Ep. 117 Larry Dorf: Adnan Syed, Morally Dubious Podcasters, a Prison Sentence Game Show and 2 Documentaries

Welcome to another episode of The Modern Moron… my guest is producer, writer, actor Larry Dorf, yes, that Larry Dorf.  We have a very light early fall chat about a few subjects, namely: 

We talk a little about some of the Modern Moron’s more successful shows, one being on Phil Hendrie and his mastery of deception with his characters improvising with each other and his work on various animation projects from King of the Hill to Rick and Morty.  

I refer to a story Larry told about an audition he had where he was being asked to play NBA legend Larry Bird’s father, a story I will get to next time.  I’m sort of giving you this conversation backwards and here’s why.

Larry Brings up Adnan Syed, who has been released from prison after doing 20 years for a murder he did not commit.  His story was made famous by a podcast called “Serial” which was developed by “This American Life” that you know from NPR.  The podcast “Serial” is owned however, by The New York Times.

You already know I’m a moron, so you won’t be surprised to find that I am way late to the party on damn near everything and such is the case with the show “Only Murders In The Building”, which is a show about a podcast about a murder.  It’s on Hulu and is into production of it’s 4th season and I’m told that the show was based on the real podcast “Serial”.  I didn’t realize how much… you hear that?  That’s the theme music of the podcast “Serial” about Adnan Syed…

And this… is the theme song to the Hulu series, “Only Murders in the Building”... Jezz, they could have at leas changed the key it’s played in right?

This brings up a subject I’ve been wanting to get to for some time and it’s the concept of the Morally Dubious Podcaster.  It probably has other names, but i found an article with that phrase and I thought, “Morally Dubious?  Modern Moron”  They’re synonymous. I read an article, have an unqualified opinion about it, say it into a microphone, bam; Morally dubious podcaster.  Only I’m not a celebrity and I don’t have guests who are celebrities so, there’s only the two of you listening and it works out about the same, just on a much, much smaller scale.  Plus I’m not pretending to try and crack a cold case or find a murderer.  

So, Larry explains to me the case of Adnon Syed, and I’m oblivious as you can hear… like a typical old man, I can’t seem to get the story straight… 

Then Larry turns this into a potential gameshow along the lines of, “How much prison time would you do for a million dollars?”   This is what Hollywood people do for a living.

We join our conversation basking in the glory of the first episode Larry did with us called “The Mystery of Mike Tyson” referring to the Adult Swim Animated series “Mike Tyson Mysteries” which is still our most downloaded episode.  Until this one… 

CLOSE - And that, friends, is how a game show is created…  in South Korea.  Isn’t that a little like the show “Squidgame”?  I couldn’t stick with that show… it was too sad and dark for me.  I have enough of that crap running around in my head without watching a tv show about it.  

Now that I’ve had two seconds to think about it, I would not do any time in a prison for any amount of money.  The subculture that goes on in prison is not something I want to pretend like I could tolerate even for a minute.  I did look up some of the lovely prisons both in California and across the country.  Pelican Bay and San Quentin are both nasty, gnarly prisons and so is the downtown county jail in Los Angeles.  Other residences I would not spend a minute in for any amount of money is the ADX, also known as the SuperMax in Colorado.  One article I read on the internet-so-it’s-true… says that the structure is built in a way that inmates never see a guard or another prisoner.  I don’t know if it’s true, I don’t want to know, I just trust that I don’t want to go there.  Throw in Sing, Sing and Rikers Island in New York, and a few of the prisons in the deep south like The Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama and it just makes me want to be a law abiding citizen.  Why am I going on and on about prisons?  Well, I see in the news recently that a real sweetheart of a guy named Steve Bannon has been recommended to spend four months in prison for contempt of congress.  Hmm.  I wonder if one of the neighborhoods I just mentioned might be a good place for him?  Is anyone else thinking of the movie Deliverance right now?  Does anyone see a similarity between Ned Beaty’s character and Steve Bannon?... 

A couple of housekeeping items I’d like to pass along starting with two documentaries I’d like to recommend.. 

The first one is called “A Trip to Infinity” on Netflix.  I found it fascinating, I’ve watched it twice and am currently forcing my daughter to watch it in 10 minute increments.  Mathematicians, Cosmologists and physicists contemplate the concept of infinity… and it’s broken up into different chapters: Infinity is very small, it’s very large,infinity as a number in an equation, that the speed of light is both very fast and also very slow, that a circle is actually a polygon with an infinite number of points and in terms of time, infinity is a very very long time and that if you put an apple in an air tight box and wait for infinity years, that apple will eventually morph into anything and everything you could possibly imagine.  Even live versions of Rick and Morty.  So I highly recommend “A Trip to Infinity.”

The other documentary is called “All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records”.  This subject matter is perfect for our demographic!  I’m sure you spent hours in Tower Records going up and down the isles looking at the amazing Album art that we took for granted then.  Isle after isle until you decided which album you were going to plunk down five dollars and change for, and then I think seven or eight and change and then I lost track.  But that was an important purchase.  And then I would have to sneak by the living room with my bright yellow and red plastic bag hoping my parents wouldn’t ask me what I got.  They never did, but if my dad knew I was buying Cheech and Chong, Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy albums?  No way.  

And we also had Tower Books and Tower Posters across the street which was actually a head shop where you got everything from bongs to rolling paper to posters of fruits and vegetables doing disgusting things, incense, trippy candles with psychedelic waxes, macrame’d hanging plant holders… Tower records was the best.  The documentary is available on YouTube and I believe right now you can stream it for free. 

It’s a great documentary.  The only woman who made it as an executive at Tower back in the 70’s put it best when she said that whatever Tower records was the one you went to, you thought it was the first Tower Records they ever had.  The documentary is directed by Tom Hanks’ son Colin and he does a great job bringing the nostalgia of Tower Records back, whether you found their store in San Francisco on Columbus Avenue or the one on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, Greenwich Village in New York or wherever you grew up, there was probably a Tower Records where you hung out.

Elton John, Bruce Srpingsteen and Dave Grohl, who also worked at a Tower Records in Seattle, all reminisce about how special it was to roam the isles of a Tower Records.  Hanks also does a good job of not letting the documentary end on a downer, even though the internet and a little thing called Napster caused the Tower to crumble, the Japanese stores became independent and are still huge today. 

Okay sports fans, that’s it, enjoy post season baseball, college football and lots of Halloween candy!  We’ll see you next time on the Modern Moron and… the old man show at the oldman-dot-show.

The Rise of the 'Morally Dubious Podcaster' in Pop Culture | KQED 

All Things Must Pass (1080p) FULL MOVIE - Documentary, Music - YouTube  

A Trip To Infinity - Netflix