to the actors. Like, you always want it to feel like they made it up on the spot. Like, that's movie magic. But then some of the best moments in comedy specifically and in all movies for sure. But in comedy, I feel like it specifically feels like magical when something is made up on the spot by the performers in the scene. And then it's funny enough that it's like, better than what they wrote and it makes it into the final cut. And it's like always fun trivia to just be like. It's like a little peek behind the scenes, like, oh, we got to see a little snapshot of what it was like on set. And wow, this actor really is that funny. So that is like something that I always find delightful is when you learn, oh, this line. And it's often like a favorite line or you notice it because it stands out in a way or it feels a little rough or a little more authentic. It's like, oh, yeah, they made this up on the spot. And it's. As someone who I direct comedies, I'm always trying to find and cast improvisers because I hate writing dialogue number one. And number two, if you have improvisers, people that know each other, the natural chemistry on set is just like. It's so much more fun to shoot. It makes editing hell because then you're just like, okay, I took a thousand takes and I had these two cameras at all times. But so it's hard on the editor. But it's so fun and delightful and you get all this, like, magic on the day. So I definitely find it's one of the most fun things. There's like one of my favorite movies from the 90s, like comedies. I was a huge Jim Carrey freak. I've seen all of his movies because me and my brother. Me and my brother were obsessed. And so we decided to just like, as kids, pre Internet, we're just like, let's just. Anything at Blockbuster that Jim Carrey's in, we'll watch it. So we're watching, like, Earth Girls Are Easy. Very inappropriate for eight year olds. We're watching Once Bitten where he plays like a vampire. Like all these things that were just like pre In Living Color, which is where we became a fan of him. The first job I ever wanted in this world was to be a fly girl. By the way, because of that show.

[Millie de Chirico]

Hugely influential. I mean, we've got. My sister and I talk about this all the time. We would reenact skits from In Living Color on my cousin's camcorder. And we would do like Homeboy Shopping Club and all that shit. And it's like we have like tapes upon tapes of just these kids reenacting In Living Color.

[Rachel Olson]

So I'm really I learned I can do the Fire Marshal Bill face.

[Millie de Chirico]

My sister, in fact, had a huge actual crush of love on Jim Carrey.

[Rachel Olson]

Crushed of love.

[Millie de Chirico]

Like, not just like, you know, comedy crush or like, you know, cool guy. I mean, like an actual love. She had romantic feelings for Jim Carrey. I feel like she had a picture of him on her wall in her bedroom, like, from like some magazine or something.

[Rachel Olson]

Honestly, that's a cool childhood crush to have. Like, instead of like, yes, an in sync or whatever. I think that's cooler.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. No, she had some legends, but I. That's so funny how you. So basically you were hugely into Jim Carrey and you were watching his, like, kind of horny early work.

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah.

[Millie de Chirico]

Going back to, like, sort of the improv thing. Right. Like, do you feel like they allowed Jim Carrey, like, because I guess. I don't know. I'm not a filmmaker. I don't know. I know that you have just said that you actually enjoy improv people. But, like, do you think that they allowed Jim Carrey to let go or do you think he was just sort of like, he couldn't help himself? He's just going to improv the way he improvs much to the, you know,

[Rachel Olson]

much to the chagrin of everyone involved and all the people waiting on set just trying to go home to their families.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah.

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah, I think. I think. Well, okay. When you cast someone like Jim Carrey, you know what you're doing and you know the risks involved and what you know happens when you do that. But so, like, dumb and dumber. I did hear that Jeff Daniels is very much. He's like a real actor. Okay. And he's, like, sticking to the script. He's committing. There's pathos, like, there's emotion behind his lines. You believe the movie because he's there. He's equally as funny to Jim Carrey in it, but Jim Carrey's character is like full comedy, crazy performances, really heightened. But from what I heard is that, like, yeah, he was, like, going off the rails. And I'm sure that occasionally they did. I would guess that they had to pull him back. But one of the funniest, like, things that was not scripted and you can see. You can see it when you watch the movie is like, okay, they're in. That van is, like, decorated like a dog, and they are cruising down the street and they've got the guy that's trying to kill them in the middle of, like, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels character, Harry and Lloyd. And they're just the whole point of the scene is, like, they're so annoying that this guy doesn't even want to, like, kidnap them anymore. He's, like, hating it so much. And he just, at one point, just goes, hey, do you want to hear the most annoying sound in the world? And then he just. I'm not going to make it on a podcast. Everyone would be so mad at me. But look it up. He just makes this, like, horrible, like, almost like, Amber Alert type noise. Yeah, yeah. And you can see, like, the dude that plays like, the bad guy is, like, you know, surprised and annoyed, but he, like, goes with it and probably was genuinely annoyed, if I'm honest. And then Jeff Daniels, like, almost breaks. You can see him, like, laugh and almost break, and then he joins in. So it's just, like. It's fun. You get to see people. It's like a magic trick. You're like, oh, they just went along with this and tried it. And then the other one, that's one of my favorites, and it's just so tiny. Is. He's waiting. Jim Carrey's character is waiting at the bar for Lauren, Holly's character to come. But she, like, it was like, you know, deception. She was never coming. She didn't even know about the date. He's waiting for her at 11am and then the bartender's like, oh, are you sure she didn't mean 11pm and he laughs, and he's just like, oh, I thought she was a raging alcoholic. And he's all happy. And so then he's like, okay, I'll come back at 11pm so he's leaving, and just, like, some piece of, like, you know, cleared. Cleared for production, like, artwork was hanging on the wall right by the exit. And it was, like, about the moon landing, and he just stops at it, and he's, like, all happy, and he just goes, we landed on the moon. And that was just him completely, like, improvising, based on, like, a tiny piece of set decoration. So just little moments like that that make it in. You're like, yeah, it's, like, worth it. It's like, a fun little thing.

[Casey O'Brien]

Well, Rachel, I feel like sometimes I don't know if you've ever noticed this, because it's like, I totally hear what you're saying about, like, these. These lines that are coming from the actors make things feel a little bit more alive. Like, they feel like they're coming from a very, like, organic, real place. And it just sort of makes the movie feel a little bit more exciting. But then I've also seen movies that I feel like where it doesn't work and I can tell that people are just riffing and it sort of feels like the, the movie has kind of gotten out of control. Have you ever had that sense when you're like watching, watching a film and also like as a director, how do you like rein that in? You know, have you like, do you have something on? Is there some sort of like internal thermometer when people are improvising where you're like, okay, let's bring it back in so we're not like going too crazy.

[Rachel Olson]

Okay. Yes. I do notice that sometimes when comedies are a little self indulgent. And you'll notice this if it's like a two hour long movie, you're just like, what happened here? Did we fall too in love with all of our footage? Which is, does happen and it's really hard to cut jokes. But as like a director, like, yes, you're, you're casting funny people. You're. There's going to be funny people there pitching stuff out, doing stuff that's hilarious. But if it gets to like, I'll like write a little map for myself when I'm directing where it's like, this is the point of this scene. Like, this is the beat that we need to get. And if it starts to veer like too far off from the point, you're like, well, this is fun for us right now. But we're never going to use this because it's just like movies need to be as short as possible. Especially if you're doing like a short film, you want to go into film festivals or something, like, needs to be as short as possible. So you're kind of burning daylight, which is like time is money. Like you're paying everybody by the hour. So if it gets too far off of like the beat of the scene, I'll usually like laugh and wrap it up. You know, like, that's funny, but we're not gonna be able to use that. But sometimes if it's like building morale, especially like early in the day with like people that maybe have their like just getting up or it's just getting to know each other. Not everybody knows each other. And like if they want to like riff. If you're just like everyone, like, if you're like strict teacher, like, that sucks all the fun out of the set. And like not to say that every fun set is a good set. Like sometimes a nightmare set makes a great movie and vice versa. I think if you're trying to get if you're trying to encourage improvisation, like, which I do, I think have. Getting people in a fun, silly mood where you feel like you can't really make a mistake, I think is right. And just like trying to steer the ship back. But yeah, people do definitely get. Get out of hand sometimes. Like the movie Stepbrothers, Adam Scott is so. He's so funny in that movie. That car singing scene with him and his family singing Sweet Child of Mine, like, I rewatched that 7,000 times. But if you look at like. And he's like the straight man, like the blowhard of that movie. But if you watch the deleted scenes, it's all Adam Scott being way funnier than Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. And it's like, yeah, they couldn't keep all that in because it, like 20 minutes of him just stealing the show.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was gonna say, like, I. It feels like the universe of like, Will Ferrell, sort of Judd Apatow, you know, that kind of, you know, rides maids thing, which we'll talk about in a second. But like, it feels like those movies feel the most improvised, like, and current, like, kind of current iterations of comedy films. Right. And I know that there were like these famous things about like, the 40 year old virgin and Stepbrothers and Bridesmaids that now, if I think about it, I'm like, I can't even imagine, like, those scenes not being in the movie. Right.

[Rachel Olson]

I know. It's crazy.

[Millie de Chirico]

I feel like Bridesmaids particularly, like, there's like a couple of really famous scenes. I know that you mentioned that you're a big fan of at least one of them.

[Casey O'Brien]

Right.

[Rachel Olson]

I love the movie Bridesmaids. I think it's a great movie. But yeah, there's like, basically, like, so much of what Kristen wiig and Melissa McCarthy were doing in that movie was improvised. There's like Melissa McCarthy's character, she's like the one that takes all the puppies home. I think her line that she's like, I took 10 puppies was improvised. But maybe the most fun scene is like, she's. She's on the airplane. Like, the airplane scene had a lot of improv. And so she has decided that this guy that she's sitting next to is the air marshal and she's gonna prove it. And so who is actually played by her real life husband, which makes this even more fun that he's like, so not having her, but they go like, wait. She's waiting in line for the bathroom and she goes up and she, like. Her only written line was something like, hey, do you want to go to the restroom and not rest? That was all that was in the script. But then she, like, sticks her leg up on the wall and is like, you hear. Feel that steam heat coming off. She's like, absolutely just, like, disgusting. Like, hitting on. Hitting on her actual husband. And he's just, like, deadpan, like, not having it. He's, like, at work. And then also, like, one of the funniest lines, like, punch lines, was Kristen Wiig. She's, like, on pills because she has anxiety, and she keeps wandering up, like, wasted into first class. And. And Rose Byrne's character is like, oh, no, she can have my seat. It's fine. Or something like that. And she's just like, help me. I'm poor. And that was just Kristen Wiig, like, completely unwritten. So funny.

[Millie de Chirico]

I say that all the time. I say, help me. I'm poor all the time.

[Rachel Olson]

It's like one of those ones that just sticks in your head. I love it so much.

[Millie de Chirico]

And the one where she's like, I'm ready to party.

[Rachel Olson]

Totally it.

[Casey O'Brien]

But I think those, though, those ones are so interesting because, like, I do. I love Judd Apatow movies, too. But it does feel like you're like, okay, I can tell that this is, like, we're riffing right now. I can kind of tell that this is, like, a moment of riffing. But, like, in Bridesmaids, they. Those impro improvisations are so good because I feel like they're so organic to the script itself. They don't feel. They feel, like, structural and important. It's surprising to hear that. Like, it's surprising to hear that those lines were improvised.

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

You know, and I think that's what makes them so good.

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah. And Kristen Wiig wrote it with her writing partner. So, like, it's. There is, like, a thing that you can do. Like, there's, like, a short that I directed that was, like, basically all improv. It was, like a bachelorette party loosely inspired by Bridesmaids. But there's, like. There's moments where you're like, okay, I know who I'm casting. I know that they're funny. And so I'm just gonna put, like, a placeholder line. So, like, knowing she's gonna get Melissa McCarthy. They went to Groundlings together as students, so, like, they probably already knew that was gonna happen. I don't know this for sure, but that they're like, oh, we're getting someone funny in here. Just write this. And she's gonna, like, make it so funny. Like, you can do placeholder dialogue, basically. But, yeah, I'm with you. It's like, it feels like it had to be there.

[Casey O'Brien]

Were you talking about the nickname? Your shirt film? The nickname? Yeah. I feel like I watched that, and I was like, I'm kind of surprised hearing that. That there was, like, a lot of improvisation because it felt like it felt really natural to the script.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

But, I mean, I know those are, like, great. UCB improvises a lot of them in your. In the movie.

[Rachel Olson]

But, yes, I mean, you did a

[Casey O'Brien]

great job with that.

[Rachel Olson]

Thank you. I do have to shout out the writer of Sydney o'.

[Millie de Chirico]

Toole.

[Rachel Olson]

All those people besides Mary Holland, who was someone I knew from Comedy Central days, were all on the same improv team together at ucb. So they all knew each other. And so Sidney's very funny, and she did write very funny dialogue. But we also were like, of course we're gonna let all these people give us some little gems, you know, for sure.

[Millie de Chirico]

So is it true? Confirm the rumors. Rachel, is it true that groundhog Day from 1993 is your favorite film?

[Rachel Olson]

It is my favorite. I think it's a perfect movie, and I have watched it over and over and over as if it's a meta situation and I'm in the movie. It's so good. I think it's perfectly funny and dark and real and a tiny bit of magic. I love that. That's my perfect recipe for a comedy. But, yeah, a lot of that was improvised, too. Bill Murray, one of my favorite moments is he's starting to have fun with the fact that everything's repeating over and over. And there's this annoying dude that he. To college with or something that sells insurance named Ned Ryerson. I can't remember the actor's name that

[Casey O'Brien]

played him, but he's like, Stephen Toblewski

[Rachel Olson]

plays him, and he's a perfect Ned Ryerson. It's so good. And he's just so annoying. And he goes up to him and, like, instead of trying to dodge this guy trying to sell him insurance, at one point, he just, like, hugs him and, like, deep breathes in and just goes, I don't know where you're headed, but can you call in sick? And it creeps him out, and he runs away, and it's just like, he completely made that up. So perfect.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, gosh, yeah. What a great film. And, yeah, Bill Murray was always. He's another one who feels like such a good improviser and would probably be just Be let go and have him say anything, you know. So I wanted to actually talk about your shorts, but you. So basically Home Bodies is your newest short. I kind of wanted a backup even prior because I feel like. So I feel like when I met you, I met you through our mutual friend Heather Jewett. And did you guys go to film school together? Is that how you know each other?

[Rachel Olson]

Yes, me and Heather went to UCLA film school together, who I just got drinks with last night by the way.

[Casey O'Brien]

Aww,

[Rachel Olson]

she's the best.

[Millie de Chirico]

And so because it's interesting to me, I think like what makes your background I think unique for sure, but also just sort of fascinating is that, you know, you were a person who worked behind the scenes, you worked at the like network level, you were an executive and then now or maybe had been making films all along. And so I'm just curious as to like when the desire to make movies started. And did you think, oh, I want to make my own films. But I'm also really good at being a boss bitch too, like doing both, you know.

[Rachel Olson]

You know, it's kind of a weird situation where like I went to like an arts high school and I was like, I'm not like really amazing at any one thing, but I love photography, I love writing and I like music. And I was like, okay, let's just be logical about this. What includes all three filmmaking. So I was like decided, 16 year old me was like, I'll just go to film school. So that's what like brought me out to California when I was 17 and just like started plugging away at that whole thing. So that was always the goal. But I also like was a child and didn't know what the hell I was talking about. So went to ucla, got my degree, my bachelor's in film and television there. And it was just kind of a weird time. Like there was like a recession and the industry was in a weird spot and like someone gave me the advice just like get any job you can. And I was like, okay. So I knew I was obsessed with comedy though. Like I was, was one of the only people in my class to make a comedy as my thesis film, which was like a body swap magical movie with like a twist. And it's, it's not great, but you can see it, you can google it. I think it's called Mitzi. Anyway you'll, you won't find it. Maybe you will google my name and Mitzi, you might find it. It's on YouTube.

[Millie de Chirico]

I know how to dig.

[Rachel Olson]

But so then I just was like, well, I want to work in comedy. And so I just was, like, asking for any comedy jobs. And I started working at. I got a job at, like, this production company, slash management company, Odenkirk Provocero. It's Bob Odenkirk's wife and Mark Provocero. They had just joined up. They repped Kristen Wiig. Actually, they rep a lot of really funny people on SNL and other things. So I started working there and then just was like, like, I'm young and this is fun, and I'm working with all these funny comedy people. That's where I, like, started going to UCB and, like, finding, like, the comedy scene in LA and, like, stand up and sketch. And then Comedy Central, we did a pilot for them with, like, Tim Robertson, Tim Robinson and Mark Ratterman called My Mans. It was, like, a sketch pilot that didn't go. But I met the people that worked at Comedy Central during that time, and they were like, hey, you should come work for us. So it was kind of like I was just following the flow of, like, who's giving me jobs? And then just sort of, like, was good at development, I think, because I had a background as, like, someone who knows what it's like to, like, working with our clients. At Odenkirkprofisor, I'm like, yeah, I see how much heart and soul goes into developing a pitch and trying to get even. Just getting the meeting is such a big deal. So I really take a lot of care with my general meetings and my pitches. And then when you could order a script, like, trying to just really, like, get their vision more than, like, impose my notes on anything. So I had a good time, and I think I did a pretty good job there. And so it's just like, life happens and nobody warns you, like, hey, you might get rewarded for this and hired for the thing you didn't plan on. And so that just happened for eight years until finally 2020. They, like, laid everybody off and, like, scripted development. I was just like, okay, well, now is my moment to get back to my own stuff. So I started writing again and directing again. And so that's where I'm at now. And then just recently, last fall, joined up with UCB to try to see, like, if I can help them sort of expand beyond just the theater and stuff. So, you know, doing partnerships with them and stuff. So it's. I don't know, it's just fun. I'm just like. I'm kind of a jack of all trades, but comedy is My specialty. So that's really where that's really. I'm. I'm usually happy if I'm doing comedy.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. Well, the interesting thing about Homebodies, which is so great, is it's a comedy for sure. But then it also has this, like, I'm gonna. Dare I say it's a sci fi. A sci fi comedy. Because there's this whole premise definitely, of the film, which is that Los Angeles is charging its residents a toll on if you leave the house, Right?

[Rachel Olson]

Yes. So, yeah, these two writers, These two writers, Georgia and Ethan, came to me and they were like, we have a funny idea based on how expensive it is to leave the house. You can't leave the house without spending a hundred bucks or whatever, which is like. People say that it's like a joke, but they're like, but what if it was actually happened where you genuinely have to sign out, like, basically clock in for outside in order to leave your house, and it charges you by the minute, by the hour. And then there's like, peak hours if it's like, nice weather or there's the sunset happening or there's a lot of traffic that day. And all this is, like, supposedly goes back to, like, public parks and beautifying the city and, like, cleaning the air and all that stuff. So that was their premise. I'm pretty sure they just reached out to me because they wanted me to cast. To cast my friends in it, which I did, which was very fun. Happy to do that. Yeah. But then also, it was just really fun to direct it and like, yes, it's a sci fi. And initially when they sent me the script, my mind was like, oh, we could like, like, I love the idea of, like, shitty, ugly tech. Like, old 80s 90s, like the blocky sort of like gray square tech. And so I was like, oh, let's just, like, make this feel like janky technology that the government would, like, hire this company that they're like, like college buddy runs to do this contract for Los Angeles city, whatever. But then it was like, oh, when I really talked to them, I was just like, let's just do this, like, as grounded as possible. As if this could have taken place. Like, this could take place next week. Like, nothing, no new technology needs to be made. It's like a crappy little app on your phone. Like, it's. It's hard to get through to customer service if you have, like, a problem. So I was just like, let's just make this, like, feel very relatable, like, like inconveniences. Of technology that's supposed to make our lives more convenient. So I had fun with it. And Alyssa Lynn, Paris accident. Andre Highland. Speaking of improv, Andre Hyland came in and was just like, he's. I've always. We've been friends for years, but I'm always like, oh, you're such a boyfriend. Like, he just has this energy all

[Millie de Chirico]

the time of like, he's so funny.

[Rachel Olson]

Oh, my God, he's so funny. Yeah. And he's also like a serial monogamist, so it's like, kind of true. He's like always in a relationship with a girl.

[Casey O'Brien]

He definitely had like, LA boyfriend energy. Like, he was perfectly canceled in that room.

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah. He's such a sweetie. And so I was like, I knew he was gonna make this, like, kind of like, could be like a little bit of like a loser type character. Like, so lovable, which is what I wanted. And so. But he has. There was so much good footage of him improvising with Alyssa. That is like, on the cutting room floor. He, like created a whole backstory for what he did when he was like, like, outside. That's just so good. I'm like, oh, I have to release the bloopers at some point because it's so funny.

[Millie de Chirico]

I was going to say get it on a Blu ray so you can do the special features. Oh, my God, that would be so fun.

[Rachel Olson]

Yes, definitely. Everyone wants a Blu Ray of my short film.

[Casey O'Brien]

Oh, my God.

[Rachel Olson]

But so I have to also mention Sam Richardson, who's like, incredibly talented. Worked with him on Detroiters and he was someone I've known forever from Chicago and he. He came on to do the, like, play the customer service rep. So he just came in and did VO for a day and he just nailed through all that in like one hour. And he improvised stuff and like, so much of it is so funny. I wish we could have used all of it. It's so good.

[Casey O'Brien]

Was that Martha Kelly in there too? Ashley, isn't she? Yes.

[Rachel Olson]

Martha Kelly does like the pre recorded stuff, like when you're on hold and she's. I've loved her from like Baskets and like all her standup from back in the day before even, like, Baskets happened. But she. I just DMed her on Instagra and I'm like, hey, I'm a huge fan of yours. Would you be down to do this? You can just record it on your phone. And she's like, absolutely. She's so sweet.

[Casey O'Brien]

Oh, that's great.

[Millie de Chirico]

Well, Rachel, it has been amazing having you on to talk about your area of expertise, but I wanted to make sure that everybody knows where to find your shorts. Where can you watch your shorts and, like, maybe what you've got going on with Homebodies next? Or just generally, like, what are you working on?

[Rachel Olson]

Yeah, so the nickname. We're going to put it up online very soon, so if you want to be in the know about that, you can follow me on Instagram. It's rachelx Olson. The X is because I don't have a middle name. Not for anything cool or sexy.

[Millie de Chirico]

You were straight ish is what you.

[Rachel Olson]

Yes, I was straight ish. And then Homebodies is. It's not online yet because we're doing a festival run, but it premieres at Aspen shorts fest on April 8th, and then we're going to Series Fest after that in May, but I'll be posting constantly about that.

[Millie de Chirico]

Are you working on anything else? Honestly, I really want you to make a feature. Is that greedy of me?

[Rachel Olson]

It's not greedy of you. I do have a feature screenplay that I'm almost done writing, and I. I would love your notes on it when it's done, Millie, if you're willing. Yes, I'd love your thoughts.

[Millie de Chirico]

Are you kidding? That's so thrilling.

[Rachel Olson]

I've been listening to your. I've been listening to you since you had this podcast with Danielle, and you're so. I love your attitude about movies, and you're so naturally funny and witty and you know so much, and I love that you love movies. It's. You guys make me watch so many movies. I'm sure you hear this all the time. I, like, don't watch a lot of movies. Like, it's like one of those things where. Oh, you work in it. You don't want to, like, watch it. I mean, I'm alone in that. It's just too much saturation. But anytime y' all talk about a movie, it makes me want to watch it. It's so cool.

[Millie de Chirico]

Thanks, Rach. I feel like, honestly, that makes me happy to say that because, you know, you're, like, toiling away behind a zoom going, is anybody going to watch this movie? And people would actually say that. Like, to Danielle and I especially, people would be like, well, I don't watch movies at all, but. But I hate movies. And you made me watch a movie. I'm like, yeah, okay, cool. Like, I'm. I'm totally down for that. So, Yeah, I. Yeah, I would love to. To look at anything that you're doing creatively. Let's just say that because I'M very much a big fan of you. And I. And I do think, too, like, after your festival run, like, yeah, let us know where to watch the shorts because they're. They're really good. Like, really good.

[Casey O'Brien]

They're great. I really enjoyed them. They were really fun. Really made me laugh out loud.

[Rachel Olson]

Thank you. It's so hard to get people to watch a short film, so thank you for watching them.

[Millie de Chirico]

Thanks again, Rachel, for being on and, you know, good luck, and we're gonna keep our eyes on you.

[Rachel Olson]

Thank you for watching. Yeah, girl.

[Casey O'Brien]

All right, we're back. That was a great chat with Rachel.

[Millie de Chirico]

Love Rachel.

[Casey O'Brien]

That was a fun. It was really fun talking to her.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, she's the best, dude.

[Casey O'Brien]

She's cool. And go check out her short films. They're really funny. Yeah, really good. Millie, employees picks. Time. All right, I'm gonna go first. So I was trying to think of a movie where animation and real people interact. And I could really only think of one that I like, like and think is good, which is who Framed Roger Rabbit? Which I think is a really great movie. Robert Zemeckis, he really cooked with that one, you know, And I watch it every so often, and it's good. I really. It's fun and it's exciting, and it is exciting having people, real people, interact with cartoons. So I think it does it very successfully. It is basically Chinatown, but with animation. And it's fun, but it's really well done. So I would say go check out who Framed Roger Rabbit.

[Millie de Chirico]

You might be too young for this. I don't know, but do you remember ever playing the Roger who Framed Roger Rabbit Nintendo game?

[Casey O'Brien]

Kind of. I have played it, but I don't really remember it.

[Millie de Chirico]

Let me tell you something. My dad got my sister and I that game when it came out, and it haunted us for decades. We couldn't figure out how to play it. We were like, for the first, like, year and a half that we owned the actual cartridge, my sister and I could not figure out how to progress in the game. We were like, how the do you do this? And there was no Reddit. There was no YouTube play videos. It was just like two dumb kids being like, okay, so I'm driving this taxi around this town. I don't understand where the rats are coming from. And then they were dead. And now we have to start over. What's happening?

[Casey O'Brien]

I think that's kind of the signature of a bad game, is when it's too hard to figure out.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. Cut to. I was in college, and I. There was this whole. I mean, I. I remember this clear as day. I was living in an apartment with my friend April Richardson, and we were like. We had. I couldn't tell. I couldn't remember if it's hers or it was mine. But we had this old school nes, right? One of our friends owned a Game Genie. And we were like, fuck it, let's take this game Genie and play every game with the Game Genie. And we played who Framed Roger Rabbit with that Game Genie. And it was like cracking open a secret code.

[Casey O'Brien]

Can you explain what a Game Genie is to the people?

[Millie de Chirico]

A Game Genie is this cartridge that would fit over the game cartridge for an original Nintendo that allowed you to cheat, basically. It allowed you to completely have infinite lives and infinite resources. And it didn't matter what game it was, it just was a genie in that way. Anyway, so we finally beat who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Nintendo game with the Game Genie. And it was just. Just magical because it finally made sense for the first time.

[Casey O'Brien]

What a thrill.

[Millie de Chirico]

We could only beat it by cheating. So that's it.

[Casey O'Brien]

Very good.

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, you want to know my employee pick now?

[Casey O'Brien]

I'd like to, but, you know, I

[Millie de Chirico]

would say this is a layup. Hey, little. Literally, I'm gonna go with a little movie called air Bud from 1997.

[Casey O'Brien]

Oh, shit, 97. That's when that came out.

[Millie de Chirico]

Dude, all the great weird basketball movies came out in the mid-90s.

[Casey O'Brien]

I saw that movie in theaters as well, thought it was great. Got hyped up on that one too.

[Millie de Chirico]

Did you? Yeah. I was gonna say, what are your thoughts on Air Bud? Do you remember?

[Casey O'Brien]

I remember it being sadder because there's a scene where, like, a coach is caught abusing a kid by throwing basketballs at him.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

And that stage, I was like, this is a drama. This should. This should. This one I. This one should actually win Best Picture. That's what I thought.

[Millie de Chirico]

I thought so, too. I mean, and honestly, like, I have. At my. In my office, I feel like I have it in my new office. But back in the day when I was working at tcm, I found a giant. I was at a thrift store or something, and I found this, like, basket full of, like, movie promotional pins. Like, you know, like, pins to put on your shirt. And there was this giant one with Air Bud on it. And I had it on my. In my office forever. It was never stolen, which I thought was amazing because I was, like, looking. It was like a giant, you know, pin. It just had, you know, Air Bud. Coming out this summer, Disney or whatever. And I don't know, it's just such a funny, weird. Another funny, weird movie.

[Casey O'Brien]

I know. You know, like, you put the emphasis on the word I. I don't, don't put on. I say air bud, and you say air bud.

[Millie de Chirico]

Air bud. That's an. Is there something wrong with that?

[Casey O'Brien]

We say it different.

[Rachel Olson]

Is it?

[Millie de Chirico]

Oh, really?

[Casey O'Brien]

You said air bud.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, of course. You're saying air bud.

[Casey O'Brien]

Airbud.

[Millie de Chirico]

But why would you do that? I don't know.

[Casey O'Brien]

That's just how I am saying I did. I'm not saying it's right. I just. We say it differently. Differently. It's just interesting.

[Millie de Chirico]

I wonder why.

[Casey O'Brien]

Northern Earth.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah. I'm just saying that, like, the reason why I, I think bud should be emphasized because it's him. Like, the fact that he's an air bud versus, like, a water bud or.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, no, I, I, you're right. I think I, I see your logic. I'm not saying mine is right. I just. I find that interesting. We were saying it differently anyways.

[Millie de Chirico]

Anyway, that's our show.

[Casey O'Brien]

Wait, Millie, were you good at basketball?

[Millie de Chirico]

Absolutely not.

[Casey O'Brien]

I'm short. I was so bad, I'm kind of embarrassed at how bad I was. Basketball?

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

I was really bad.

[Millie de Chirico]

I'm 5 4. I couldn't have been good, and I don't want a high jumper. Yeah, no, yeah. I'm short.

[Casey O'Brien]

Me too. I'm like five seven and a half. That's bad.

[Millie de Chirico]

That's not. That's not short to me. That's tall. Actually, it's not. It is. It is tall for me. Like, I'm like, oh, five seven. That's great. I wish I could be five seven.

[Casey O'Brien]

Shit, I wish. I. That's why I got to get this leg lengthening surgery.

[Millie de Chirico]

I know.

[Casey O'Brien]

I got to really get better at basketball that way, too. So that's our show. If you'd like to write in for film advice, gripes, gropes and grits, Write [e-mail] you can also call in, leave a voicemail. Just record a voicemail on your phone and email it to dearMoviesExactlyRightMedia.com. love to hear people's voices. We have an episode coming up in the future about dates at the movies.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah.

[Casey O'Brien]

And we got a lot of Emily. We have, like 20 fuck yeah. To go through. So I'm excited.

[Millie de Chirico]

I hope there's good and bad.

[Casey O'Brien]

I, I haven't even listened to one because I kind of wanted to wait to do it with you in Real time.

[Millie de Chirico]

Appreciate that. Appreciate that. If you want to follow us on social media, we are at Dear Rubies, I love you. On Instagram and Facebook. Our letterbox titles are Acle O' Brien and @MDecherico. And you know what? Listen to us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you get podcasts, we'd appreciate it. Write and review the show. Say something really sweet. You can just drop into our DMs and say something sweet. You can email us at DearMoviesactlyRightMedia.com Just be nice. Be nice to us.

[Casey O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah. Millie, Next week is a hiatus week. We're off next week, but the week after it's going to be an episode that comes out at on 4 21. So we're celebrating a little. A little day right around that time. What movie are we talking about?

[Millie de Chirico]

We're going to talk about pineapple express from 2008. Because it's 4:20 the day before 4:21 is 4:20.

[Casey O'Brien]

That's right. So we're going to talk about maybe some stoner movies and Pineapple Express. I'm excited to watch this again because I haven't seen it since theaters.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, I haven't either. And I also have another movie that I've recently watched that I think will be good in conversation with it. It so.

[Casey O'Brien]

Oh, exciting.

[Millie de Chirico]

Yeah, fabulous.

[Casey O'Brien]

Well, Millie, I appreciate you watching Space Jam for this podcast. That's the type of sacrifices we make for our audience. We watch Space Jam.

[Millie de Chirico]

Listen, I believe I can fly. And I believe you can fly. So happy to do it.

[Casey O'Brien]

So much.

[Rachel Olson]

Happy to do it.

[Casey O'Brien]

Adios.

[Millie de Chirico]

Bye. This has been an exactly right production. Hosted by me, Millie de Chirico, and produced by my co host, Casey o'. Brien.

[Casey O'Brien]

This episode was mixed by Tom Breifogel. Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain. Our guest booker is Patrick Cotner. And our artwork is by Vanessa Lilac.

[Millie de Chirico]

Our incredible theme music is by the best band in the entire world, the Softies.

[Casey O'Brien]

Thank you to our executive producers, Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark, Daniel Kramer and Millie de Cherico.

[Millie de Chirico]

We love you. Goodbye. Be kind. Rewind. 10, 10 shots. Five.

[Rachel Olson]

City hall building.

[Casey O'Brien]

How could this have happened in City Hall?

[Millie de Chirico]

Somebody tell me that. A shocking public murder.

[Casey O'Brien]

This is one of the most dramatic events that really ever happened in New York City politics. I screamed, get down. Get down.

[Millie de Chirico]

Those are shots. A tragedy that's now forgotten and a mystery that may or may not have

[Casey O'Brien]

been political, that may have been about sex.

[Millie de Chirico]

Listen to Rorschach.

[Casey O'Brien]

Murder at City hall.

[Millie de Chirico]

On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

[Casey O'Brien]

wherever you get your podcasts.

[Millie de Chirico]

Then she says, have you seen a photo of my son? And I'm like, who is this person?

[Boys and Girls Podcast Host]

Welcome to the boys and girls podcast. Arranged marriage is basically a reality show, and you're auditioning for your soulmate. And who's judging? Only your entire family. I sacrificed myself to this ancient tradition, hoping to find love the right way. And instead, I found chaos, comedy, and a lot of cringe. Listen to boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Rachel Olson]

When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands.

[Millie de Chirico]

I vowed I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that. Trust your girlfriends.

[Rachel Olson]

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. Starting April 13th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.