Blank Check with Griffin & David

Start spreadin' the news, we're podding today... Broadway icon (and newly minted Disney Legend!) Lin-Manuel Miranda joins us to talk about what is possibly Scorsese's biggest bounce - 1977's New York, New York. Cocaine, unchecked ambition, and a misguided attempt to try and get Liza Minnelli to do improv led Marty to some dark places. But hey - at least Robert De Niro learned how to play the saxophone! Expect lots of Broadway talk on this episode - with, of course, much props to the "Homie John Kander." Check out the Disney Legends alongside Lin Read Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You Watch Mick respond to Mulaney  Watch The Songwriters: An Evening with The Homie John Kander & Fred Ebb Read Colored Lights Check out The Drama Bookshop Theme from Blank Check, Blank Check Produced and mixed by “Synth Horn Savant" Kyle Joseph Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You poddin' to me? Well, listener, actually - we are podding to you. For nearly FOUR HOURS. The great Tracy Letts joins us to talk about Scorsese's monumental Taxi Driver, a film that is both fully ingrained in the American psyche and completely surprising and effective on every rewatch. Of course we're gonna spend our longest episode ever talking about it! This week, we discuss Paul Schrader's "God's Lonely Man" fixation, Ben's uncle's experiences as a New York City cab driver, the 1976 Oscars, Taxi Driver's themes of male loneliness and white supremacy, the incredible performances of Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, and how totally normal it is to go to a porno theater on your second date. Oh, and there's plenty of physical media talk. Taxi Driver discussion begins at 46:52 Listen to the 1976 Draft ep of the Big Picture Check out MVD Marquee / Radiant / Vinegar Syndrom Buy The Haunting to listen to Tracy and Sean do a commentary Watch Bette Davis and Robert Wise, Oscars 1987 Watch "The King of Horror" Read Transcendental Style in Film Read You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again Read Drama: An Actor's Education Read Night-Shifting for the Hip Fleet “By Mark Jacobson Listen to Marty go Hogg wild Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Martin Scorsese doesn't make movies about women" - WRONG. "Martin Scorsese doesn't make movies that would work as a long-running workplace sitcom" - ALSO WRONG. Katey Rich joins us to chat about Scorsese's unexpected follow-up to Mean Streets, 1974's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. We're talking diners, Ellen Burstyn, parenting strategies, "women's pictures," and far more Hootie & The Blowfish than you'd expect from this episode. We're also not "trying silence," okay? Buy the Hootie and the Blowfish shirt Katey (and David) have.  Listen to the Screen Draft eps with Griffin and Katey. Read about how Katherine LaNasa says Ghost of Ex-Husband Dennis Hopper Haunted Her: 'It Was Super Upsetting.' Read Vincent Canby’s review. Subscribe to Prestige Junkie at the Ankler and Fighting in the War Room. Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're heading to Little Italy's San Gennaro festival this week with Griffy Parm, David Bags, and the great Miriam Bale as we chat about 1973's Mean Streets - a major breakthrough for both Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro. Join us as we chat about the seismic impact this film had on American cinema, DeNiro's screen persona, those iconic needledrops, and the ways racism and misogyny permeate the film's atmosphere. Also - did you know this movie was mostly filmed in Los Angeles!?! Listen to Bobby on Off Menu Follow @judis.annie on Instagram Read the Next Scorsese series in Esquire Listen to SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Knock knock! Who's there? MARTY, THAT'S WHO! Welcome to the first installment in PODCASTFELLAS - our supersized series on the films of short king and Italian-American asthmatic Martin Scorsese. This guy made some pretty good movies, huh. This week, Griffin, David, and Ben discuss Scorsese's Little Italy upbringing and his two first features - 1967's Who's That Knocking at My Door? and 1972's Boxcar Bertha. One feels like a film school parody of Scorsese movie. The other, a not-scuzzy-enough exploitation picture. Neither really feel like his true debut. Check out Mostly True: The West's Most Popular Hobo Graffiti Magazine by Bill Daniel Author Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices