The Blues Brothers

Summary

WHAT WENT WRONG – "The Blues Brothers" Sad Boom Media | August 3, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode of What Went Wrong, hosts Lizzie Bassett and Chris Winterbauer take listeners on a wild ride through the chaotic and improbable production of 1980’s The Blues Brothers. They delve into the movie’s unusual origins, its one-of-a-kind cast, the dangerous stunts, and the personal demons that haunted John Belushi throughout filming. The pair discuss both the incredible creativity and the near-catastrophic problems—including exorbitant budgets, off-the-rails stars, and a director with a notorious reputation. The tone is equal parts reverent, irreverent, and compassionate, with a particular focus on the movie’s place in comedy and music history and the tragic legacy of John Belushi.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Opening Impressions of "The Blues Brothers"

• [02:37–05:47]
  • Chris hadn’t connected with the movie as a child and found its style confusing and "Dada-esque," but upon rewatching, especially the Ray Charles scene, he tapped into the film’s absurd comedic wavelength.
    • “It’s an acid trip, a movie… it has two straight men as leads, but also it's Aretha Franklin… but also, you know, it’s just—it's everything, but also nothing.” – Chris [04:03]
  • Both hosts agree: the movie is essentially plotless and functions as an excuse to spotlight musical legends.
    • "This is the gold standard. There is no… you cannot go below this. This has less story than your average adult film from the time." – Chris [05:16]

The John Landis Problem

• [05:49–08:16]
  • Chris and Lizzie discuss Landis’s directorial strengths versus his controversial, reckless reputation (reference to Twilight Zone tragedy).
    • "We know he's a dangerous director. That's my thing… when I'm watching this movie, I watch these stunts and I think, oh my God, I don’t trust this person." – Chris [07:43]
  • Both struggle with how to separate artistry from accountability, but acknowledge Landis’s immense talents.

The Movie’s Structure (Or Lack Thereof)

• [08:16–11:53]
  • The empty, oddly silent style and loose narrative are startling. The film really comes alive during its music sequences—a point both hosts agree is the film’s real raison d'être.
    • "Whenever there is a musical performance, this movie just absolutely lights up." – Lizzie [09:32]

The Cast: Legends, Insanity, and Cameos

• [11:53–12:04]
  • Quick rundown of The Blues Brothers's unparalleled cast: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Carrie Fisher, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, James Brown, and myriad cameos—from John Candy to Steven Spielberg.
  • Special praise for Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Cab Calloway.

Origins: John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd’s Backgrounds

• [12:04–18:31]
  • Lizzie details Belushi’s upbringing in a tight-knit Albanian family, high school popularity, early improv at Second City, and rocky dynamics with peers like Chevy Chase.
    • "No, even better, he was Albanian. This was all good fodder." – Lizzie [15:12]
  • Chris recaps Aykroyd’s upper-middle-class Canadian childhood, love of ghosts, blues obsession, and winding journey to comedy.
    • "An obsession may not be a strong enough word, Chris. It has been described as encyclopedic and monomaniacal." – Lizzie [17:06]

The Genesis of The Blues Brothers

• [18:31–23:57]
  • The characters originated in blues bar jam sessions, not SNL skits; only later did SNL allow them onscreen.
    • “They were not pretending to be a band. As far as they were concerned, they were a band.” – Lizzie [23:57]
  • Persistence led them from club act to SNL (eventually) to opening for Steve Martin—despite, at first, having no actual band.

Creating the Iconic Band & Album

• [28:29–30:45]
  • Assembling an elite band required Belushi’s relentless late-night recruiting calls.
    • "We're putting a band together. I need you here tomorrow." – Belushi (as recounted by Lizzie) [29:12]
  • Their album “Briefcase Full of Blues” sold 50,000 copies in five days and went double platinum—a true cultural moment.

The Impossible Script, Budget, and Studio Panic

• [31:34–35:28]
  • Dan Aykroyd, having never written a screenplay, turned in an 324-page “novelization” titled “The Return of the Blues Brothers.”
    • "It was written basically in free verse, right?" – Lizzie [34:20]
  • John Landis condensed the script to 150 pages—still lacking stage directions.
  • Studio execs greenlit the film "sight unseen," ultimately resulting in a $27.5 million budget (vs. the $12 million desired by Universal).
    • "They said yes to basically everything… Something they would come to regret." – Lizzie [31:36]

Casting: A Tribute to Black Musical Legends & Controversies

• [37:05–41:14]
  • Universal resisted using "outdated" R&B stars; Aykroyd insisted they cast James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, and Ray Charles.
  • The film is discussed in context of "white guys fronting the blues." The hosts argue the movie functions more as a platform than exploitation, both creatively and financially.
    • "Aykroyd secured publishing rights for all of the performers in this film. They all made a shit ton of money from this." – Lizzie [41:14]

Musical Numbers: Production Challenges & Standout Moments

• [41:50–45:45]
  • Aretha Franklin’s lip sync struggles, Cab Calloway’s desire to do a disco version of “Minnie the Moocher,” and why random extras (not pros) back Ray Charles’s store scene.
    • "Aretha Franklin did struggle with the lip syncing… She never sang the same song the same way twice." – Lizzie [41:45]
  • Chris and Lizzie agree Calloway was the most compelling musician/actor present.
    • "He still has that charisma to get them into it… I love that number." – Chris [42:17]

The Insanity of Shooting in Chicago: Real Stunts, Real Chaos

• [46:06–54:56]
  • The film used real stunts, 13 Bluesmobiles, 60-70 police cars, and filmed in fully built sets (including the infamous Dixie Square Mall).
  • Action sequences were managed with the help of city-wide shutdowns, huge police/manpower presence, and, at times, questionable safety.
    • "John Landis… wanted you to be able to tell [they were going over 100 mph]. That's why there's people walking, there's stunt pedestrians on either side of the street." – Lizzie [50:42]
  • Notably, the Nazi car drop was done for real with a car dropped from a helicopter over 1,000 ft up.
    • "They dropped a car." – Chris [53:23]
    • “They did it. The FAA did give them permission.” – Lizzie [54:06]

John Belushi’s Cocaine Spiral and On-Set Disaster

• [55:56–64:42]
  • Belushi, beloved in Chicago (and by local police), spiraled into intensive cocaine abuse; fans and locals enabled him.
    • "Fans would literally throw bags of coke at him, slip vials into his hands and pockets. It became a full time job just to try and keep him off of cocaine." – Lizzie [55:14]
  • His addiction derailed production, resulting in missed shoots, massive delays, and a string of failed interventions.
  • John Landis punched Belushi in a desperate attempt to sober him up after finding him in a coke-and-booze-soaked stupor.
    • “According to Woodward's book, Landis shouted, 'John, you're killing yourself. This is economically unfeasible. Do not do this to my movie. Don't do this to me. Don't do this to Judy. Don't do it to yourself.'” – Lizzie [60:58]
  • Moral question: Should the production have been shut down to help Belushi? Both hosts grapple with the ethics and chain of responsibility.
    • “What you should have done… You should have shut down the production.” – Lizzie [61:00]

Finishing the Film: Injuries, Delays, and Post-Production Headaches

• [64:42–67:47]
  • Filming wrapped only after an accident left Belushi with an injured knee; major dance numbers required workarounds and medical intervention.
    • "Lou Wasserman had to strong arm the top orthopedist in town… to wrap [Belushi] and inject painkillers so he could physically get through the finale." – Lizzie [65:11]

Release, Backlash, and (Surprise) Success

• [68:20–71:56]
  • Ted Mann, head of Mann theaters, refused wide release in many locations citing overt racism and that "white people are not going to want to see the Blues Brothers… because of the musical artists you have."
  • The movie opened on about 600 screens (less than half expected), received harsh early reviews, but still earned $57.2 million domestically, $115 million worldwide.
    • "Despite its limited release, it defied all expectations." – Lizzie [71:38]

John Belushi’s Final Days and Legacy

• [72:15–75:47]
  • Shortly after filming, Belushi’s cocaine and heroin use escalated. Friends and colleagues failed to get him to rehab.
  • On March 5, 1982, Belushi was found dead of an overdose at 33.
    • "Losing him set me back for a full year, but then I just wanted to go on and do more work and carry on." – Dan Aykroyd [74:05]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I want to hear from you. Yeah, let's just get into it. This is one of the most confusing movies I feel like we've ever covered. The story behind it is deeply insane, which I knew going into it. I didn’t know how crazy it was gonna be.” – Lizzie [03:34]
• “It's an acid trip, a movie which is super fun… It's everything, but also nothing.” – Chris [04:03]
• “You cannot go below this. This has less story than your average adult film from the time.” – Chris [05:21]
• “[Landis is] a dangerous director. That's my thing. It's when I'm watching this movie, I watch these stunts and I think, oh my God, I don't trust this person.” – Chris [07:43]
• “I don't really know what to think about it. I really enjoyed watching it. I don't really have any intelligent thoughts about it.” – Chris [05:25]
• “They were not pretending to be a band. As far as they were concerned, they were a band.” – Lizzie [23:57]
• “He had just opened up his own speakeasy called the 505 Club in Toronto… it opened at 1am because of course he worked nights doing shows.” – Lizzie [18:31]
• “Aretha Franklin did struggle with the lip syncing… She never sang the same song the same way twice.” – Lizzie [41:45]
• “Fans would literally throw bags of coke at him, slip vials into his hands and pockets. It became a full time job just to try and keep him off of cocaine.” – Lizzie [55:14]
• “I say we make the thing into a movie.” – John Belushi [30:27]
• “I love that number.” – Chris, referring to “Minnie the Moocher” [42:17]
• “The problem is that this person is killing themselves.” – Lizzie [62:14]
• “You should have shut down the production.” – Lizzie [61:00]
• “Despite its limited release, it defied all expectations, bringing in $57.2 million in the US and $115 million worldwide on 600 screens. That’s really impressive.” – Lizzie [71:38]
• “I hope people take away the emotion of the love story between John and myself, but also laughs and knowledge and inspiration that you can still keep doing something you love.” – Dan Aykroyd [74:05]

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Segment Timestamps

• 00:00 – Ads
• 02:37 – Episode proper begins; initial thoughts
• 03:34 – Why The Blues Brothers is “deeply insane”
• 05:49 – John Landis and the director’s shadow
• 06:43 – The “shaggy dog” narrative
• 08:16 – Movie structure vs. other Landis films
• 11:53 – Cast rundown and plot summary
• 12:04 – John Belushi’s background
• 15:04 – Comedy peer dynamics (Chevy Chase, Guest)
• 16:07 – Dan Aykroyd’s roots and blues obsession
• 18:31 – Belushi and Aykroyd meet, birth of The Blues Brothers
• 23:57 – Origins of the band (not on SNL)
• 28:29 – Finding a real band and recording the album
• 31:34 – Universal greenlights the movie; script chaos
• 33:46 – Aykroyd’s 324-page “novelization” script
• 37:05 – Stacking the cast with musical legends
• 41:14 – Finance & compensation for Black artists
• 45:45 – Musical scene production anecdotes
• 46:06 – Filming in Chicago: car chases and stunts
• 50:45 – Dropping a car from a helicopter; the mall sequence
• 55:14 – Belushi's cocaine spiral and onset chaos
• 60:58 – Landis confronts Belushi in his trailer
• 62:14 – Debate: Should production have stopped for Belushi?
• 64:42 – Final Chicago shoot and Belushi's injury
• 65:11 – Belushi dances despite painkillers
• 67:47 – Film budget comparison and completion
• 68:20 – Distribution problems and theater racism
• 69:57 – Contemporary critical reactions
• 71:38 – Financial and critical outcome; soundtrack
• 72:15 – Belushi’s final days and death
• 75:47 – Wrapping up: what went right, what went wrong
• 77:58 – Credit to the musicians
• 81:12 – Fan shoutouts, episode close

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What Went Right / What Went Wrong (Final Reflections)

• Lizzie: Almost gives credit to Landis for getting the movie made, but credits Aykroyd and Belushi for their unstoppable creative vision and for platforming so many Black artists. [76:09–77:50]
• Chris: Highlights Cab Calloway and the assembled band as the element that makes the movie timeless. [77:50–78:47]

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Summary

With deep research, humor, and frankness, Lizzie and Chris reveal the story behind The Blues Brothers as a rare Hollywood miracle—a gleefully plotless, musical fever dream that’s equal parts talent showcase and cautionary tale. The podcast pulls no punches about the cost—creative, financial, and human—of wrangling so much chaos, but ultimately celebrates the movie’s sincere artistic mission and enduring legacy.

Transcript

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[Lizzie Bassett]

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[Chris Winterbauer]

Hello dear listeners, and welcome back to another episode of what Went Wrong, your favorite podcast, Full Stop, that just so happens to be about movies and how it's nearly impossible to make them, let alone a good one, let alone a mission from God. As always, I am Chris Winterbauer, joined by my blues sister, Lizzie Bassett. Lizzie, what do you have for us today?

[Lizzie Bassett]

I have a movie that begs the question, why don't they just fire everyone and hire Aretha Franklin for their band and Call it a day. Why is she the only person they don't hire?

[Chris Winterbauer]

I would say this is a movie. That begs the question, what is a movie?

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, also that. Also that. Don't give Me the Blues, brother. Yep. You know, I'm just saying she's the best part of the entire movie. And they just leave her right there in that diner and it makes no sense to me. But that's okay.

[Chris Winterbauer]

She certainly has the best voice of everyone in the movie. She's fantastic.

[Lizzie Bassett]

She's incredible.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Of course she's incredible. Although, well, all due respect to Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, and many other people

[Lizzie Bassett]

in this movie, seriously. Which we will talk about. We are, of course, talking about the Blues Brothers. Wow. This is. Okay, so I want to hear from you. Yeah, let's just get into it. This is one of the most confusing movies I feel like we've ever covered. The story behind it is deeply insane, which I knew going into it. I didn't know how crazy it was gonna be. So, Chris, what was your experience with the Blues Brothers prior to now, and what did you feel upon rewatching it for the podcast?

[Chris Winterbauer]

I had only seen this movie in full, I think, once before when I was very young. Did not connect with it when I was little. All the musical touch points were before my time. I did not understand the humor.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Well, it's weird.

[Chris Winterbauer]

There's still times where I don't understand the humor. It's like Dada esque. It is very much of that late 70s, early 80s, very irreverent, non sequitur based Saturday Night Live style. I feel humor. Some moments made me laugh out loud, like very heavily in this one, especially some of the visual pranks. But long story short, wasn't that familiar with it. And then rewatching it now with Carmella last night, especially once I kind of got on its wavelength. And I really got on its wavelengths when Rhea Charles pulls the gun on the kid. And I was like, okay, I finally feel like I understand the tone of this movie. And then by the end, I was fully on board. On the one hand, I do think it's just insane. It's an acid trip, a movie which is super fun. This idea of like, look, this is a music movie, but it's a comedy. But it has two straight men as the leads. But also it's a kid playing with monster trucks. But also it's Aretha Franklin. But also, you know, it's just. It's everything, but also nothing. Somebody wrote in at some point saying, what's the least Amount of story you'd be okay with.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Blues Brothers.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Can a movie get by on? And it's Blues Brothers. This is it. This is the gold standard. There is no.

[Lizzie Bassett]

You cannot go below this.

[Chris Winterbauer]

This has less story than your average adult film from the time.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Oh yeah, certainly.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And so again, I don't really know what to think about it. I really enjoyed watching it. I don't really have any intelligent thoughts about it. I love Aykroyd and Belushi. They're very funny. I thought all of the musical performers were wonderful. The choreography's great. The car scenes are wildly dangerous and entertaining. But also, how many people died on this movie?

[Lizzie Bassett]

Stunningly zero. Which is really a shock.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Crazy. Somebody at some point reached out to us or wrote on some comment or something. They were asking, are there people you have trouble watching their work because of things they've done, their personal failings. And Landis is the person for me.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I agree.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And I think this is a well directed movie. It's a very funny movie. I have a hard time getting that out of my mind when I'm watching it. So I just wanna be upfront about that. I know that doesn't bother a lot of people. I'm not saying it should, it just does with me. And so I've mixed again, I enjoy it for all of the weird grace notes, including Aretha Franklin, Carrie Fisher with an M16. Like, those are all of my favorite. I enjoy those moments more actually, necessarily the Landis and Aykroyd of it all. And I also like. I mean, Belushi was pretty fantastic as well. So. Yeah, that's my very. I mean, it's rambling like this movie, this is the ultimate shaggy dog story. It's up there.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's barely a story. Yeah, yeah. So I grew up, my dad loves this movie. And I saw this probably several times when I was way too young to understand what was going on. And I was also very, very familiar with the soundtrack.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Amazing soundtrack.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Incredible soundtrack. Most of these songs, most of these artists. This was my introduction to them, which is the case for a lot of people, which we'll talk about a little bit. And yeah, upon watching it for this, I was like, oh, this is bizarre. This is absolutely bizarre. I really thought it was gonna be like, I mean, my favorite of all of John Landis movies. I'm with you. I think he is a despicable person. In case you're wondering why we're saying that. Go back and listen to our episodes on the Twilight Zone. It's a two parter in our opinion, he is at least semi responsible for the deaths of three people.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And then the way he handled it

[Lizzie Bassett]

afterward, and then the way he hand. And you're gonna see shades of that here as well. Obviously, this is before the Twilight Zone, but I think, you know, there are elements of him as a person that make him very hard to handle and make his movies very hard to watch. I agree.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Because we know he's a dangerous director. That's my thing. It's when I'm watching this movie, I watch these stunts and I think, oh, my God, I don't trust this person.

[Lizzie Bassett]

So that's the thing that was actually hard for me watching this was all of the car chase sequences. Because he is a dangerous director. We know this for sure. But I think I had maybe less of a hard time watching than you did. And I still. I really love Trading Places. That is probably my favorite of all of his movies.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Look, it's a great movie. An American Werewolf in London. Great movie.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Well, it's great, but, like, I was expecting something more like Trading Places, which is actually a pretty tight movie.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Oh, yeah.

[Lizzie Bassett]

There's not a lot of space. Like, it really moves. It's very funny. It has a very strong story, strong hook. And I did not remember this movie very well. And I started watching it and I was like, what is happening? Like, there's so much space. There's so much weird silence where just nothing is happening. And I'm like, what could. Like, could you not afford a score? They answer, may be yes, but it's weird. It's really weird. It truly has almost no story, which I didn't remember. It's just an excuse for them to go and collect all of these incredible musicians. And we'll talk about this a little bit in the episode. So I don't want to go into it too much here, but one thing that did strike me as I was watching it was I was like, should I be uncomfortable about this? Should I be uncomfortable about the fact that there's two white guys, you know, helming this movie about the blues? And my answer by the end of the movie and the end of the research was that I'm not. I know some people are, and we can talk about it a bit. But it did strike me this time, watching, I was like, boy, I don't. I don't think we would make this today like this. All that being said, I still really, really enjoyed it. I love all the musical numbers. Whenever there is a musical performance, this movie just absolutely lights up.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I mean, all of Them. I mean, even the, like Rawhide.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's incredible.

[Chris Winterbauer]

In my opinion, Rawhide is when the movie actually really finds its groove. Because that's when most of the music starts. The good music starts with Rawhide. And it's great.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's amazing. I love that whole sequence. I love that they continue throwing bottles at them even when they like it.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's just like we have more candy glass to get through. Throw more bottles. You can see Aykroyd at least once when he turns away toward the band from the glass breaking. You can see him smiling.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Breaking character. Because it's so absurd that they're still getting hit with so many bottles.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, I love that. For me, the movie, really, the last act of the movie, I think is excellent. From the concert forward. It's great. It's awesome. It's just totally awesome.

[Chris Winterbauer]

The Nazi car launching 7,000ft in the air is so funny.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's so funny.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Turns to him. I've always loved. Yeah, like, it's so absurd.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's so good.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's very absurd.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Shout out to. Is that Henry Gibson? Is that his name?

[Chris Winterbauer]

Henry Gibson plays the Nazi leader, The lead Nazi.

[Lizzie Bassett]

The Illinois Nazis.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yes, the Illinois Nazi.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Prescient. Anyway, let's get into it because there is a lot to discuss here. And obviously a lot of this episode will be talking about John Belushi, who we have not really covered on the podcast too much before. Fair warning to anybody, before we get into this, because we are talking about John Belushi and because this movie is sort of the hinge on which his life begins to tilt in a very bad direction, we are going to talk quite a bit about drug use and abuse and his eventual death. So if you don't want to hear that, that's totally fine. But that will be present in this episode. But we're also going to have a lot of fun because this is the Blues Brothers and it's bonkers. So here are the details, as always. The Blues Brothers is directed by John Landis, was written by Dan Aykroyd and John Landis. We're using the word written loosely. It stars John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Carrie Fisher, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, James Brown, and then 100 million cameos. John Candy, Steven Spielberg, Frank Oz, so, so, so many more. It was released in 1980. And here is the IMDb logline. As always, Jake Blues rejoins his brother Elwood after being released from prison. But the duo has just days to reunite their old R and B band. And save the Catholic home where the two were raised, outrunning the police as they tear through Chicago. I do love the Penguin. I love that sequence where she's just beating them with the rulers very, very much.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I like when she dollies away from the door. Yeah, her name, Sister Mary Stigmata, I believe, is what the full name, the full character name from the credits is incredible.

[Lizzie Bassett]

All right, couple of main sources for today. Vanity Fair's Soulmen, the making of the Blues Brothers. There is a write up on the production and stunts included with the Blu Ray and many articles and retrospectives. As always, I do want to mention we did use Bob Woodward's book, the Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi. Now, I want to note that we used this last source for anecdotes on how Belushi's drug use impacted the production. But it's worth noting that Woodward got just absolutely slammed by Belushi's family and friends for this book. People really felt like it reduced Belushi to his drug use. Hollywood historian Shawn Levy called it painstakingly thorough, but often tone deaf. Ackroyd also was very unhappy with it. Said he painted a portrait of John that was really inaccurate. This was my friend that was being besmirched. And then John's brother, Jim Belushi put it the most bluntly, saying Woodward, that cocksucker, that motherfucker. I don't think Woodward's capable of understanding what love is or compassion or relationships. He is one cold fish. So please know that we know that criticism about the source and took it with a Bob Woodward sized grain of salt. But it was useful just because of the amount of people he spoke to and information that he had in that book. All right, let's start with John Belushi. So Belushi was born in 1949 in a suburb of Chicago. Chicago. He had one older sister, two younger brothers. His mother, Agnes, a pharmacy worker, was a first generation American born to Albanian parents. And his father had emigrated to the United States from Albania at 16 years old in 1934. And his father was a workaholic. He had worked his way up from a dishwasher in a restaurant to owning his own restaurant. And while this is obviously very impressive, it sounds like he was kind of never around, especially during the holidays. Those were often the busiest times at the restaurants. And according to Belushi's wife Judy, who started dating him in high school, quote, his parents never assimilated. And I think it was hard for John going to this all American high school. In the day and coming home to this very Albanian family in the evening. None of us in the neighborhood even knew what Albania was. John looked different from all of us. Dark. And there was a joke that he was born with a beard. So he was self conscious of his ethnicity. And he never brought people back to his home. He always went to other people's houses. So Belushi had a real knack, though, for winning people over. In high school, he was the co captain and middle linebacker on the varsity football team as well as the homecoming king. He played drums in a garage rock band called the Ravens, which recorded a record. He did great in school. He did variety shows. He could play anything. He did everything from I'm a ballerina to Marlon Brando. And he was extremely popular. He briefly attended college, but then he tried out for Second City, which is, of course, the Chicago improv comedy machine that produces live shows, operates, I believe, the world's largest comedy training centers, and of course, has produced people like Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Amy Poeh. But John didn't even have to train with the touring company. First. He was hired directly into the Main Stage ensemble. And in 1972, he was hired by the National Lampoon to star in their off Broadway stage shows. But just one year later, he was having a little bit of a hard time with some of the comedians performing with him at the National Lampoon. Specifically Christopher Guest and famous mean person, Chevy Chase.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Chevy Chase? Yeah. I had forgotten about Christopher Guest, but I remembered Chevy Chase. Yeah, yeah. What do you mean, I'm so easy to get along with?

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, according to zero people. But according to John's wife, Judy, she said they had a private school put down kind of humor. And John was an easy mark. He was from the Midwest, overweight. He hadn't graduated from college. He was ethnic. No, even better, he was Albanian. This was all good fodder. The dynamic with Chase did apparently continue into snl, even though they respected each other. It just sounds like Chevy Chase could be really cruel. But according to Ivan Reitman, who produced the National Lampoon show, he said, quote, I tried to direct them, but they all laughed that off. They directed themselves, but while they didn't listen to me, they all listened to John. And according to the Guardian, people who knew Belushi in the early years described a warm and deeply loyal man, one who always tried to get jobs for his friends and was so gentle that if his cat fell asleep on his lap, he would be late for rehearsals rather than wake up his pet. So now, before we get into the snl of it all. Let's talk about Elwood Blues, AKA Dan Aykroyd, who we have discussed a little bit on Ghostbusters. So this will be brief.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Dan Aykroyd, as I always have to remind myself, I spell his name wrong every time. Every single time.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Every time I'm looking at it, it's spelled wrong right here.

[Chris Winterbauer]

A Y. It's wrong, right? Exactly. He spe wrong for decades.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's wrong right in front of my face. So. Aykroyd. Dan Aykroyd was born in 1952 in Ottawa, Ontario. His dad was a civil engineer who was a policy advisor for Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And big into ghosts.

[Lizzie Bassett]

And big into ghosts.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Whole family. Whole family. Big into ghosts.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I love their family.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Bassett]

And his mom was a secretary. Now, according to Ackroyd, my first passion was really just surviving in Ottawa in the government town. As an upper middle class son of bureaucrats. I started work on the Canadian National Railway unloading boxcars at 14. And I have not stopped working since. I just. He's just Ray Zelensky, the auto parts king in my head. Always and forever from Tommy boy. He also started taking improv classes at 12 years old at his parents suggestion. Just like Belushi. He went to college, Carleton University in Ottawa. But he did not graduate. He did study criminology though. With the intention of becoming. What? Chris, do you remember?

[Chris Winterbauer]

No. Was he going to be a detective?

[Lizzie Bassett]

A prison guard.

[Chris Winterbauer]

A prison guard. That's what it was.

[Lizzie Bassett]

The goal was to be a prison guard.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Carmela's grandfather was a prison guard.

[Guest or Additional Contributor]

Oh.

[Chris Winterbauer]

After the war, for a long time.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Oh, wow.

[Chris Winterbauer]

In Northern California.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Damn, those are scary prisons.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I can't remember the name of the prison. It was an intense one. But he actually ran. At one point he ran the prison basketball league.

[Lizzie Bassett]

All right.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Which I thought was pretty cool.

[Lizzie Bassett]

That is cool.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Bassett]

So while in college, he started frequenting Leibu, a local club that featured all the top touring soul, R and B and blues acts. And it was here that of course, he developed his lifelong obsession with the blues. An obsession may not be a strong enough word, Chris. It has been described as encyclopedic and monomaniacal. Unlike Belushi, though, Ackroyd was not sprinting towards a comedy career. He drove a mail truck. He was happy where he was until his friend Valerie Bromfield, who he would later form a comedy duo with, told him he could dream a little bigger than mail truck driving and prison guarding. So he dropped out of College, started performing at the local comedy clubs. And just Behind Belushi, in 1973 he joined 2nd City's brand new Toronto branch. And by the way, it's thanks to Valerie that he ever even left Ottawa. According to him, he would have been happy working as a prison guard for the rest of his life. And she really pushed him into the comedy career.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Captive audience as they say.

[Lizzie Bassett]

That's true. He would have been a funny prison guard. Just what you want.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Which could have been cruel and unusual punishment at the end of the day, maybe.

[Lizzie Bassett]

No, it might be nice.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Might be.

[Lizzie Bassett]

All right, now we're caught up. It's 1973. Aykroyd is about 21 years old and he had just opened up his own speakeasy called the 505 Club in Toronto. It opened at 1am because of course he worked night doing shows and one night he was unwinding after a show when 24 year old John Belushi came barreling into the bar. They had met earlier that night backstage at Second City and according to Ackroyd, it was love at first sight. Belushi had traveled to Toronto to poach talent for the National Lampoon Radio Hour in New York City, which of course he was working on. And so he asked Ackroyd if he was interested in joining them and Aykroyd said no. He's like, I'm happy in Canada and besides I'm under contract at Second City. Like I can't leave. But they got to talking and Ackroyd is like, do you like the blues? And Belushi said no, he didn't really care. And so Aykroyd is like, let me play you every single blues record ever recorded. And he did. And then of course the seed was planted. Now about two years later they would come together again when they were both hired to join the original cast of what?

[Chris Winterbauer]

Saturday Night Live.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Saturday Night Live. Interestingly, Belushi was a bit of a holdout. He was hesitant to do it because TV was kind of considered a death knell for comedians at the time. But he did eventually come around. But on October 11, 1975, SNL debuted and that of course changed forever. And John Belushi stood out immediately as one of the show's earliest and biggest stars. Pretty much everyone loved him, interestingly, except for maybe the women who worked on the show. I did not know this, but he would reportedly refuse to perform in any scenes written by women. Jane Curtin flat out said that his behavior was really sexist. It's interesting because Every other description of him, he's a very, you know, he's such a nice, lovable guy. But there is. There's that one thing. Anyway, after tapings, the cast would all hang out at the Holland Tunnel Blues Bar, a private club that Dan Aykroyd had rented. How many private speakeasies does Dan aykroyd own? He's like 22, 23 at this point, and he has several.

[Chris Winterbauer]

He's got that milkman money, I guess.

[Lizzie Bassett]

At this club, he and Belushi would jam. They would sit in with local blues bands coming through town. And reportedly, it was the OG musical director for snl, Howard Shore, who told them they should call themselves the Blues Brothers. And of course, from here, Jake and Elwood Blues began to take shape. According to Aykroyd, we were inspired by John Lee Hooker's House of Blues record. He had the suit and the shades. Who wouldn't want to look that cool? We put on a suit and tie and ended up looking like FBI agents. It was a universal look that worked so well.

[Chris Winterbauer]

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[Lizzie Bassett]

Now, contrary to popular belief, the Blues Brothers were not developed for snl, which I did not know. It's because they were not pretending to be a band. As far as they were concerned, they were a band. And because they were a band for realsies, at least in their own beautiful and semi delusional minds, they asked Lorne Michael to let them perform on snl and he was like no. What? No.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah.

[Guest or Additional Contributor]

What?

[Chris Winterbauer]

No nar what?

[Lizzie Bassett]

But eventually he compromised by allowing them to perform on January 17, 1976 as part of the show's running Killer Bees sketch playing the blues song I'm A King Bee alongside Howard Shore and his All Bee Band. And of course, everybody was dressed in bee costumes. Have you ever seen this? It's so weird. It's really strange. It's not funny. It's just. They're very serious. They're just all dressed like bees. Anyway, it did not take off, but they kept performing around town. And by the second season of snl, Belushi was an enormous star, arguably the biggest star on the show. And the fame had come with a lot of late nights, lot of attention, and, of course, drug use. Meanwhile, some of his old buddies from the National Lampoon had written a script about a college frat house. But Universal told them, unless you get John Belushi in this castle, we are not making it. Now, of course, this film is Animal House. And according to Animal House director and co writer John Landis, quote, so I went to New York to persuade him. We met in my hotel. And during the meeting, Belushi makes a call down to room service soon after he left, and suddenly all these waiters walk in with plates and plates of food. Spaghetti, shrimp cocktail pie, everything on the menu. It was like something out of a Marx Brothers movie. But it was not the plates of food that sealed the deal for Belushi. It was the fact that Universal tentatively agreed to develop another movie for him in return, one following Jake and Elwood Blues. And this was a big deal because this was the first time that actual SNL characters, characters, at least in this case, that had sort of appeared on snl, would jump to the big screen. Of course, not the first time that a performer would do it. Bill Murray had done it, Belushi was doing it, Chevy Chase had done it. And In July of 1978, John Landis National Lampoon's Animal House became an enormous surprise hit, grossing over $120 million. We will cover it at some point, I'm sure. And everyone loved Belushi's performance as Bluto. Chris, how would you describe it?

[Chris Winterbauer]

I mean, it's the opposite of Blues Brothers in so many ways, in my opinion. Right. He's outlandish. Huge.

[Lizzie Bassett]

He's huge. But he's also, like, weirdly quiet. Apparently, John Landis would just keep taking lines away from him because he was so funny physically and what he could do.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Sure. It's a physical comedy performance. Sure. I always remember the pimple thing. Like, I just. To me, it's like the Blues Brothers. The joke of the Blues Brothers, these two taciturns, you know what I mean? You hardly get anything more than a reaction out of them, which is what makes they are the straight men to everybody else in the movie. Which is ultimately why I don't have a problem with the structure of recruiting the blues artists in this movie is they're ultimately platforming them.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I feel the same way.

[Chris Winterbauer]

All to say, sure, quiet, but the weirdo, sort of, you know, big physical performer.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Well, he was a huge hit coming out of this movie. Everyone loved him. But he was exhausted. He was shuttling back and forth between New York City, where he was still performing on snl, and Oregon, where Animal House was being filmed. And the drugs were starting to become a necessity at this point just to be able to keep up with the amount of work that he was doing. Or at least that's the way that he felt about it. Meanwhile, Belushi and Ackroyd had started warming up the SNL audience as the Blues Brothers, and they were a hit. So finally, Lorne Michaels agreed to let them perform on air. And on April 22, 1978, Jake and Elwood made their official SNL debut performing hey Bartender. And I don't know. And the audience loved it, but they were also confused. It wasn't a joke. But was it a joke? It's kind of funny, but they seem really serious.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Every once in a while I feel like Tenacious D falls into a similar thing where you. Because they're really good, right?

[Lizzie Bassett]

They're genuinely good.

[Chris Winterbauer]

But Tenacious D leans more comedy. But every once in a while they'll do a song and you think, huh, that was kind of just a good song. I don't know what to feel about this.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Was that a joke? Yeah, I don't think that was a joke. Yeah. No one knew what to make of it.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah, it does feel very alt comedy in a sense, but it really blurs a line.

[Lizzie Bassett]

But they're also just good.

[Chris Winterbauer]

They're just good.

[Lizzie Bassett]

They're just good. They're just fun.

[Chris Winterbauer]

They are.

[Lizzie Bassett]

And someone who agreed with us is Steve Martin, who after the show asked them to open for him at his nine night show in Los Angeles at the Universal Amphitheater, which, by the way, doesn't exist anymore. It was torn down to make the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Boo. But it had a capacity of over 6,000 people. Sorry, those rides make me want to vomit.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I've never been.

[Lizzie Bassett]

And that butterbeer was disgusting, but children love it.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Never been.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Belushi and Aykroyd were stoked. They said, absolutely, of course we'll open nine nights of your show. There was just one problem. Chris, what do you think their one problem was?

[Chris Winterbauer]

Will they have to get out of their SNL contract to go do nine nights? No, they don't have nine nights worth of material.

[Guest or Additional Contributor]

No.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I don't know.

[Lizzie Bassett]

They don't have a band.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Oh, okay, fair enough.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, they have no band.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Howard Shore, you want to come too?

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah. Well, so actually Paul Schaeffer was the one who compiled a list for them of highly skilled and of course, expensive musicians who could do this for them on the tight timeline that they had. And so John Belushi started cold calling these guys at like 3 in the morning. And here's an example of how this would go. This is John Belushi, he told Steve Cropper, who, by the way, Rolling stone named number 36 on their list of the greatest guitarists of all time. So these are not like small time

[Chris Winterbauer]

folks who actually played with like Wilson Pickett and stuff?

[Lizzie Bassett]

Oh, yeah, all of these guys is the joke.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah, exactly. When they do the Wilson Pickett number.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, yeah. So we're putting a band together. I need you here tomorrow. There's no way, Cropper replied. I'm mixing an album. I gotta have you. No way. I can't do it. I gotta have you. And of course, this would continue for hours and Belushi would wear them all down. Within days, the team had assembled in New York City to rehearse. Meanwhile, Belushi's cocaine use was majorly ramping up. And on September 1, he and John Landis, reportedly at Landis suggestion, checked into La Costa, a famous health spot outside San Diego. Landis was quite pissed to discover that Belushi had brought over $1,000 worth of cocaine with him. And when Landis discovered it, he threw it out and Belushi was furious. But on September 9, 1978, the Blues Brothers went ahead and opened for Steve Martin and they were an enormous hit. Everything happened very fast from this point forward. They signed a deal with Atlantic Records, recorded a whole live album at one of these shows, briefcase full of Blues. Within five days of that album's release, 50,000 copies had been sold. It went double platinum. So on January 24, 1979, John Belushi turned 30 years old and he had a number one album, a number one TV show and a number one movie. So he turned to his blues brother and said, I say we make the thing into a movie. And Dan Aykroyd agreed. So word got out that Belushi and Aykroyd wanted to turn the Blues Brothers into a feature and an all out bidding war ensued. Paramount and Universal were the most aggressive. Universal ends up winning thanks to the Animal House connection. And of course, they had made him the original development deal, so they didn't

[Chris Winterbauer]

have an exclusive option on the development deal. That's so weird.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It is and it isn't. I feel like they said that just to get him in Animal House.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Right. So maybe it was just a development deal. Yes, vaguely. Yeah.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Not okay, because like, think about the pitch. It doesn't make any sense. It's insane. And the Blues Brothers hadn't taken off, then they take off independently and now they're like, oh, remember, we're doing this.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Well, an ownership would theoretically remain with, I mean, I'm assuming snl, Lorne Michaels, there's some involvement. Must be.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I don't think so, because they were performing independently before snl. So I believe this is all Aykroyd and Belushi separate from snl. Now, the director was a no brainer. It would be 29 year old animal House director John Landis. And Universal put the movie on a lightning fast track. They wanted it immediately, so they said yes to basically everything. Chris. Something they would come to regret.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Sure.

[Lizzie Bassett]

In fact, Sean Daniel, the exec who had greenlit the film at Universal, didn't even formally discuss the decision with Ned Tannen, the studio film division's president, or Lou Wasserman, the owner of Universal. Daniel reportedly just called Tannen and said, belushi, Ackroyd, Blues Brothers, how about it? And Tannen said, yeah, great, I'll tell Lou. And that was it. Belushi's salary was set at $500,000. Ackroyd got $250,000. So that should tell you how big a star John Belushi was at this point. Universal wanted the film made for $12 million, while Landis, Ackroyd and Belushi estimated somewhere closer to 20 million. And they were all wrong, as we're gonna learn.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Universal also wanted the movie to be finished, as in shot, edited, everything by August of 1979, which was six months away. Insane. Like why? Why would you do that? No, no. In addition to this being essentially impossible and very ambitious for a movie with as many crazy set pieces as this has, there was a bigger problem, which is that there were no set pieces because there was no script. So Belushi begged his friend, music journalist Mitch Glaser, to partner up with Aykroyd to write the script. But Glazer declined. He didn't want to step on Dan Aykroyd's toes. This was clearly Aykroyd's passion project. But Ackroyd, who was at this point an Emmy winning writer for SNL as well as one of its most popular performers, had never in his whole life written a screenplay. Yeah, you can tell. And so he decided to take a crack at his first with the Blues Brothers. And one day, Chris, In March of 1979, the phone rang at producer Bob Weiss's house. Be on your property tonight, said the caller. And sure enough, that evening, a package flew over Weiss's fence and into his backyard. And wrapped inside the covers of the LA Yellow Pages was a screenplay titled the Return of the Blues Brothers. It was, according to the script itself, written by Scriptatron GL9000, aka Dan Aykroyd.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Dan Aykroyd. So wonderfully odd.

[Lizzie Bassett]

He is a strange man. I love him. He liked thinking of himself as a writing machine. So that's the credit.

[Chris Winterbauer]

He's hallucinating at about the rate of chatgpt on this one. So.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yes, that's true. So Weiss called up Sean Daniel and was like, great news. The first draft finally got here. And then he's like, that's the only good news. The bad news is, do you want to guess how many pages this first draft was?

[Chris Winterbauer]

I know one of his Ghostbusters scripts was like 7 million. I think maybe it was the first Ghostbuster. I can't remember if it was one or two, but I'm going to guess. Okay, so let's assume it's formatted properly.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Oh, it's not.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I know. I'm just saying from like a spacing perspective, I'm going to guess it's like 190 pages.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's 324 pages long.

[Chris Winterbauer]

There you go. Exactly. That's insane.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Like, you write a first draft of a script. It's messy, but it's loose. How long is it?

[Chris Winterbauer]

If it's over 120 pages, I'm sending a very carefully worded preamble about how I know it needs to get shorter.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, 324.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah. That's crazy.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It was written basically in free verse, Right? It had long, elaborate.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's a novel.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's a novel. It's a novelization.

[Chris Winterbauer]

He's written the novelization of the blue movie Blues Brothers, which hasn't come out yet.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It had long, elaborate meta backstories for each of the characters.

[Chris Winterbauer]

This is what he did with Ghostbusters one of the Ghostbusters 2. I'm sorry, I'm blanking on which one. I think it was probably the first one. But yes, he would just. It was like free associative sort of writing.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yes, it's free verse. It's, you know, it's like slam poetry, basically. But it's a movie.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's slam poetry.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Well, and Chris, he had two, I think, you know, totally understandable touchstones when writing the film. And those were, of course, Bernardo Bertolucci's five hour long 1900 and Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, which. What else would you think of when trying to write. Write the Blues Brothers?

[Chris Winterbauer]

Barry Lyndon does.

[Lizzie Bassett]

That makes more sense.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's funny. I would not have put the Bertolucci film. It never came to mind. But Barry Lyndon came to mind while I was watching this because it is a bit of a picaresque story.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah.

[Chris Winterbauer]

But then also, obviously this hadn't. But also Bullet came to mind, the French Connection, just for the car stuff.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Obviously all to say it was a mess. Probably a delightful mess, but an absolute mess.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I bet you it was a lot of fun to read for the first hundred pages. And then you just went, oh, fuck.

[Lizzie Bassett]

So Universal called up John Landis and they were just like, you need to fix this. So John Landis locked himself away for two weeks and cut it down into a 150 page, somewhat usable script. But Chris, it still didn't even have Stage directions at 150 pages. Meanwhile, he's dealing with Dan Aykroyd, who's haggling with him about like, we need to have a scene explaining the magical qualities of the Bluesmobile. And John Landis is like, sure, I don't. Whatever, I don't care. I'm gonna cut it later. Just do it. Fine, like, whatever. Landis was mostly editing. He some pretty important things, though. He added the four fried chickens and a Coke line, which was based on John Belushi's actual order. He saw him eat four fried chickens and a Coke at one point. And he added the entire we're on a mission from God bit. Because Ackroyd's dedication to the blues was in fact evangelical. Carrie Fisher was cast as Jake's ex girlfriend, but in real life, of course, she was dating Dan Aykroyd. The two were engaged. She was a huge star. She was riding the Star wars fame. Empire Strikes Back would also be released just a month before the Blues Brothers. Now, obviously she and Aykroyd would not stay together, but it sounds like they had a lot of fun while they were dating. Following her death in 2016, Aykroyd wrote her a tribute in Empire, saying one of the most brilliant and hilarious minds of our eon. Carrie would say things like, I love tiny babies. When they cry, they turn red and look like screaming tomatoes. Or, this romance is finished the second you let out even a threep, I'll be sick for a year. And you have a jawline. Hold your chin up, otherwise you look like a tuna. From then on, I would identify myself on the phone as Tuna Neck. Aykroyd also said, Carrie wasn't shallow. We had a great time. She was also in love with Paul Simon. She married him, but I hope she kept my ring.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And that didn't go well with Paul Simon.

[Lizzie Bassett]

If you gotta choose between Dan Aykroyd and Paul Simon, you gotta choose Dan Aykroyd every time.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Well, because Paul Simon also chooses Paul Simon. So you can't. You can't choose Paul Simon.

[Lizzie Bassett]

No. Now, she famously had her own struggles with addiction, later saying, slowly, I realized I was doing a bit more drugs than other people and losing my choice in the matter. If I'd been addicted to booze, I'd be dead now, because you just go out and get it now. While on set, Belushi apparently did confide in her that he too had a problem. When it came to the rest of the cast. The goal was to absolutely stack it with the best musicians the Blues had ever seen. Now, the band was of course, their actual band that they had assembled, performed and recorded with, including Steve the Colonel Cropper, as we mentioned, one of the greatest guitar players of all time, saxophonist Lou Marini, incredible session musician, solo artist, core member of the SNL band, trombonist and saxophonist Tom Malone, again, just insane. He'd played with Frank Zappa and the band. Also was a member of the OG SNL band. Drummer Willie hall played on a bajillion albums and tours, probably most famous outside of the Blues Brothers for his work with Isaac Hayes, Matt Guitar Murphy, legendary blues guitarist who was inducted into the Blues hall of fame in 2012, and then keyboardist Murphy Dunn, who was a friend of Belushi's and also a former Second City member himself. And he actually took over the role because Paul Schaeffer was not allowed to leave SNL to do it. So that makes me think that SNL was definitely not part of this. Aykroyd insisted on casting James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin in speaking parts with whole musical numbers built around them. And Landis with was happy to do it. Universal was not one. Because they're like, this is not going to be a $12 million movie. This is going to push the budget way higher. And also because, believe it or not, at the time, they felt like nobody would care about those names. They wanted younger and more, quote, unquote, relevant acts. Ray Charles was the only one at that time who even had a regular gig. And you have to remember that, as Landis put it, quote, in 1979, rhythm blues and Motown was in decline and the popular music was disco. People ask, how did you get all those amazing acts? We called them up. The whole point of the movie was to showcase these extraordinary artists.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah, I mean, it would have been harder to get, like, abba, you know, Bee Gees, for example. Cause those are the big names.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Those are literally the two biggest bands.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And so you think about Cab Calloway. I mean, I love. Obviously we did the Cotton Club earlier this year. And, you know, you have the Minnie the Mooch performance here, which is so fun. But Cab Calloway, when was the last time he had a number one hit? I mean, he's Minnie the Moocher, probably. Do you think he's in his. Is he in his 70s in this movie? Late 60s, something like that? You know, I think 70s, obviously. Franklin more recently, and then Charles after that. But yeah, what I think is so fun about it is it shows the timeless quality of this music as well. And it fits in seamlessly in this movie in so many ways.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Well, we teased this a little bit at the top, in case you're wondering if anybody criticized the optics of this at the time. You know, two white guys singing and playing the blues opposite a sea of, of course, African American performers. The answer is yes. Many feared that the film was exploitative. Although Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and James Brown have all vehemently disagreed with that because they said this was an enormous career revival for them, for all of them. Their careers were in a decline at this point. And like I said, I couldn't really tell how I felt when I was watching it. But the more research I did, I land on the side of this being truly a tribute and not exploitative at all. Especially because you kind of pointed this out. But like John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd basically just get out of their way.

[Chris Winterbauer]

They do for most of it, for almost a year. They'll join in the dancing eventually, you know. But you think about James Brown's scene, Aretha Franklin's scene. That's just the scene. And it's just fun at one point when just randomly, Belushi and Aykroyd starts doing the choreography with the other women like, that's fun. It's a nice garnish on the dish. But I would argue they actually do a very good job of seating the stage.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Lizzie Bassett]

I agree. I think they do a great job of it. And not only did they of course, leverage their actual stardom to showcase all of these musicians again, many of whom had seen major decline in their careers by this point, but the real kicker for me is that Dan Aykroyd secured publishing rights for all of the performers in this film. They all made a shit ton of money off of this.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Great.

[Lizzie Bassett]

For the rest of their lives, their estates continue to make money. And that was non negotiable for him.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And I love abba. I'm not a huge Bee Gees fan. I love abba. This movie's not very great with abba and I love abba. But like, it just. It needs to be the blues.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's the Blues Brothers, of course.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Now, despite these folks having been massive stars in their prime, it sounds like they were, for the most part, pretty easy to work with and very happy to be there. Aretha Franklin did struggle with the lip syncing because that's not something she ever did. She never sang the same song the same way twice. And so if you watch it knowing that her lips don't match, it's like

[Chris Winterbauer]

she's too good live.

[Lizzie Bassett]

She's too good. Nothing matches.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I know. No.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I think they just gave up at a certain point.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's fine. It's a Sergio Leone scene.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yes. That's what it looks like. It's a good the Bad and the Ugly. But she was apparently not a diva. She did her best. I think she's one of the funniest parts of the movie. That's my favorite musical number of the whole thing. I think it's so good.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Cab Calloway actually wanted to perform Minnie the Moocher as a disco number because he had recently re recorded it and was releasing it as that. And he was pretty pissed when John Landis wouldn't let him and insisted that it be performed in the original big band fashion.

[Chris Winterbauer]

That's my favorite musical number is when he says, Gino, Minnie the Moocher. And then immediately the curtains open and. And the whole set has been redone in the Cotton Club style. I love that. I also just love it because I feel like you can see the extras really getting into the call and response.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And it shows the power of 50 years later, that piece of music. It still retains its potency and him as a performer. He still has that charisma to get them into it this much. So I love that number.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I actually, I think out of all of the musicians that appear in this, he's probably the most successful as like an actor in the movie.

[Chris Winterbauer]

He's good.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, he's really good.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Well, he reminded me of like, you know, Scatman and the Shining for example or something like that.

[Lizzie Bassett]

So definitely.

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[Lizzie Bassett]

One last fun fact about Ray Charles scene is that the dancers in that sequence are not professional dancers at all. They are random people that the crew just asked to come and be in the scene.

[Chris Winterbauer]

They do a great job.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Well, the reason was John Landis was like Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi are not professional dancers.

[Chris Winterbauer]

No they are not.

[Lizzie Bassett]

So if we put them next to professional Dancers, they're not gonna look great. And so they just went and grabbed random people. So that's what that scene is. And you know what? It's great.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And you know what? Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Still pretty good.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yes.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Like, they're doing a lot better than I would.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Oh, yeah. To be fair, Dan Aykroyd's little, like, knee dance thing he does at the end.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah, yeah. He ripped off from some Eastern European Jewish families.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Fiddler on the Roof. Yeah, absolutely.

[Chris Winterbauer]

From Fiddler on the Roof. Exactly.

[Lizzie Bassett]

So filming kicked off in Chicago in July of 1979. And as we learned on the Dark Knight, Chicago will basically let you do whatever the hell you want.

[Chris Winterbauer]

How many capcats you need? A baker's Dessein?

[Lizzie Bassett]

How many caps you need?

[Guest or Additional Contributor]

2.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Vegas doesn't.

[Lizzie Bassett]

According to Landis, we were allowed to film things on a scope and scale that has rarely been done before in the center of a large city. Now, a fun fact is that the Chicago Film Office was founded in 1980, I believe, as a response to the Blues Brothers.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Perhaps they realized they needed some regulation after what we're about to talk about. Action scenes were filmed on Sundays and holidays, so the city center would be as empty as possible. Universal hired 76 police officers to drive squad cars and direct traffic. They also hired 40 stunt drivers because. Yes, Chris, basically, all of the stunts you see in this film with like, one or two exceptions, are real. They had about 13 Bluesmobiles. Two were built to go as fast as possible. Three were built to be as light as possible for all the jumps. Another was rigged with a lever for that moment when the whole car falls apart on cue at the end.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Great moment.

[Lizzie Bassett]

So funny.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Great job, special effects team.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, it was great. They said it took forever and was very expensive, but it looks wonderful. They also bought around 60 to 70 old police cars.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah, for the pileup.

[Lizzie Bassett]

For the pileup. And they used some actual police cars. Officers in those chase sequences. They're just like, you guys want to drive your own cars.

[Chris Winterbauer]

The funniest joke involving the police in the military is just the hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut.

[Lizzie Bassett]

The SWAT team members scaling down the

[Chris Winterbauer]

bottom of everybody and, like, doing the army crawl. Hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut. But when they all crash their cars and then out of frustration, they just all pull their guns out and decide to just open fire on the Bluesmobile. It is send up of, like, the destructiveness of police chases in general, which is, you know, the joke is just

[Lizzie Bassett]

let Them go, right.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Like somebody else will catch them.

[Lizzie Bassett]

You're literally destroying the entire city of Chicago in order to go get these guys.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Which also shout out the other guys. Does a pretty good job of that as well.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, I love that movie. Now you may see that supposedly the Blues Brothers holds the record for destroying the most cars of any movie. They say over 100. John Landis says it's a lot lower than that because they actually had a 24 hour body shop on retainer. And they were just recycling these cars. They were just fixing them as soon as they were destroyed. So I don't know how safe that was. But they didn't destroy 100 cars, but they destroyed a lot. So Landis was struggling with the scope of the film from the very beginning. He said that most of the crew couldn't even figure out what kind of movie it was. He said, I told some of the crew this is a musical. And they were so confused. They didn't know what the fuck we were making.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I don't.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I mean, I don't know what the fuck you were making. And I just watched it.

[Chris Winterbauer]

There are some rules. It doesn't seem like there's really score. All the music's either needle drops or like diegetically performed songs. And so, like, I guess that's a rule. The opening of this movie is so tonally strange. It's just. I forgot too. It's just silent, silent Blade Runner shots of Midwest factories. Followed by Joliet Prison, you know, and then.

[Lizzie Bassett]

And John Belushi backlit, like he's stepping out of heaven.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah, exactly. The light of God behind him. It's so unusual.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah. Like you're saying, it's a very strange dichotomy. You have these massive musical numbers replete with dancers and acrobatics. And on the other hand, you have one of the most insane car chase sequences ever put to film. Which is of course the one at the very end. So let's talk about it. 200 police and production assistants manned basically every entrance to. Did you notice this? What drive were they on?

[Chris Winterbauer]

Lower Whacker Drive.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Lower Wacker Drive. Back from the Dark Knight. They obviously had to seal that off in order to film that sequence. They did get permission to drive down lake at more than 100 mile.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Some of the POV shots of there's a stunt car, right? They're doing the POV shots and then they'll do a reverse on Belushi and Ackroyd. At first I thought, oh, it's sped up.

[Lizzie Bassett]

No.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And then you see the cross traffic moving at a normal speed and you realize, oh shit, they're going so fast. Nearly clip other cars so many times. I mean, just the number of times I thought someone was gonna get hit in the mall sequence.

[Lizzie Bassett]

The mall sequence is crazy. We will talk about that.

[Chris Winterbauer]

The number of flips on the freeway. John Candy's car with Stephen Williams going into the side of the semi truck. I mean, so funny. But also I would have a heart attack on this movie because I would be so terrified on every stunt that somebody's gonna, I mean, at minimum suffer some life altering injury.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Well, John Landis doesn't feel that way, Chris. You know, you mentioned that the reason you can tell they're going over 100 miles per hour is because you can see the other cars and pedestrians. They actually shot that sequence once. John Landis went back, looked at it and he was like, no, people are gonna think we sped this up in post. I want them to know we didn't. That's why there's people walking, there's stunt pedestrians on either side of the street. Cause he wanted you to be able to tell.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And they're not just on the other side of the street.

[Lizzie Bassett]

No, they're in front of the car.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Cyclists that nearly get hit, you know,

[Lizzie Bassett]

it's crazy worth it, says John Landis. So in order to film the scene with the pileup of police cars, they actually drilled holes into the street to install a pipe ramp. And it would basically just flip the car on its axis if it hit the right point. There were wooden ramps that gave car jumps extra height and power. Yes, they did really drive through multiple buildings in this movie. There is of course, the Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois, which had been shut down for over a year at the time of filming. Evidently it had closed because crime had become quite rampant in the mall both while it was open and after it had closed, including multiple murders. Production designer John J. Lloyd rebuilt about 32 stores inside the mall to make it look like a shopping center. It looks great, it looks great.

[Chris Winterbauer]

But the amount of breakaway glass that's going, that's crazy. It's mind boggling to me.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I don't even know if that was breakaway glass, if I'm being honest.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I mean, I just, I presume, I'm not sure it was candy glass. I would presume it's breakaway glass in the sense that they need it to just shatter so the car can keep, you know, going.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Right. Well, it took months to prepare this. It took five days to shoot it. Obviously that's Full of stunt people sending cars through all the stores. There's stunt people in the mall. Apparently when they were done filming, they just left it like that. And the Harvey Dixmore School District actually sued Universal because they hadn't cleaned anything up when they left. Eventually they gave up and ran out of money, though the mall actually sat abandoned until 2012 when it was finally torn down. So you probably could have gone and, like, played Blues Brothers in that mall for, you know, a solid 30 years. Fun. You might get murdered.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Great.

[Lizzie Bassett]

And of course, they did actually drive their cars through the Daily Plaza. This is the craziest. To me, this is like Chicago. What are you doing? This was filmed over Labor Day weekend. It features, of course, dozens of stunt people, six different camera crews, 300 crowd extras. You've got police National Guardsmen, actual National Guardsmen costumed as soldiers. You have SWAT team rappelling down the Cook county building.

[Chris Winterbauer]

There are tanks in one overhead shot.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, there's tanks. Yeah, there's three tanks, five fire engines, three helicopters, anti aircraft guns.

[Chris Winterbauer]

At least one.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah. And they actually replaced the windows of the Daily Building for when they crashed through it. They replaced it with breakable glass. What are you doing, guys? What are you doing? But of course, the most insane section of the film is probably the Nazi car chase at the very, very end.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yes.

[Lizzie Bassett]

And although this was just three minutes of screen time, filming took place in three different states and it involved just a ton of prep. But I want to talk about the one shot in this chase that I cannot believe they really did. Do you know which one is this?

[Chris Winterbauer]

Just the one where they dropped the car from a plane.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yes. Yeah, they dropped a car.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I know. You can tell. I didn't know. But when I watched it, I presumed they actually dropped a car.

[Lizzie Bassett]

They did it.

[Chris Winterbauer]

You know, somebody wrote to us on Independence Day. This person was a pilot, and they wrote that the inertia of planes moving through the air, Independence Day gets it wrong. They slalom too swiftly, et cetera.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah.

[Chris Winterbauer]

This car falls with the exact right weight to it where you can feel the wind resistance under it. It's catching a surprising amount of air. And yet you can tell. I don't think that's just a little car. I think that is a legit full sized car. Maybe it's been stripped down a little bit. But I think they have dropped a car from either a helicopter or a plane from like 1500ft in the air.

[Lizzie Bassett]

They dropped it from a helicopter at more than 1,000ft in the air near Lakeshore Drive. And the Chicago river in an area formerly used to store salt. They did it.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Absolutely crazy.

[Lizzie Bassett]

They really did it.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah, it looks like. Like it. We did it, Joe.

[Lizzie Bassett]

We did it. We did it, John. They did use some models. They used a five foot model of the car for the Blues Mobile. Flipping backwards, for example.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yes. The backwards one. I didn't.

[Lizzie Bassett]

You can tell.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Bassett]

That's one of the only things in this, though, that I think you can tell. It's not a full sized car, but yeah, when I was watching this, I felt the same way. I was like, they dropped that car out of the sky. And apparently the FAA did give them permission to do this. They had to do a test run where they dropped it from 500ft in a field. Before they were to do that, they had to prove that it would drop straight down and not veer off.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Right.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Which I don't know how you can prove that with wind, but whatever. They did it.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Flat earth.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Flat earth then, Chris. If Chicago opened its doors to the crew of the Blues Brothers, it opened its hearts to hometown hero John Belushi. Landis once described going to Wrigley Field with him as being like with Mussolini in Rome.

[Chris Winterbauer]

John.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I know, John.

[Chris Winterbauer]

What.

[Lizzie Bassett]

What are your references?

[Chris Winterbauer]

Could have been like, you know, this was like going with JFK to the cap. I don't know, do you pick a

[Lizzie Bassett]

different lead or what are we doing? It's got to be Bonito Mussolini. Some fun stories about John Belushi in Chicago. Apparently, when he was entering the bathrooms at Wrigley Field, I assume on this trip with John Landis, he went up to the urinals, said, okay, stand back. Everyone stood back. He peed, turned around and said, okay, back you go. According to Mitch Glaser, quote, John would literally hail police cars like taxis. The cops would say, hey, Belushi. And then we'd fall into the backseat and the cops would drive us home. According to Dan Aykroyd, we lost John one night, but it wasn't because he was high. It was because he was hungry and didn't like what was available to eat on set. I couldn't find him anywhere. Finally, I saw this path going through a parking lot into a nearby neighborhood. So I followed it. The neighborhood was dark except for one house. I knock on the door and say, excuse me, we're shooting a movie and missing one of our actors. And the guy goes, oh, Belushi. He came in about an hour ago, raided my fridge and crashed on my couch. But the love for Belushi also manifested in the form of Free drugs, as Aykroyd put it. By the time we were shooting, John had become addicted to cocaine. And that, as we're about to learn, was an understatement. Fans would literally throw bags of coke at him, slip vials into his hands and pockets. It became a full time job just to try and keep him off of cocaine. And no one was up to the task. According to Landis, John was fucked up. It was a battle to keep him alive and to keep him working on the movie. Now, before we go any farther here, maybe you shouldn't keep him working on the movie. Just a thought. When Carrie Fisher arrived on location, Landis gave her the same spiel that he gives everyone. He said, for God's sake, if you see John doing drugs, stop him. Now. It didn't help that John Landis was in way over his head again. He's 29 years old. This is his fourth feature. The previous three had been teeny tiny in comparison. It was schlock. Kentucky Fried Movie and Animal House. His cinematographer had never supervised a production larger than Kentucky Fried Movie. And now they were helming a movie with a ballooning budget that reportedly included a line item for cocaine. Dan Aykroyd said, everyone did it, including me. Never to excess and not ever to where I wanted to buy it or have it. But John, he just loved what it did. It sort of brought him alive at night. That superpower feeling where you start to talk and converse and figure you can solve all the world's problems. Problems. Ackroyd also told The Guardian in 2020. At the time, cocaine was a currency for some of the crew working nights, it was almost like coffee. We drove John Landis crazy sometimes. He didn't know whether we were going to show up for work after the parties. At one point, Dr. Bennett Braun, a Chicago doctor and psychiatrist who was providing medical support for the film, arrived to give belushi his regular B12 shot. After giving him the shot, he did a routine physical to check his health. And it was immediately clear that things were not good. He was doing way too many drugs. Braun reportedly went to see Weiss and told him that Belushi needed psychiatric help. And according to Woodward's book, he then said, you've got to get him off drugs. If you don't get as many movies out of him as possible because he only has two or three years to live. Carrie Fisher estimated that Belushi may have been taking about 4 grams of cocaine a day. That is an unbelievable amount of cocaine. Morris Lyda, a 29 year old, who was originally hired as the road manager for the Blues Brothers band, ended up kind of becoming Belushi's babysitter. He had to wake him up, drive him to up set, somehow try to control his cocaine intake, which he tried to do by withholding cash. But of course, John could just get it from cast, crew or people on the street. Like, this was completely impossible in Chicago to keep him away from it. For her part, Belushi's wife Judy, tried to lay down laws where she could, including at the blues bar that Aykroyd and Belushi had reopened as a private speakeasy. She would tell everyone, no coke at the bar. I know you don't want to hurt John. But Belushi would disappear for days at a time, setting the entire production massively behind schedule, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. And while he was an absolute chaos machine, the movie itself was also an unmitigated disaster. Filming was supposed to have wrapped in mid September, but they were nowhere near done. Lou Wasserman was pissed. He ordered Ned Tannen and Sean Daniel to do anything to get this movie done. And they were just like, listen, we have a problem. It's John Belushi. Like, there's nothing we can do about this. The movie started getting called 1942 after Spielberg's 1941. Also, Spielberg's cameo in this movie is very funny.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Very funny. Well, belushi was in 1941, and so,

[Lizzie Bassett]

yeah, yeah, Landis was too, right?

[Chris Winterbauer]

I don't remember if Landis was, but I just remember Belushi was.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yes, he was. It also became a game of telephone. Wasserman would call Tannen and scream at him, who would call Daniel and scream at him, who would call Dan Aykroyd and beg him to get through to John Belushi, who was still holding up shoot after shoot. And they were in a real pickle because at this point, they felt like they were too far along to shut down production and send Belushi to rehab, which is, of course, absolutely what they should have done, regardless of how far along the movie was. But they could also barely get him to the set. On October 25, 1979, John Landis had fucking had it. The crew was waiting around to start filming again. It was day 64 on location. They were almost done in Chicago, and John Belushi refused to come out of his trailer. So John Landis stomped his little body over to Belushi's trailer, and he busted down the door, and inside he found John Belushi sitting and staring straight Ahead, there was Courvoisier spilled all over. There was urine on the floor. On the table in front of Belushi was a giant mound of cocaine. And according to Woodward's book, Landis shouted, john, you're killing yourself. This is economically unfeasible. Do not do this to my movie. Don't do this to me. Don't do this to Judy. Don't do it to yourself. Now, if accurate, the fact that he led with don't do this to my movie feels very on brand for John Landis. I understand. Yes, I understand.

[Chris Winterbauer]

But, like, if accurate also, who knows how much forethought went into that line?

[Guest or Additional Contributor]

None.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's like you just walk into a room and you say something. I get it.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I get it.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I'm not a John Landis defender.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I'm just saying I get it. I am sympathetic to him around a lot of this. However, the one thing that kept standing out to me over the course of all of this research is that what you should have done. I understand that it was the thing that would have cost you money. It's the thing that might have cost you your career. You should have shut down the production. Like, I'm sorry. Especially given what we're going to talk about. This is not someone who can be in this state at this point.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I don't disagree. I actually don't ultimately think that was on Landis.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Maybe not.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I think that is the studio and the producers, like, now. Should Landis have advocated for it? Maybe.

[Guest or Additional Contributor]

Yes.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Okay, that's fair. But I'm just saying, like, I do have some sympathy here.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I do, too.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Later, where he's 29. Belushi's his peer. He's a bigger star than him.

[Lizzie Bassett]

He's a much bigger star.

[Chris Winterbauer]

He's dealing with an actor with a drug problem. You know, he can't get him to stop. He did check him into Costa before.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I know. But everything that he does seems to be in service of getting these movies made versus actually in service of, like, taking care of John Belushi. And I understand. I understand he's 29. I'm not saying I would do any better than he's doing in this position. I probably wouldn't with the amount of pressure that he's under. But my point is, the economic feasibility of this is not the problem. The problem is that this person is killing themselves.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I don't disagree. But ultimately, I also don't think he's John Belushi's guardian.

[Lizzie Bassett]

He's not, but no one is, which is the problem.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I know this one feels really tricky to me. I do think the studio should have intervened, somebody at some point or a producer at some point. And maybe that just should have been Landis, who knows? My charitable interpretation is he's thinking, we have to finish this goddamn thing.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yes, he is. They are quite far along because that's

[Chris Winterbauer]

the only way I'm gonna get Jon in rehab. You know what I'm saying?

[Lizzie Bassett]

That could be true.

[Chris Winterbauer]

So. So, yeah.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Now, he reportedly threatened to go get the production stills photographer to take a picture of the scene so he could show Belushi what he looked like. He then scooped up the cocaine with his hands and flushed it down the toilet. At which point Belushi, who was way bigger than John Landis, stood up and started staggering towards him. And John Landis punched Jean Belushi in the face hard enough to knock him over. And Landis could not believe what he had just done. As we've said, he is 29 years old. He really only has one hit film under his belt at this point point, which is in no small part due to John Belushi, who he just punched in the face and who also could beat the shit out of him. John Belushi was a big guy, but Belushi started sobbing and said, I'm so ashamed. He hugged Landis and begged him to understand. But Landis was baffled, as was everyone around Belushi. Belushi's wife Judy, showed up a few hours later and realized that even though she'd stolen Quaaludes from him earlier in the day, she hadn't gotten them all. The next day, Belushi again refused to come out and told Landis he would kill him if he didn't leave Belushi's trailer. He then took the remaining Quaaludes that Judy hadn't grabbed, came out to film the scene. Now all he had to do was sit on the edge of a car, smash a bottle and say they had to go to the concert. But within 10 minutes of arriving on set, he passed out and was carried back to his trailer. At which point Judy realized he'd taken somewhere around five Quaaludes, which was an enormous dose, especially coupled with the cocaine and alcohol. And the onset nurse induced vomiting and told Judy to make sure your husband doesn't slip into a coma. I feel so bad for his wife. From taco night in Tulum to sushi

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[Lizzie Bassett]

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[Lizzie Bassett]

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[Chris Winterbauer]

prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

[Lizzie Bassett]

On October 27, 1979, they filmed the final scene in Chicago blowing up the gas station because why not? And then everyone else headed back to Los Angeles for three more months of filming.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Well, because a lot of the big musical numbers, including the church with James Brown, those are all builds on a stage.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's la, they're complicated.

[Chris Winterbauer]

You know, the interior or it's the Hollywood Palladium.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's the big concert. Yeah. Now Belushi actually did seem to do better once they got out of Chicago because, you know, there weren't people literally palming him cocaine every day.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And also the studio can be much more overbearing once you're on the lot,

[Lizzie Bassett]

you know, basically right now in November, they were set to film that big concert at the Hollywood Palladium, which of course is supposed to feature Belushi and Aykroyd doing a choreographed dance, cartwheels, all this stuff except that John Belushi had seen a kid riding by on a skateboard, asked to borrow it promptly fell off and massively knee. So Lou Wasserman had to strong arm the top orthopedist in town on Thanksgiving weekend to postpone his trip to Palm Springs and instead wrap and inject Belushi with painkillers so he could physically get through that finale. I don't know how he's jumping around the way he is. If you watch it though, he does look like he might be in pain,

[Chris Winterbauer]

you know, with Belushi in particular, it's incredible how athletic he was. I don't think we appreciate it or I didn't appreciate it. And there are a lot of physical where I think in part because of our. We all, I think, have a bias against heavier folks.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Chris Farley, I mean, is a huge example of this.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Chris Farley, who is extremely flexible, strong like could jump A surprisingly could jump higher than I can by a mile.

[Guest or Additional Contributor]

Oh yeah.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And Belushi, the way he moves. A, it's so fun and surprising, but B, it's also in such stark contrast to the wonderful stiffness of Dan Aykroyd in this movie.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yes.

[Chris Winterbauer]

That it really enhances that sort of opposite the Odd Couple vibe even as they're both stone faced most of the film.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, it's great. I mean they're a wonderful duo and you can tell that they love each other.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Bassett]

On February 1st, filming finally finally wrapped, and almost immediately, John Belushi went missing. Now to your point. We will give him some credit. John Landis and Belushi's wife wanted him committed in order to detox and receive mental health care. But Belushi's longtime manager, Bernie Brillstein, insisted that this was simply a temporary binge. He was like, we've seen this before. He'll come back from it. It, it's, you know, whatever. And John Landis reportedly replied, you fuck. You can't make money off a corpse. But the biggest problem of all was that Belushi himself was completely unwilling to go to rehab. And it seemed that they could not force him to do it. So instead they hired a personal bodyguard named Richard Smokey Wendell. He was a former Secret Service agent for Nixon and was hired as basically an anti drug bodyguard. This is a side note, but he would later provide the same service to Joe Walsh of the Eagles, this time successful. And out of everyone, it actually seems like he did manage to get through to John Belushi. Belushi told him that he felt he needed the drugs. In order to stay on top of the incredible pressure, he had to always be alert to potential comedy. Meanwhile, the Blues Brothers had clocked in at a whopping $27.5 million. It was massively behind schedule, making it one of the most expensive comedies ever made at that point, I have to

[Chris Winterbauer]

say, and I haven't looked at the numbers in comparison, but for reference, the Empire Strikes Back was, I believe, only about 3 to 6 million dollars more than this movie, which is insane, kind of crazy.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I mean, you do have Carrie Fisher with an RPG launching it into buildings.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I was actually going to say, though, that being said, I think they're comparable. I know that Star wars has a lot more optical effects, but the sheer scale of an American city under siege as they are driving this check to the assessor's office is remarkable. I think for the most part, the money's on the screen.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I agree. And following a very fast edit, it also faced an unexpected distribution issue. As editing finished, Lou Wasserman introduced Landis to a guy named Ted Mann. Now, he was the head of the Mann theaters chain. This owned many of the nation's top theaters. And Mann told Landis, quote, Mr. Landis, we're not booking the Blues Brothers in any of our national or general theaters. We have a theater in Compton where we'll book it, but certainly not in Westwood. And Landis was like, why won't you book it in Westwood? And Mann said, because I don't want any blacks in Westwood. Mann reportedly said that white people are not going to want to see the Blues Brothers quote, mainly because of the musical artists you have. Not only are they black, they are out of fashion. So the Blues Brothers only got about 600 theaters to release it. That's like less than half of what they had expected.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's nothing.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's nothing.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah. Again, we should pull Empire Strikes Back, for example. I think by the time it did its wide release, it was doing 1500 theaters.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I think they expected 14 to 1500 for this.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah. That's crazy.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, 600. Ackroyd and Belushi had also left SNL at this point, potentially reducing their impact on audiences. And the early reviews before it was fully premiered were not good. They were in fact really bad. The Washington Post said. Far from developing into a snappy comedy team before your hopeful, pleasure seeking eyes, Belushi and Aykroyd hold their poses. There is no witty repartee or deft physical interaction. They maintain a presumptuous mind boggling, double deadpan routine for the duration of a starring vehicle that is starving for comic characterization incident and invent for a reason to exist. The seance is relieved only fitfully by a spot of singing and dancing, which helps but adds nothing fresh to the act.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's not wrong in its assessment.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's not wrong and yet it is wrong. I think.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Well, I don't know.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Technically that's correct.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I appreciate this movie now. I think if I was a critic in 1980, I would not have known what to make of it. I really would have just said, I can appreciate the music. I don't get it. I don't think it's that funny. You know what I mean? It's like part of the appeal now to me is how insane it is and the story behind it and is the fact that it just got made, which is crazy. And I do think it's funnier than they're giving it credit for. But my point is, it does not surprise me that there was a very mixed reaction to this movie.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Mixed is kind.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah. From the critics. I mean.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah. One of the only people who seemed to see some sparkle amidst the rubble was Roger Ebert. He said, this is some weird movie. There's never been anything that looked quite like it. Was it dreamed up in a junkyard? What's a little startling about this movie is that all of this works. The Blues Brothers cost untold millions of dollars and kept threatening to grow completely out of control. But director John Landis has somehow pulled it together with a good deal of help from the strongly defined personalities of the title characters. Belushi and Aykroyd come off as hardboiled city guys, total cynics with a worldview of sublime simplicity. And that all fits perfectly with the movie's other parts. There's even room in the midst of the carnage and mayhem for a surprising amount of grace, humor and whimsical. But Belushi's response to the critics was to go on another binge. On June 20, 1980, the film opened, and despite its limited release, it defied all expectations, bringing in $57.2 million in the US and $115 million worldwide on 600 screens. That's really impressive. Not to mention the soundtrack, which was certified platinum, selling over 3.5 million copies.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I wonder if the soundtrack also, I mean, you could argue a disco soundtrack would have done just as well internationally, if not more. But I wonder if the musical elements, comedies, famously don't travel, is how the adage goes in Hollywood. But because this movie does rely so heavily on its musical numbers and very

[Lizzie Bassett]

recognizable music, very American music, very American

[Chris Winterbauer]

music from not just one or two decades prior, but three or four decades prior as well, I wonder if that. Then those become footholds for audience members outside of the United States who may have missed more recent exports like snl. Yeah, but, oh, I do know Ray Charles. Oh, I even remember Cab Calloway. I certainly know Aretha Franklin.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, that's a good point. But unfortunately, John Belushi would never really enjoy the success of the Blues Brothers. He starred in only two more films, both in 1981, neither of which were hits. And finally, on February 28th of 1982, he checked into the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. Now, he was ostensibly working on a screenplay called Noble Rot, a rom com about a robbery scheme in the California wine industry. But it seems like no one, not his manager, not execs at Paramount, nobody was happy with the script. More than that, though, everyone who came to visit him at the Chateau left with the same impression, which is that he was really not okay. He had started doing heroin in addition to cocaine. Now Dan Aykroyd and Judy Belushi were working on a plan to get John back to New York, where they felt they could keep him clean, they could keep an eye on him, they could get him working on something more productive. This would have been Ghostbusters, almost certainly, since Aykroyd was writing that at the time for himself, John Belushi and Bill Murray. But Belushi was impossible to pin down. And on March 4, 1982, Robert De Niro and Harry Dean Stanton stopped by Belushi's bungalow at the chateau to try and get him to come out. And what they saw was disturbing. It was completely trashed, like ripped to shreds. And amongst the rubble was a woman named Kathy Smith. De Niro immediately didn't like her and was happy when Belushi suggested that he and Stanton just leave and come back and meet him later. And later that night, when De Niro returned to the chateau, Robin Williams called him and suggested that they all go meet up at Belushi's bungalow. Bungalow. So they again went and again they did not stay because Robin Williams was too creeped out by what they saw, which also included Kathy Smith. At 8am the next day, a waiter delivered room service to the bungalow and Smith left to run errands. Belushi was asleep. At around noon, Belushi's personal trainer, Bill Wallace arrived and found him unconscious and non responsive. He performed CPR and then called not the police, but Bernie Brillstein. Brillstein responded that perhaps John was just faking it because he didn't want to go to a Paramount meeting later that day.

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Day.

[Lizzie Bassett]

But then Wallace called back and said, no, there's something really wrong with Jon. EMTs finally arrived and they declared Belushi dead at the scene. They did not even try to defibrillate him. It was extremely clear from the needle marks on his arms that he had died of an overdose. He was 33 years old. Bernie Brillstein called Dan Aykroyd first and told him to run over to Judy's house and tell her before it made the news. Aykroyd said, my first impulse was to find Judy as soon as possible. Running down the entire length of Fifth Avenue to their townhouse on Morton Street Street. Arriving at Judy's house, I burst in and saw that she was standing at the fridge and did not know yet. He told people in 2024, having to tell Judy that John was gone, that I'll never forget. That's a piece of trauma that will be with me forever now. Nelson Lyon, who wrote for snl, would later testify that he did see Kathy Smith injecting John Belushi with drugs more than once in the hours leading up to his death. She pled no contest to a charge of involuntary manslaughter and three counts of administering and furnishing narcotics to Belushi. But even at his lowest point, it seems that Dan Aykroyd had Always brought out the best in John Belushi. When he visited him at the chateau shortly before his death, the two were seen staging a mock sword fight in the lobby using two foot long candles as their rapiers. Ackroyd said, quote, I lament that he's not around. It's more than wistfulness. It's a true lamentation. Losing him set me back for a full year, but then I just wanted to go on and do more work and carry on. In 2024, Aykroyd released the Audible original Blues the Arc of Gratitude, which tells the story of making the movie and his friendship with John and about the movie itself. He said, quote, I hope people take away the emotion of the love story between John and myself, but also laughs and knowledge and inspiration that you can still keep doing something you love. And on that bummer of a note, that wraps up our coverage of the Blues Brothers.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Well, thank you, Lizzy, for taking us on that tour of one of the most chaotic productions of the last 46 years.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Definitely.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Would you like to go first with what went wrong?

[Lizzie Bassett]

Right, sure, I'll go first with what went right. I have to admit, I'm in some ways almost tempted to give it to John Landis because I can't believe he got this thing over the finish line. Sure.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Again, my problems with him, they don't exist in the current timeline yet. You see what I'm saying? You know what I mean with this movie. So I think that's totally fair. It wouldn't come until Twilight Zoned the movie.

[Lizzie Bassett]

But I just can't do that because it's John Landis. So I.

[Chris Winterbauer]

But he did.

[Lizzie Bassett]

No, he did. It deserves acknowledgement.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's crazy. Well directed, especially for the leap in scale that he made with this movie.

[Lizzie Bassett]

And not only that, but the fact that he was dealing with what he was dealing with on this, the fact that they got it done, like, yes, he deserves an enormous amount of credit for that. I don't like him. I still think that every single quote we saw about this, he was referencing the financial repercussions of John Belushi killing himself. Just putting that out there. But, you know, I understand the pressure that he was under, but I am not gonna give it to him because he's John Landis. I will give it instead to Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi because they didn't let rules, reason, story, plot. They didn't let anything get in the way.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I'm not sure they were aware of those things when they wrote this or at least when Aykroyd wrote the first

[Lizzie Bassett]

draft, I just, I love that they were like, you know what? We love the blues. We love being together. We love playing together. Like, we love experiencing this music. We are, are famous now and we want to use our fame and our money to platform these artists. We want to use it to just make a movie that's just fun, where we just get to have fun and expose people to the kind of music that we love. Does it make sense? No. Is it technically a good movie? I don't know. But I'm glad that they did it and I'm glad that they just never gave up. And, you know, I think they're totally delusional when you think about the trajectory of this, you have to be to a certain extent to achieve what they did. And I love that. I love how much they loved each other. And it is so fun to watch them together on screen.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Well, I will then give mine primarily. So I want to pin this person's name because they were my favorite of this category to Cab Calloway.

[Lizzie Bassett]

He's great.

[Chris Winterbauer]

He's fantastic. In this movie. I watched some of the old. Well, I remember when we were watching the Cotton Club, I went back and you can find not exactly those performances, but some later performances from those artists. And I love that time period anyway, by extension, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and then also Steve the Colonel Cropper, Donald Duck Dunn, Murphy Dunn, Willie Too Big Hall, Tom Bones, Malone, Blue Lou Marini, Matt guitar Murphy, Mr. Fabulous, Alan Rubin and more in this movie. All of the musicians are wonderful and they make it timeless.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Also John Lee Hooker.

[Chris Winterbauer]

John Lee Hooker, yeah, he's playing the seal string right on the street when they come through.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, he's playing his own song. He's playing that boom, boom, boom, boom. Ahahaha.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Yeah, exactly.

[Lizzie Bassett]

It's incredible.

[Chris Winterbauer]

It's great. Well, Lizzie, if folks are enjoying this podcast and they want to get bummed out some more.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I know, I'm sorry, you got to know, anytime you cover a John Landis movie, it's going to be a bummer.

[Chris Winterbauer]

You're picking a lot where people die at the end. I mean, it's been.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Yeah, I guess that's true. It wasn't intentional. This connection was Chicago. In my defense. Sure it was. Lower Whacker Drive. I didn't really think about that, but yes.

[Chris Winterbauer]

No, but two great movies back to back. Yes, Lizzy. Well, if folks are enjoying this podcast, how can they support it?

[Lizzie Bassett]

Well, you can tell a friend or family member, hey, Lizzie's been choosing some bummers of episodes but usually this podcast is great. You can leave us a rating or review on whatever podcast you are listening to this on. You can now subscribe on both Apple and Spotify where you will get at least one bonus episode every month. Usually it's more we're really enjoying doing these. This month we will be continuing Anne Hathaway Summer with the end of Oak street because we have to. I think we're contractually obligated to at this point point and we'll probably do some more as well. And then if you would like an ad free feed in addition to the bonus episodes you can get that on Spotify. If you would like everything that I just mentioned plus access to the fan community where we love talking to you guys, you can go to patreon.com what Went Wrong podcast and join there for $5 and if that's not enough then for $50 a month you can get a Blues Brothers shout out just like one of these. We're so glad to see so many of you lovely people here tonight and we would especially like to welcome all of the Full Stop patrons like Adrian Pang Korea, Alex Barrett, Angeline Renee Cook

[Guest or Additional Contributor]

Ben Shindleman Blaze Ambrose Brian Donahue Brittany Morris Brooke Cameron Smith See Grace B Chris Galler the G Is Silent Chris Le David Priscalante Darren Adale Con Don Chapel Amazonia Evan Downey Felicia G Film It Yourself Frankenstein Galen and Miguel the Broken Glass Kids the cast and crew

[Lizzie Bassett]

on a Trip to Browntown

[Guest or Additional Contributor]

Half Greyhound I have the biggest man crush on Chris Winterbauer. Not really.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Jenny McAvoy

[Guest or Additional Contributor]

Jason Frankel JJ Rabino John D. Wilshire Jory Hillpiper Jose Milano Salto Del Giorgio Karina Canava Kate Elrington Amy Elga Schlage of a cord Lana LJ Lousy Susan Lydia Howes Mark Bertha Matthew Jacobson Michael McGrath Nate Ashley Nate the Ninth Rosemary Southworth Royal Jared Sadie Jose Scott Osheda Solomon Shainani Kobe Donna Suzanne Johnson the Provost family they are.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts and have a great night.

[Chris Winterbauer]

Well, if I wasn't on a mission from God before, I certainly am now and Lizzy next week we're on a mission to hell. We are going to the depths of the ocean where with a shipwreck of a movie that has been long requested. I think people have been frustrated that we have not covered this movie yet, but we are trying to save some of these enormous debacles because we don't want to blow through all of them too quickly. But it's time to go to Cutthroat Island.

[Lizzie Bassett]

I can't wait.

[Chris Winterbauer]

And just witness all the career throats that were slit on Cutthroat Island. I'm really excited. We did cover Pirates of the Caribbean. We also did a primer on pirates. If you guys are interested. You can listen to those ahead of time. Mostly the primer. There's a little context that could be useful going into this episode, but I'm excited. We haven't done a Renny Harlan film yet. We have a lot of his to get through this one. You know, this is a movie. I like this movie despite the kind of negative aura around it. And I'm really excited to talk about it because I think it is as much a victim of timing, circumstance. Right. You know, as any other that we've covered. And I don't know why it seems like Geena Davis was left holding the bag on this one.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Unfair. We love Gina.

[Chris Winterbauer]

I'm excited to talk about it.

[Lizzie Bassett]

All right, Geena Davis, summer coming your way.

[Chris Winterbauer]

All right, guys, until next week, stay safe, stay out of the heat, and we'll talk to you soon.

[Lizzie Bassett]

Bye. What Went Wrong is a sad boom podcast presented by Lizzie Bassett and Chris Winterbauer. Post production and music by David Bowman. This episode was researched by Laura woods and edited by Karen Krupso. By the way, folks, you may hear a baby screaming in the background. It's mine. I apologize for it. She's not gonna stop, so we're just gonna keep going, just like the Blues Brothers would want us to. Sam.