The Toys That Made Us - Brian Volk-Weiss

"It's like I'm living in a movie. I can't believe this has happened. I literally cannot believe this has happened." Brian Volk-Weiss, Comedy Dynamics, The Toys That Made Us, The Movies That Made Us.

PREVIEW:

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ABOUT BRIAN VOLK-WEISS:

The creator of The Toys That Made Us returns again for the third time on the podcast. (Hear his first interview here, and his second interview here.) Catch up with Brian as he lays out the exciting third season of the Netflix series, this time featuring the toys of Power Rangers, Wrestling, My Little Pony, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This series has become a favorite with Netflix viewers and people seeking the nostalgia of the toys of their youth while pulling back the curtain on some of the greatest toy lines ever created.

I also talk with Brian about the upcoming spinoff The Movies That Made Us, premiering on Netflix on November 29th 2019. This will follow the same formula as Toys, but dive deep into the creation of classic movies like Die Hard, Ghostbusters, Dirty Dancing and Home Alone.

Finally, Brian reveals a brand new project he is working on with Disney + to feature the Disney parks and attractions and will be hosted by none other than Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock.

TRANSCRIPT:

Jeff: Brian, I'm so happy that I got you back here for the third time. You are in a very, very elite company. There's only a few people who have been a third-timer are on this show, which is pretty rad. And-

Brian: [inaudible 00:00:00:14].

Jeff: I'm really excited to just talk about what's about to hit on the 15th, the third season of Toys That Made Us, because going back to your first appearance on this show, we were talking about how... That was right before season one started, and you were really excited about it. You had all these ideas and were hoping that it was going to be received well. I knew it was going to be received well. I mean, it's a killer, killer show. But one of the coolest things was, is you had all the ideas for other toy lines you wanted to do if you could get picked up for the next season. And now in season three, I'm seeing those happen. How exciting is this, that it's continuing?

Brian: I mean, magical. I'll tell you, it's so funny, man. I was at Comic Con this year, San Diego Comic Con, for the second time, and last year... I mean, I never thought I'd be on a panel at Comic Con, ever.

Jeff: So cool.

Brian: So, last year we were invited. We did it. It was 500 people, and it was like the greatest thing ever. Then they invited us back, which, sometimes I think it's better to be invited back than even invited the first time. [crosstalk 00:01:30]

Jeff: Right, right.

Brian: So we go back, they upgraded us to a room with 2,500 people. And I'm sitting up there looking at this giant room. And we did this trailer for Movies That Made Us, where... I don't know if you remember this or not. I don't know. You might be too young. But my inspiration was... Did you ever see that Clint Eastwood movie, In the Line of Fire?

Jeff: Yeah. Love that movie. I own it on VHS, actually.

Brian: Do you remember by any chance the trailer they did for the movie?

Jeff: That's going far back. No, not of not off the top of my head.

Brian: It was a brilliant trailer. I never forgot it, because what it did in the trailer was, the whole trailer, if you remember, his character was, I think, partially to blame for Kennedy being assassinated.

Jeff: Basically, yeah.

Brian: So the whole trailer is like, here's this guy. It's his fault JFK got killed. And the whole trailer is showing the numbers 1963, 1963. And the whole trailer you, see this thing like [inaudible 00:02:38] turning, and you don't know what it is. And then at the end of the trailer, you realize the six in 1963 was rotating to become a nine, because the movie came out in 1993.

Brian: We did a similar gag where when we... And nobody even knew Toys That Made Us was coming. So we did this trailer that showed... It showed like little clips from Movies That Made Us, and then it showed the Toys That Made Us symbol, and it said, "From the people that brought you the toys that made us," and then we did the same gag where Toys That Made Us was like... Or, sorry. Toys. The word toys was like [inaudible 00:03:24] And then [inaudible 00:03:26] movies appeared. Dude, there was over 2,500 people in that room. There was a pause where no one reacted, and then over 2,500 people went crazy. Like, the lights were out. I started crying.

Brian: Back to your question. Back to your point at the beginning. Just so you know why I'm rambling like this, basically from the moment within reason that the show got green-lit up until that moment where everybody was cheering like that, I have been saying over and over again, anytime someone says what you said earlier, like, "Hey, we knew it would work, and yeah yeah." The whole time, I'm like, "This has been surreal. This has been surreal." That's the word I've been using. After the lights came back on, and I'm literally drying my cheeks from crying, I upgraded it. And I mean this. It was an involuntary thought. "It's like I'm living in a movie." I can't believe this has happened. I literally cannot believe this has happened.

Jeff: That's awesome. And that's one of the coolest things of being able to talk to someone like you, because I've been able to kind of see you go through this journey with Toys That Made Us, and it's something that... It wasn't just an idea that hits your desk and you're like, "Let's just try to make this happen." This was a passion project for you from the beginning, from the inception of the idea. And to be able to pour yourself into that, and to cross your fingers and toes and hope that it works out the way that you would love for it to work out, and to now be into season three, that just... As a fan, that makes me so happy for you, and it's also so amazing to see someone who is creative and passionate about something and have it come to fruition like this.

Brian: Well, I'm living it, so imagine how I feel. Yeah. We're doing this show now for Disney+ with The Rock. Would not have happened without Toys That Made Us. I mean, the entire thing happened because The Rock loved Toys That Made Us. His people reached out to us to get in business. That's how much he loved the show. And the guys running Disney+ are all huge fans of the show. So it's literally changed everything about my day-to-day business life.

Jeff: That's so awesome. And going back to season one, obviously, as a fan, that had four great episodes. Obviously my favorite was Star Wars, because I'm such a Star Wars nerd. In season two, my favorite episode is the most surprising episode ever is the Hello Kitty episode, because I had next to no information about that line and now know so much little nuances about how Hello Kitty came to be and learned so much from that. And I'm so excited for season three. I mean, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a huge part of my childhood, but wrestling, My Little Pony, and Power Rangers also to just make this succinct thing. And again, going back to your first appearance on this show, two of those were things that you were surprised about. You were telling us that, how surprising it was when you were looking into Power Rangers and wrestling and the core audiences behind that and the toys that came out of that. Now into season three, are you still getting surprised by the show, by making the show?

Brian: Absolutely. I mean, yeah. I mean, there's no way around that, because first of all, the thing that's so interesting about the toy world is... It was funny, doing Movies That Made Us allowed me to have a point of view on Toys That Made Us that I... Because with The Movies That Made Us, it made me appreciate that with movies, everybody always wants to talk about it. So we would go to the actors, the producers, the directors, and they're like, "I can't talk about Die Hard anymore. I've been talking about Die Hard 40 years. I got nothing." But then you've got someone like Jim Swearingen, who contributed as much to my childhood is anybody. All that guy wants to do is tell his secrets and his stories and everything. So everyone we talked to, especially people we hadn't talked to before, especially for the My Little Pony episode and even to a certain extent the wrestling episode, I mean, we got a lot of scoop.

Brian: And you know, one of the things that was also great about season three... If you remember, we shot seasons one and two simultaneously, so we didn't really have any extra help in season two from season one, because we did them at the same time. Season three, a great example is Saban. Saban does not like doing interviews, period. His least favorite interviews to do on Earth are about Power Rangers. [inaudible 00:08:50] He's been talking about it for 30 years.

Jeff: It's true.

Brian: His people reached out to us to say, "How come you did My Little Pony? How come you did Hello kitty and Star Trek and not power Rangers? You need to do Power Rangers." So we got an interview with him without even trying, where I guarantee you, if power Rangers was in season one or two, we wouldn't have gotten Saban. He watched the show and loved it because of the comedy and the pathos. So even when we interviewed him, all his people were like, "Including setup, you have an hour." Like, "You have an hour. You have an hour. You have an hour." We were with him for almost three hours. His people would hand him notes, and he'd be like, "Get out of here." He couldn't have been happier.

Brian: And part of it was he loved the like storytelling style that we use, but the other thing, which was really interesting, which he told me after the interview, was he could tell we had done the research, and he was like "Eight out of every 10 questions people asked, I have never been asked before." And that's why it went almost three hours, because he'd never been asked. And the reason we were able to do that is because we do pre-interviews for months, and we're able to... We'll talk to John Doe or Jane Doe, and they worked on power Rangers for nine months in 1992, but they had a great story. So we spend the time talking to them, and then that allows us to go to him and say, "Hey, what about this?" And he's like, "I haven't thought about that in 30 years. Oh my God. I'll tell you what really happened." So we got a lot of scoop.

Jeff: That's so exciting. I have to ask then, from the model you did seasons one and two, did you shoot season four alongside season three?

Brian: No.

Jeff: No.

Brian: Unfortunately, no. Unfortunately, no.

Jeff: All right, well, fingers crossed we'll get it.

Brian: We did Movies That Made Us simultaneously, so we did do another eight, but it was half toys, half movies.

Jeff: Got you, got you. And before we get into movies, I do want to mention, what's amazing about toys that made us, and again, premiering on Netflix on the 15th of this month, and what's amazing about that entire series is the work that you and your team put into this. It's not just, "Let's find the guy who created He-Man and asked him the He-Man questions that everybody asked, and we'll put that out, and hopefully people watch it." You can tell that you put the work behind it, and you have hours and hours and hours of footage and interviews to really whittle down into these episodes. But what's so exciting is, and it's sitting right behind you I see, is that you've came out with seasons one and two on Blu-ray and DVD, which is so exciting, because as a giant special features fan, I know that you included a lot of special features on there too.

Brian: Do you have one?

Jeff: I do not.

Brian: Okay, good. Do do not buy one. You will have one before the weekend.

Jeff: You are my hero.

Brian: Yes. You take care of us, man. You guys really take care of us, so it's the least we can do. We'll send you a nice little package.

Jeff: We love keeping you guys caffeinated, because you make some of our favorite entertainment for sure

Brian: [crosstalk 00:12:20] my wife, definitely a big fan of yours.

Jeff: Was it a no-brainer to put out season one and two on a collection like that with extra features? Or was that like a hard road to go around? Because a lot of Netflix shows don't do that really.

Brian: Yeah. We did not have the rights initially. I had to go to Netflix and, for lack of a better word... I mean, it's funny, I was about to make a joke. I was about to say, for lack of a better word, I had to beg them. But I really didn't have to beg them. There's a lawyer at Netflix who covers... I think we have five shows at Netflix now. So he covers all of our shows. He's the guy, by the way, his name's Tom, he's the guy that... And this is when I was like, "Wow, Netflix is amazing." When we were green-lit for season one, we literally had to start cold calling Hasbro and Mattel and Lego. And all of them were like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give us a letter from Netflix. Yeah, sure, sure Netflix is doing this." And he's the guy called, I mean, within an hour I had a letter with a phone number, and like half the companies called him, and he was like, "Yeah, yeah, it's real."

Brian: So I asked him if we could have the Blu-ray DVD, the ancillary rights. He spoke to the boss and a couple of other people, and I think we got the deal done in less than two weeks. So again, that's the beauty of Netflix, which is, they're like this big, strong company, but they still in a really good way have a mom and pop vibe about them. I mean, believe me, no other company could I have gone... Lik I couldn't have gone to whatever and been like, "Hey, can I have the rights that I don't have?" And [crosstalk 00:14:14]. So they were very generous and let us do it.

Jeff: That's excellent. And just for all of our fans and listeners out there, it is chock-full of extra stuff in there too, right? On the Blu-ray?

Brian: Yes.

Jeff: I am so [inaudible 00:14:31]

Brian: I would have done even more. And by the way, I mean, I can actually tell you now, it's selling really well, so I can all but guarantee next year, even if there is never a season four, which I hope there will be, but even if there's not a season four, we would put out a new Blu-ray that includes season three, and then we'd put season three extras. But there's a lot of extras from seasons one and two. Like it's funny you brought up Hello Kitty. Dude, we could do a two-hour documentary about the making of that episode. I mean, it was bananas.

Jeff: I believe it.

Brian: So yeah. We will almost definitely put out another Blu-ray next year.

Jeff: That's so, so exciting. Well, I'm so happy for the success of Toys.

Brian: Thanks.

Jeff: Because again, it is such a cool idea, and it comes from someone who's very passionate about it, and it shows, and that's what's really awesome. And the other side of that is the big announcement, is The Movies That Made Us. I'm so excited for this, because it's that same model, that same level of passion and creativity behind it, but now from the movie side. And for my listeners and viewers who might not know and might not have heard about it, season one is going to include Die Hard, Ghostbusters, Dirty Dancing, and Home Alone. I got to ask, how did you whittle down the plethora of movies to come up with those four to kick off this show?

Brian: So we knew it was going to be a holiday release. So people are like, "Brian, you don't shut up about Robocop. Why didn't you do Robocop?"

Jeff: Exactly.

Brian: No, believe me, believe me, it's painful that we didn't do Robocop. But Home Alone is holidays. Die Hard his holidays I did Ghostbusters because it was comedy, quote unquote, "horror," and also it felt right for what the others we were doing. And for me, Dirty Dancing was always a holiday movie too, because when I was growing up, I was a part of this big group of people, and every New Year's and Christmas, when the parents were getting drunk, we would be sitting there watching... The dudes would watch Star Wars. The girls would watch Dirty Dancing. And not separately. Like, we'd watch one first, then the other. For years. I mean, probably between me being 10 and 18, every Christmas, every New Year's, those were the two movies we were watching. So that's why I chose Dirty Dancing.

Jeff: I totally agree. Same kind of thing growing up, especially around Thanksgiving time, Dirty Dancing was not always on either television or on VHS, but it was one of my mother's favorite soundtracks. So when we would be driving to the grandparents for Christmas or for Thanksgiving or something like that, we'd be listening to that, and then subsequently watch the movie usually later that day. And so it was always around the holiday too. So that makes a ton of sense. Did you attack this show with... Is it the same crew from Toys doing Movies?

Brian: Oh, almost the exact same team. Robin Henry was a producer on seasons one and two, and she was the show runner for season three. So stuff like that. Ben Frost, who edited seasons one and two, he edited season three. So same with Nick. So I'd say 90% of the team came back.

Jeff: That's awesome. That's awesome. And you know, all this stuff that we've talked about through the different seasons of Toys is, it's always about how surprising a lot of it is, either the people that you're meeting or the information. Like one of my favorite stories is when you guys went over and met everybody that literally created Transformers and were bringing out binders of things to show you guys, and just how mind-blowing it was to be in that room with all of this stuff. Did you get that same feeling on making Movies? And I only say that because some of these movies are the most iconic movies in the world. You said it earlier, like the one guy just has been talking about Die Hard for 40 freaking years. Are you still finding new stuff, and is it still surprising?

Brian: Oh dude, we found tons of new stuff. I mean, I'll give you two different examples. So Home Alone. I've known for a long time that Home Alone was, quote unquote, "shot in a school". You read that, like, "It was shot in a school." You don't really think about it. So then we go to the school, and we're in the school, and we brought the old line producer back, and for example, we went into the swimming pool area of the school, and he's like, "Yeah, yeah. You see that pool?" And I'm like, "Yeah." He's like, "That's where we shot. That's where we built the basement set. You know when Kevin is in the basement and the fireplace is-"

Jeff: Yeah.

Brian: "We built that in the pool."

Jeff: What?

Brian: And we're sitting there. So like I said, my whole life I had heard they shot it at a school, and I just never really put two and two together. But now I'm sitting here and looking at a pool that's in use. The school's still being used. And you're like, "That's where Kevin was talking to the fireplace?" And you're like, "Well, why there?" The gymnasium is where the house was built. They built the entire first and second stories in the gym. And using graphics and stuff, like we started sort of in the Lego episode, we're able to juxtapose the set into the pool, juxtapose the set into the gym. So you could really see how crazy this was that they shot... It was literally summer break. The school wasn't being used, and John Hughes was like, "Why don't we just shoot it in a school?" So it was stuff like that. So that was one thing.

Brian: I'm actually going to tell you three stories, if you don't' mind.

Jeff: Excellent.

Brian: The other one is with Die Hard. And you know, it was funny, man. It's funny. Watch this. The modern technology. Watch this. Let's see here. So do you see this [crosstalk 00:21:22].

Jeff: Frank Sinatra's Die Hard?

Brian: So you see that?

Jeff: Yeah, I do.

Brian: So that's the actual poster that sold the show. So after season two did well, Netflix asked me to come in and pitch other ideas. So I pitched two ideas. The other one didn't go so far. But that's the poster that sold the show. And based on your reaction, you don't know why the fuck is Sinatra? Yeah. So a lot of people don't know this. And it's, again, back to your question, what did we learn and that stuff. Die hard is a sequel to a movie that came out in the '70s that starred Sinatra.

Jeff: Really?

Brian: And Sinatra had the rights to play John McClane.

Jeff: What?

Brian: So they had to offer it to him. He did say yes, and then he was like, "Yeah, you know what? I'm 74. Maybe I shouldn't be jumping through windows." And that, him passing, is what ultimately of course led to Bruce Willis. But that's the poster that got the show sold. And it's like little facts like that, that some people know that, some people don't. I'd say only 1% of Die Hard fans probably know that. By the way, the original movie, the first one that Die Hard is a sequel to, is literally... It's literally like Sinatra saw Death Wish and was like-

Jeff: [crosstalk 00:23:03].

Brian: Said to his agent, "You see what Bronson's doing? I want to do that."

Jeff: Oh my god.

Brian: And that's what it is. It's this crazy dark, violent, violent, violent movie. In the original book that Die Hard's based on, it's his daughter that he's trying to rescue, and she gets killed at the end. She literally falls off the roof of the building. So the way Hans Gruber falls off, his daughter is the one who falls off. And his wife, I think, gets killed too.

Jeff: Oh my god.

Brian: It's like the most violent, horrible thing ever. So that was on the Die Hard thing, where it was just, we flew all over the country interviewing all these people, and you put the story together piece by piece, and then you do your best to turn it into an interesting episode.

Brian: And then also on Die Hard, we had to track down... What's his name? Kevin... Not Kevin Reynolds. What's his name who directed Die Hard? John McTiernan. So I'm [crosstalk 00:24:06]

Jeff: John McTiernan, yes.

Brian: I don't know if you know this or not. John McTiernan is... I'm not positive, but I think he's evading the law. Like there's some tax people trying to get him. So he was like, "I'll meet you in Denver. After you land, text me. I'll tell you what hotel to go to." So we had to go to Denver, land, had no idea where to go. He texts us the name of a hotel. We go to the hotel. Luckily, their conference room was available. We rented it, and then he showed up an hour later, and we interviewed him. Like that kind of shit. Yeah. So that was the kind of stuff on Movies that did not happen during Toys.

Jeff: That's so exciting.

Brian: Who was evading the law on Toys That Made Us?

Jeff: No one. And just because it's not at the tip of my tongue, what is the release date of Movies?

Brian: November 29th.

Jeff: November 29th. Can't wait. Right around the corner, which is so, so exciting. And you mentioned this earlier while we were talking, and I wanted to bring it up, because we're talking on the day, the day that the juggernaut has been released to the masses, Disney+. And I know you're like me. You can't wait to clock out tonight and go home and hit play.

Brian: It's on my schedule. Literally written on my work schedule. At 8:00, The Mandalorian.

Jeff: Yep, me too. No joke. As soon as I get home, that's going to be the first thing I do. And you said that you're going to be working on a show with The Rock that came from his love of Toys. Can you talk about that at all?

Brian: So it's so funny, man. I'm online at LAX at 5:00 the morning and I get a text from the head of our accounting department, Daisy. And I'm freaked out, because she never texts me like 5:00 in the morning. [inaudible 00:25:58] So I'm like, "Oh fuck. Did someone steal all our money?" But she had texted me a screenshot of the Rock's Instagram account, which sucks, because I already followed him. So Daisy does not think... She didn't think I'm cool enough to follow The Rock, is what she was saying. But no, The Rock posted a picture. He's sitting on his private jet, and he's like, "I just saw Toys That Made Us. Loved it."

Brian: Then a couple of weeks later I got a call from a guy named Brian Gewirtz, who runs or co-runs The Rock's company, and he was like, "Hey man, we loved the show. We'd love to come in and meet." Came in. We met. We actually took out another idea first that has not sold yet. And then we were talk...

Brian: I was separately meeting with Disney+, because they love Toys That Made Us, and then I was like, "Well why don't we do something about the parks?" And they were like, "We'd love to do that." And I'm like, "You know what? I'm talking to The Rock. Why don't we get him involved to, because of Jungle Cruise?" And they were like, "Love that." And that's what happened. Yeah, it just got announced a couple weeks ago, but we've been working on it for four or five months. We start shooting in about three weeks.

Jeff: [crosstalk 00:27:16]

Brian: All five parks.

Jeff: What's the name of it again?

Brian: Right now, it's called Behind the Attraction.

Jeff: Excellent. You guys are going to start shooting, and that's going to be on Disney+. That's what's cool about this platform, this juggernaut I'm going to call it again, because it comes out of the gate with just like everything under the sun that you and I are going to want to watch. Again, The Mandalorian and everything else. But Disney's just got this wealth to be able... And not just monetarily, but this wealth of creativity to be able to be like, "Let's just keep putting out incredible content."

Jeff: I love Disney parks, and I love learning about how they were made. There's a great... And I'm sure you've seen it, but like one of the original documentaries about Disney buying the land and he had to fight with Florida and California over all that. I remember watching that on The Wild World of Disney, actually. And it was so interesting, because as a kid you go to the Magic Kingdom and you're like, "This is the most magical place on Earth." And you never think of the countless hours of manpower and all of the crazy legal battles and everything that had to go into making every attraction. And it's just, it's so interesting. So to know that you're helming something like that, I'm so excited.

Brian: First of all, you're very kind. Thank you. Second of all, dude, I mean, I touched with my own hands the founding contract of Disney. Like they opened up a safe. They took it out. I got to see that. I got to see the first ticket ever sold for Disneyland. We do this thing here. Is this video or just audio?

Jeff: This is a video.

Brian: It is. So it's going to air video too?

Jeff: Yep.

Brian: All right, so I never do this. I'm going to do it twice in one interview.

Jeff: Yes. Excellent. I love technology.

Brian: So we tend to find an image and put it in every editing bay and every office for every show we do. Can you read that?

Jeff: Yep. Pepsi Cola exhibit NYWF '64 to '65 publicity.

Brian: What do you think that means? What do you think that is?

Jeff: I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. NYWF is tripping me up.

Brian: That's New York's World's Fair.

Jeff: Oh, so it was a Pepsi Cola exhibit at the world fair in '65?

Brian: Yes. Yes. Do you know what that Pepsi Cola exhibit is called now?

Jeff: Disneyland?

Brian: It's a Small World After All.

Jeff: Wow.

Brian: Small World started off as a Pepsi promotion pavilion. When it was over, Walt had negotiated the rights to keep it. He shipped it to Anaheim. And literally if you go to Disneyland and you go on It's a Small World, that's literally the same thing that was at the World's Fair in '64.

Jeff: That's incredible.

Brian: W saw panels. Dude, we got to go behind the scenes and see everything. Like on some of the actual panels in the ride that's been there for 50 years or whatever, you could see written in the back, "New York World's Fair/Pepsi." Yeah.

Jeff: That-

Brian: So that's similar to Toys to That Made Us. It's these little details, man, that you can extrapolate so much emotion out of. That's like your face seeing that Frank Sinatra was John McClane once. It's your face, when I told you that Pepsi thing is It's a Small World.

Jeff: It's.

Brian: That's what we're going to do.

Jeff: That's so incredible. And that, again, stems from the success of an idea like Toys. Because we live in a world now where everything is so consumable and so digestible, and everything... Especially nostalgia isn't just something that is around and everywhere. It has kind of been lost on people, because... And we talked about this on an earlier podcast, where nostalgia has become almost commonplace, and people are like, "Oh yeah, the 80s was a great decade. That existed." And nobody ever really thinks about, yes, it did exist. And how did it exist? How did these things actually become to be that we revere so much today? You know? And to have a show like Toys, or Movies, or this incredible show with The Rock on Disney+ about the parks, it really opens that door and allows you to appreciate what you're nostalgic about. And I think that's so important.

Brian: Yeah, no, I completely agree. And the key to nostalgia that a lot of people forget or don't realize, it's all about context. You need to set up the story around the story to make it all work and have emotion. Like everyone always says to me... Well, not everybody, but some people say to me, "Toys That Made Us, so funny. So funny. It's so funny." But the truth of the matter is, the comedy works because there's also a lot of pathos. There's also a lot of drama watching these people fight and then become friends again, watching everything fail. The company's about to go bankrupt, and Lego turns it around to become the biggest toy company in the world. That's a lot of drama. It's really dark at certain places, but the comedy keeps the context in place, so you don't feel like you're watching a doc-

Brian: I've seen a couple of toy documentaries, and they treat toys like it's the Byzantine Empire. It's like, no one wants to see... I'm not going to pick a toy, because then I'll make people angry. But you don't want to see Toy X treated like the Byzantine Empire. Toy X is a... It's a toy. So you got to have fun with it. And it's the same thing we did with Movies That Made Us. We had fun with it. There's a lot of emotion. I predict people will be crying at the end of Die Hard and Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, man. We are starting to hear that some people who have seen all 12 considered Turtles to be the best episode. So I don't want to do any spoilers or anything, but... And I was not a huge Turtles fan, so the fact that Turtles may have beaten Star Wars, I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Jeff: Oh man. I've been so excited for Turtles, because that was a lot of my childhood. They were such a force that was that perfect union between cartoon and comic and then also the toy industry. It was that perfect embrace of all of that, and I can't wait to see that episode. And I just want to end by saying, for everybody who's watching and listening, to reiterate one more time, on November 15th, Toys That Made Us three, season three comes out. I cannot wait. Season one and two is still up on Netflix for anybody who might be just tuning in for the first time. You said November... I'm going to get it wrong. 29th?

Brian: 29th, yeah.

Jeff: 29th is The Movies That Made Us. I can't wait for that. And then all of this stuff with The Rock on Disney+ hopefully in 2020. And I mean, gosh, follow Brian and everything he does. Like everything you guys are doing at Comedy Dynamics is just amazing. You guys put out some of the greatest comedy specials around. I mean, we didn't even touch upon like all of the big news on...

Jeff: You're so good at bringing back nostalgia and really opening that world to it, and now you have your hand in it. You're executive producing Mad About You. I mean, that's just mind-blowing in itself, because what a staple of '90s sitcommery, I guess you could call it, and now you're bringing it back to the fold.

Brian: It's like I said earlier, man. It's like I'm living in a movie. That's what it feels like. It's really wild, really wild.

Jeff: I love watching your movie, and I am such a fan. I can't thank you enough, Brian, for taking time and talking with me for the third time on Fueled By Death Cast. It's always a pleasure having you on, and I can't wait for number four.

Brian: Thank you very much.