Hour 1: Not Your Traditional Author (Feat. David Samson)
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You're listening to DraftKings Network. This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz Podcast. Look at David Sampson. He's got his reading glasses on. He is here to support and promote the best-selling author of much acclaimed Stugatz. You have your personal copy, Sampson. Were you recruited to write anything for the book?

Indeed I was, Dan. Duh. And here I am in chapter 33, and I want to tell you the story of how this absolute train wreck happened. I got an email from a guy I didn't know, not from Stu, of course. It was this guy who's now on the title of the book, Dan Stanzik. He said, listen, Stu Gatz is writing a book, and he'd very much appreciate it if you would write an essay, an essay, okay?

about why Shohei Ohtani's contract is or is not the worst contract in the history of sports. And I did what any friend of Stu would do. I ignored it because I assumed that there was no book that was going to be written and I wasn't going to waste my time. And then I got a follow-up email, still not from Stu, had not heard a word from him yet.

Follow up email. Hey, we're going to print soon. Do you think that you could get us your essay on Shohei Ohtani and his contract? And I responded saying, OK, I will put as much effort into this as Stu did into the book.

And I then sent right here on page 204 and 205, a two pager on Otani. And I did it in one draft and I made one phone call, Stu. I must tell you, I made one phone call. Okay. I called Dan. I said, Dan,

Is this book real? That was question number one. And he said, I don't think so, though. I'm writing a forward F-O-R-W-A-R-D. Yeah. And do you think I need to make it nice? And then I said, second question, Dan, will Stu ever read what I wrote?

And Dan said, absolutely not. So I sent it and then I went on Amazon and I bought the book because, Stu, I don't know how else I'd get the book. So I had multiple copies sent to me because I want to help you in your endeavor. Thank you. How many, by the way? Just...

I actually only bought four. I apologize. You should have bought eight, but okay. Anyway, go ahead. But I bought them at retail. It would have been great if he said 27,000. What a great joke. I'll take it. I mean, I don't care. What does he care?

And I will only tell you that having read the books do what makes me smile is that you have arguments in here that are so asinine that you are going to end up not taking credit for them, which is why you're saying you didn't write them.

That's what's funny about this book is that your positions are so crazy. The Kevin Durant one is all mine. The Elijah one, not having any rings, all mine. Stark's never going, two of 18, all mine. All of those are mine. I'll take them. They're good takes. They're good takes. I found that a lot of people were agreeing with my takes. That's what I found. So that was interesting. Billy, you are smirking back there and it's red faced and it seems like it might be shame. I can't tell. I'm embarrassed.

Because... On Stu's behalf, you didn't send books to the actual people that wrote books? Like, David had to buy four books? We sent David a book. We did. He knows. He got a book. So I will tell you what happened, Billy, is that I did go on Amazon. I did the pre-order. And then I got a book from Stu that had a letter in it. And...

Stu did write the letter that I Stu, can you confirm to me that you wrote the letter that you inserted when you sent me a copy along with the other co-authors of the book? Did you write that yourself? No, that was Stanzik's job. And it was Taylor. Yeah. Yeah.

So I found it to be it wasn't a letter. It was weekend observations. Right. I understand that you'll get your personalized copy very soon to suggest that I'm not going to do anything for all the great people, wonderful people that contributed to this book. I understand why you would think that. I understand why everyone would think that. But I have plans for you guys. I just don't know what they are yet.

So generally, Stu, the way it works with being an author is that these things are done prior to the publication of the book. Yeah.

I'm not your traditional author, David, so I'll do things on my speed, on my pace, on my watch. How does that sound? But you're going to cash the traditional checks, I assume. Well, yes. On time. On time, yeah. So I would just suggest that you should contact. There's a lot of amazing people, me not included, though I'm thankful to be in it, I guess, that did this for you. And the irony is that all of the people who wrote the counters to your points are

I did some checking. Yeah, I spoke to Pablo when we did some finding out. Those people actually did write those sections of the book. Yes. Yeah. Pablo wrote one. I don't I don't recall asking Pablo to do anything for the book. I mean, no, he has. In fact, I asked Pablo to do. Yeah. You know, I asked him to do an episode on the book to help promote the book because Lord knows all we do around here is promote Pablo. And I didn't get I got a frosty response.

I got to be honest with you. I mean, Pablo has been coming down here. He sits in the chair. He does the show with us. I try to make him feel comfortable. I share my platform with him. I let him promote whatever he wants to promote. I asked him to do one episode to promote the book. Frosty response. What is there to find out? He's got a certain standard. How I wrote it.

But you didn't. It was a good idea, though. How did Stigatz write a book? And that was the joke. Thank you. He should do a roundtable with all the people who wrote it for him and not even have Stigatz show up for it. That's a good idea. Just promote the book. I don't care. What was the frosty response? I'm in the business of selling books. Yeah, what's his response? Are you coming up to New York at any time? It's like I had to come up to New York to do the episode. Come down here. I mean...

Give me a break. Well, I want to do an episode with you on nothing personal because I do want to talk about this process because the decision to write a book is a very personal one. And the decision to do it in character and to do it in the lazy way in which it was done is also an interesting decision. And what I'm curious about is your relationship with the book industry now, because you could be asked as a bestseller to rub elbows with other people in your position who are actually well-known and a

accomplished writers. And I'm wondering, it's not about matching heaters. I'm wondering how you will act in that situation. He's going to sell out a church next week with Greg Cody. Yeah. Yeah. No, I heard that. And that's, that's great news that that is where I'm sure there'll be a lot of people on their knees. Sorry, no religious jokes, but that's very nice of you too. Are you making people buy the book signing?

I'm in the business of selling books, David. I am a best-selling author. Of course we are making people buy the book.

Okay, that's good. But here's one other word of advice. Economically, you should agree to also sign one other item that someone brings. Okay. But to do that, they have to buy a copy of the book. Okay. I will sign whatever anyone brings to that signing. I will. But I know. No, you can't do. No, you're trying to do an upsell. You're saying you're saying buy more books and I'll sign additional things. Is that what you're saying? You want me to up one item per book? Right. Okay, good.

So if you bring seven books, I have to sign seven items is what you're saying. Yes, that is the math. I like it. Okay, good. So you're going to rip people off in a church. You want to join us?

That's what you two are going to do. I'm giving away a cruise also, David. Not to the people who come out to the church that day. Just to our top sales guy. We're not giving away any cruise. Right now it's me. That's irresponsible. There are standards around here. You can't promise people we're giving them a cruise. It's the internet. Let me just say for Metal Ark, on behalf of Metal Ark, if what Stu is saying, then it is open and available to everybody. No purchase necessary. God is watching, Stu Gatz. It's sales team, though. Listen, I...

My finest work, as I pointed out earlier, happened in a church. I saved a wedding in a church. Churches like me. Your finest work? Yes. I saved Mike's wedding, Dan. We have breaking NFL news. Daniel Jones has agreed to sign with the Minnesota Vikings. Wow. He's got several suitors. He prioritized a team and playoff contention, a chance to play, QB-friendly offensive system. This is all according to Jordan Schultz. You know what? Schultz-y.

I can't stand it. I will not allow. You can't stand what? That football trumps everything? Because what I'm going to get furious about is that it trumps everything so thoroughly that we were talking about Stugatz's book and Daniel Jones going to back up in Minnesota or maybe start. I don't know how they feel about St. Darnold. We can open the door to interest. Oh, yeah.

got three wows from Stugatz. That did not deserve three wows from the tired author, the tired acclaimed author. Come on, that move didn't deserve to interrupt what we were doing. You didn't stop them.

Stop now. Stop now. You do this all the time with me and Mike. And then Sam Darnold gets hurt. And then Daniel Jones comes in and helps win that team a big game that you weren't thinking Daniel Jones was going to win for the Vikings. And then it becomes a good signing. That's all Mike is saying. That's all we've ever said. It's George Hill. Mike didn't say anything. He's excited about it. I just reported someone else's news.

No, because you do this all the time. There are these little moves that are made throughout each sport, okay? And they happen during the season. And Mike and I get excited about them. We've been doing so for years. And then you poo-poo on them. And it's not right because then all of a sudden, the George Hill is the classic example of a guy where you would say, why would you do that?

you break into the show to tell us about George Hill. And then George Hill has 24 points, Easter Conference semifinals, game two. That's why we brought up George Hill. Can you tell me how many championships George Hill has won and all the times he's been moved? The dozens of times he's been moved as a missing piece that's actually resulted in him being the missing piece. Why won't you give us a George Hill thing? You were wrong about the George Hill thing. He's got zero rings. Zero rings? So the missing piece in zero places, George Hill, who we've been talking about for

15 years so much so that he just made his way into a Daniel Jones story. He became a contributor. Yeah, exactly. That was Samaki Walker. Samson, can you tell me, play the music here because I want to read something to Samson that is, you know, gloomy, but we've got happy music for it. Die. We're all gonna die. We're all gonna die. We're all gonna die. The oceans are all

Climate stat of the day, Stugatz. After the roof of Tropicana Field was ripped off last month by Hurricane Milton, the Tampa Bay Rays are playing next season at Steinbrenner Field, which has no roof. Major League Baseball announced on Tuesday that the Rays, in a first, will play 47 of their first 59 games at home.

and 69 of their final 103 on the road to quote, "optimize for the best weather conditions," which is code for avoiding extreme rain, heat, and storms. From June to September of this year, Tampa's had 52 inches of rain, topping 19.45 for the wettest rainy season on record.

Project 2025 would cancel the weather forecast and Trump's pick for energy secretary is an oil industry CEO who says, quote, there is no climate crisis. Samson, the Rays have no shot to do anything this season in the American League East because they have no home and also because everybody in their division has more money than they do. The other teams are better.

I totally disagree. As a matter of fact, if you speak to the players, they'd rather be on the road because the crowds are bigger and they feel more into the game. So we had our players always preferred to play on the road, actually, because our attendance was so small. And so that's a pretty common thing. It's not as big a disadvantage as people are making it out to be for the race. If they don't win next year, it's just because they're not in a window.

to be competitive and teams like that have windows that open and close, but it really has nothing to do with the changing of the schedule. And I was just angry when I read it because it's not fair. We had in pro player stadium, we never got our schedule changed and we had to deal with all the rain delays and all of the issues with change of routine.

And no one ever gave a flying rat's ass. So now Tampa, one year in Steinbrenner Field, and all of a sudden, yi-yi-yi, change a bunch of series around and put them on the road. It's ridiculous. Why is it a flying rat's ass? And why is it a rat's ass to begin with? I don't give a rat's ass to begin with. Why? I don't understand. Where does it originate?

Yeah, they're found right at the end of the bridge that's too far. Is it safe to possibly assume that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers also had something to do with this? Because they're going to be on the road as Tampa goes to its very nearby headquarters and uses a facility that's also on the ground. They share parking. I can see where that becomes an issue. You could schedule around it, but it probably gave it a nudge. Hmm.

No, especially the attendance isn't enough, Mike, at the Rays games and the capacity. It's going to be a lot like the Tampa Tarpons games, actually. I couldn't believe before we started here. Did you guys hear? And for all his sour takes, David Sampson hating Thanksgiving. Who hates Thanksgiving? David does. Someone that probably can't taste the food. Yeah, no, I just I don't enjoy having to be.

on on sort of performing for family and and the drama i used to do this is a funny story in my head

I used to try to purposely make trades on Thanksgiving so I could get away from the Thanksgiving dinner. And so what I would do is... That's a heady play, man. I mean... Revelation. And we did it. And we actually succeeded in completing some transactions right on Thanksgiving Day. Find out for me. Go find out for me so I can recreate these, some of the names that were traded on Thanksgiving Day or around there by the Marlins. This should be a really fun Thanksgiving. Yeah.

just just generally and everybody wants to turn to football for an escape and then someone scores a touchdown does a dance have fun everybody i don't really feel as though this is where you can critique me i i don't like turkey and cranberry sauce i don't like taking out that knife that you're supposed to cut it with that you use once a year only i don't like all the side dishes i'm just not a big fan of people in the way they sit around and just nosh for six hours

So the way I do Thanksgiving is a little different. I announce to the family that I'll be arriving at 4:02 PM and departing at 5:27 PM. So I'm there for about an hour and 25 minutes and I'm in and I'm out. It's like going to Wisconsin.

In 2005, the Marlins traded Josh Beckett, Mike Long, Guillermo Moda on Thanksgiving for Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Harvey Garcia, and Jesus Delgado. That's a hell of a trade, man. Yeah. Got him out of Thanksgiving, though. I mean. Five hours.

five hours at at the boca raton someplace in boca where i was having a thanksgiving meal and i had young kids at the time and it just occurs to me why i am in the position i'm in personally but i left all of them at the table it just occurred to you wait you just realized the reason i'm not with

my family anymore is because this is how I treated Thanksgiving. I'm curious if I go down this list of 10 biggest trades in Marlins history from, I think this is written in 2021 by Joe Fasaro. If I give you these dates, I wonder if these align with your children's birthdays and stuff like that. Like, oh, here's a graduation and this is why. Wait a minute. The Marlins were a Ponzi scheme to get you out of family stuff. Oh.

Not that it was a Ponzi scheme, but I would tell you that I was able to control the calendar in a lot of ways. And so I would know when we would have afternoon games or night games or when we were going to what road trips I would go on. And I will not lie to you that I did pay attention to the school calendar. And I did not like being around when the kids were off from school because then they were just around all day.

So I would be on the road often during those times. Do you identify like as a dad, the adjective that you would put in front of you as a dad would be what? A great supporter and not at all jealous of my kids accomplishments. I'm actually happy for them and I I'm proud of them. But I would not in any way say that they were a priority. Their safety was in their security, but not from a time standpoint. And this just actually manifested itself last night.

when I was speaking to my now 21 year old son, who's a senior in college. And he really had nothing to say to me and I had nothing to say to him. And we had a very quick talk and sometimes we'll talk about movies or sports, but sort of surfacy stuff. And I found out some things that he was doing that I wasn't aware of.

And I had this moment like a second where I was like, man, that's so sad. And then I realized, well, wait a minute, I made this bed. I created this situation. I can't be in the least bit unhappy. And then I went back and pressed play on the movie I was watching. And that was that. So you definitely, you make your bed when you're in business. You can't be a good father and a successful businessman. I don't agree that that's even possible. And some people claim they are, but they're likely mediocre at both.

or they think they're just delusional that they're great at both. And I made the choice to, I chose work over family every time. And I didn't lie to them about it. I told them that that's what I was choosing. Don Levitard. Oh, I like firing people. So I take the opportunity to fire whenever I possibly can because I can use it as a learning experience for them and try to help them out and try to point out what they did wrong. But in this case, the employee was,

Enough levels below where I was that I did not do the firing, but I had it done within moments of discovery. I'm just like, I like firing people. It's just absurd. It's absurd. Stugatz. I'm talking about people who I fire who deserve it, who have done something that actively requires me to fire them. It is my unadulterated pleasure to do so. This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stugatz.

Thank you.

This family dysfunction and regret is presented by LinkedIn Jobs. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash prep. Terms and conditions apply. That's how you do it, Chris. I don't think I earn a whole lot of regret. You're saying flatly, I don't agree with the absolutism in that, that you can't be a great businessman and a balanced human being who is present as a father? What David is saying is if he can't do it, no one can do it. I mean, that's absurd, David. It's absurd.

Stu, I'm saying that I've come across a lot of people in business and they all say the same thing. Those at the height of their success, something's got to give. Why do you think the divorce rate is so high at the C-suite level? Why do you think that the family trauma and the therapy required is so significant at the C-suite level? Because divorce

You make choices. It's very hard to do both. And I respect people who try. And I witnessed it during the course of my career and I still do. And generally you end up being worse at both. And so I decided to go all in trying to be good at what I did for a living and make sure that they were supported. And to this day, I still feel that way. But at the end of the day, my job couldn't be to raise them. I tried to go to dance recitals.

And this is a funny thing that I did with my middle daughter at dance recitals, which were like 10 hours where I could hang out with Rondell White and Cliff Floyd, et cetera. Hit the button. Yep. Chris. Look at me, Louie. And it was great. It was called...

It was called Meg Segreto. It's a place that used to be up in Broward and they're like dead serious. These recitals are 10 hours and your kid dances for like four minutes of it. And so all I had to do was be in my seat for the four minutes, but for the rest of the time I would be in the lobby because I have no interest in watching other people's kids dance. Literally zero interest in that. So I would do work during that time and then just appear for the four minutes that she danced. Imagine if everyone did it that way, David.

When you get to do that, everyone else wants to watch all the other kids. I got to be honest. I did it that way with Emma. I did. You guys are jerks. No, you get the schedule of dances. Chris, have you been to one of these? Yes, I was just at one Saturday. They're eight hours long. There's 24 dances each set. Okay, so you get the schedule. You see when you're exaggerating all of that. No, I'm not. They hold your kid hostage. They don't let you take your kid either. You have to sit through all of it for some reason. It's not eight hours. No, it is. It's probably longer. It is. Yes.

I'm with David on this. Put it on the poll, please, Juju, at Levitard Show. Is your kid being held hostage? No, it's borderline illegal. I don't know how it is. There's situations. It's not borderline illegal. No, it is borderline illegal. There's situations here where you drop your child off and you're like, I will take my child now. And they're like, no, you will not. And it's like, excuse me, that's not how this works. You can't just sequester my child.

But they do. And then you give up the fight and then you go do whatever you're doing. So Emma's final dance would be like five dances before the last dance. You're right, Billy. And me and Abby would be like, hey, Emma, let's go. And they'd be like, no, Emma can't leave. She has to stay till the end. Who says? I'm her parents, not you.

I mean, what are you doing? It is so unbelievable. And it's everywhere. It's not just Florida where this happens. So I found a few workarounds. And one of the workarounds you can do is that you tell your child, and we did this to our middle daughter, you have to feign sickness.

And so what you do is when you're done with your dance and there's nothing left, you've had your last curtain call. I ain't sitting around and watching the other 11 year olds dance to some song I've never heard of. You go to backstage, you go to the door and all of a sudden out comes the little girl and you teach her like rub the makeup down. So you look like things look weird and then do some dry heaves. Boom. You got her.

This is an Alzheimer for you, David. No. My mouth is on the floor right now. You give him some green makeup. They can put this a little bit on your cheeks here. People are going to wonder you look a little sick. You're teaching your child to lie about being sick so you don't have to sit through a recital. But I would tell her that that's what we're doing.

I actually didn't mind teaching my kids the difference between a malicious lie, a white lie, or when you want to mislead people or when you want to get what you want, how to get what you want. And they're all successful kids right now. So that part of it worked. But I'll tell you, we weren't hurting anyone, Chris. There's no they're backstage. They're not even watching the other people dance. They can't see them. So what is the purpose of being there?

The teachers don't want them there also. Like they are just as miserable as everyone else because it's like I now have to watch these kids for seven hours after a four minute performance just because these are the rules that this company decided with. They'd be more than happy to have your kids get out of there. They don't want to babysit 15 kids all day.

And by the way, you have to bring every kid flowers. And so they sell flowers in the lobby. It's a racket. When you have to hug them, it's just the worst. You got to bring your own flowers. Those I'm with you. They did a great job. And like those flowers. No, but there's a guy who sets up shop at all these dance idols. Yeah, I don't buy those flowers. I get my I bring my own price gouging. I'm telling you, I overcharge for those. Because once you get there, no, damn, once you get there, if you don't have

flowers you are forced to buy flowers from this person a guy who sets up shops usually someone who works for the thing it's like all one they pretend they don't but you know they're in on it thanksgiving is a time of love and song and dance and community will you listen to yourselves it's a time for trades listen to yourself it's a time for trades hot stove literally it's

David Sampson, I asked you for an adjective to describe yourself as a father and you gave me a whole mealy mouth discussion and description without giving me an adjective. Did you think you were a bad father?

Because you weren't present and you're saying you couldn't choose fatherhood over business. No, I'm just saying that my kids look back and say that, you know, it's funny. They always say this and I think it comes from their therapist or whatever. Hey, I wish you had given it all up and spent more time with us. I'm like, all right, enjoy, you know, 86F, okay?

right on the flight to Wisconsin. I just don't buy any of that at all, but I love them and they like me fine when they need something. Okay. But you just look, you just said, and I don't want to argue with this about you, but I don't want to argue with you about this, but you said they're successful and you, and you're also talking about how it is that somebody, what he's so detached from what coach is that he thinks there's 86 rows. Yeah.

- He's never gotten out of the single digits. - You're wrong. - International giant jumbo jets that are flying privately. - I was in row 86 on the way to the Philippines for Survivor and I couldn't stand it. - Oh God. - And so I upgraded myself. It's on Air Philippines in 2013 and I upgraded myself on the plane.

And much to the chagrin of the fellow survivors, I didn't realize at the time, but they ended up holding that against me, that I wasn't willing to sit in a middle seat.

You're rounded by like babies for a 14-hour flight. You became the target. You have no people skills. I wonder why they kicked you off the island so quickly. You don't understand community. You're about to go on a stranded island for 39 days. Like, Jeff, I'd like to upgrade, please. How much do I have to give you for a 10 out here for me and my tribe? You thought you were going to win, man. You lost on the plane ride over. You lost.

He thinks he's smarter than everyone else. And he lost the whole thing on the plane. They hated him as soon as they landed.

I was totally rested. I felt great. I was lying down the whole flight. Meanwhile, the rest of the people are sitting like this for 14 hours. All right, Samson, I'm going to get your movie review in a second. But Mike Ryan, did you finish The Coffee Table? I did. The most uncomfortable movie I've ever seen by quite a distance. Yeah, it's incredible. I think it's a masterpiece, but also...

researching this movie comes with a trigger warning. So when I say it's the darkest, most uncomfortable thing that you can imagine, also probably a dark comedy as well. You can view it through that prism, certainly. I've never really seen anything like it. It's shocking. It's provocative. It's brilliant. Yeah, I love the movie in retrospect, but it was tough to get through. And my wife checked out on it.

in the process. She couldn't make it through it. You brought it up to me on Monday. You told me about it. I was scared just hearing about it, but people on social media were tweeting you saying they can't get through the movie. There's been a lot of people that have told me that they've tried to watch it and they bail on it or they research the Wikipedia and they bail on it. I totally understand that, but I think, and I know...

David isn't a big horror guy, although I've come to find out that's more of your traditional slasher, terrifier type stuff. But I'd venture to say, because we've had this conversation a couple weeks ago, there's a real horror movie suspense thriller renaissance going on right now. And I think there's actual reasons for that. If you see what the big studios are greenlighting, it's got to have intellectual property. It's got to be big. They've got to meet their margins on this. So you get these really...

really resourceful filmmakers, really pushing boundaries on smaller budgets. And for whatever reason, to me, the genre right now that is getting the most original stuff out there is this genre. I've seen like seven in the last few weeks and each one gets better than the previous one. The Substance was actually one of these. And traditionally, I was worried to tell David about that because, you know, it's kind of bizarre.

gory, visceral in certain instances, but it's also a bit of a comedy. So I put it on David's radar and he actually saw this. What did you think of this movie, The Substance? I thought The Substance was outstanding. I reviewed it on a recent Nothing Personal. Let me give you a two-minute review of that.

It's not a horror movie, so I'm curious what genre. You're right, it's the jump horror and the slasher that I won't watch. The substance, being gory, but that's not, the substance is about aging, and it's about our view of our looks and Demi Moore basically not wanting to be old anymore because there's a man

who's in charge, Dennis Quaid, who says you're too old to be on TV. So she says, hey, I'll be young again. And all of a sudden out comes Margaret Qualley in one of the great birthing scenes, this side of she's having a baby. It is a movie that is well worth watching and it's well worth watching with people in your life because it will lead to a good discussion about what you would do to continue to look young.

I'd be curious if Samson would like that kind of movie. Samson loves stuff that makes him feel anything that makes him feel. But this uncomfortable, what would you describe as the most uncomfortable you've been watching a movie, David? I was uncomfortable watching seven.

Were you? Yeah, that is probably my number one least comfortable watch because I'm generally scared anyway. And I just was thinking about all the different ways that bad things can happen. And then the end of that movie, which is not a spoiler alert anymore, I don't believe. I don't know the rules on that. You're good there. It's in the box.

When there's a head and a butt, you're just thinking, wow, I don't want to watch this. I was very uncomfortable. We'll say that Seven is basically Space Jam compared to the coffee table. Is it really? Yeah. Get out of here. Yeah, it's the darkest premise you can imagine. I'm telling you, Mike told me about it because I don't watch a lot of stuff. So I was like, go ahead, just give it to me. And it's the only movie I've never seen that I can't stop thinking about. Sorry.

So I don't even know what it's about, Mike, but I'm going to watch it. Mike hasn't told us what it's about. And at least in part, I haven't gone searching for it because I don't want to know. He told me and you don't want to know. I mean, I'm serious. Part of the experience is the shock value, too.

I knew that it was uncomfortable because I'd heard enough people talk about this. But every time they talked about it, they didn't really give any plot lines to it. And I really appreciated that because it definitely shocks you. All right. So this was the recommendation of Anthony Jezelnik on South Beach Sessions. He's a dark comedian and he thought it was a dark comedy.

I wanted to ask you about what one of the Farrelly brothers is doing. It seems like the Coen brothers and the Farrelly brothers are not working together anymore. And what are the Farrelly brothers doing? Or what is, is it Peter? I think it's Peter that's working on this. He's doing, Stugatz, your wheelhouse. He's doing something Rocky related. Ah, yes. So it turns out that

the big underdog story that surrounds Rocky was Sylvester Stallone getting this film made. And the script that he just picked up that he says is brilliant is the making of Rocky and Sylvester Stallone's insistence that he not only write, direct, and star in this film and the studio, like Sylvester Stallone was acting in soft core porn movies. He was basically on housed at this time. And they, the studio gives them all sorts of impossible deadlines and budgets because they're,

they don't want him to be the star of the film. They pegged another big Hollywood actor to be the star of the film. And there are details like in that, in the scene, they get all the running scenes out in one day and Sylvester Stallone essentially runs 18 miles in one day and he gets hospitalized. The scene where he's punching the ribs, that was actually frozen meat. They didn't have time to defrost it. Sylvester Stallone breaks his hands and...

And it's about persevering, making his life different, getting himself out of that spot while using this underdog as an avatar. The big underdog story is Sylvester Stallone. The guy who was going to play Rocky was Burt Reynolds. I mean, think about that. Imagine that. What a different movie. Burt Reynolds playing Rocky. Hair chest on him.

Yeah. So the making of Rocky is a better underdog story than rocking? I think there are a lot of movies, and David probably knows this, where I want to find out more about the making of the movie than watch the actual movie. Rocky is one of them. Michael Mann's Miami Vice is one of them. And Face Off, when Nicolas Cage and John Travolta spent three days together in a cabin trying to get each other's movements and motions and way of being. Yeah.

that's a great movie david what is your review for the week i'm doing this and i i have this rehearsed so forgive me i don't normally use notes hi mike this is david sampson i watched your show called the man on the inside i watched it in one sitting which doesn't make it like a regular television show it makes it more like a movie as you stated i felt something every single episode

Putting together Ted Danson, the rest of that tremendous cast and a story that really touches home to an aging population, people trying to continue to find their relevance and their place as they become less relevant in the workforce and with their families. You managed to weave together a story that will enthrall people and capture people from episode one to the finale, which I can't believe opens us up to the possibility of a season two and

And if anybody is smart, which I assume all the streamers are, given your track record, Mike, that show is going to be picked up and your creative juices are going to have to continue flowing. I have no way to give you this review directly because I would have liked to. I asked Dan and Pablo if I could reach out to you and they both said absolutely not. You had no interest in hearing from me because for whatever reason you think we've met.

That said, I have to give credit where credit is due. And you are a singular talent in the ability to create, including directing the final episode, a show that will capture the hearts, minds and imaginations of what I hope will be millions of people. It's called The Man on the Inside. Well, thank you for those kind words. You should have said Mike Schur that you were directing it toward Mike Schur so that people would have understood what you were talking about. About halfway through, I was like, oh.

Oh, I know what he's doing. It's a passion project. So here's the back story on this. David Sampson is legitimately bothered and hurt that Mike Schur will not interact with him. And Billy, do you have any thoughts here on how deserved it is? Because Sampson's just saying, why don't we just all get along? You've never met me.

I mean, if Mike Schur doesn't want to talk to someone, I don't know that it's your place to be giving out his number. I don't know how this works. Samson keeps wanting me to pass along his praise. And so I do pass it along. But when he wants to talk to Mike Schur, Mike Schur doesn't want to talk to him. And then I relay that message back. What am I supposed to do? I've told Samson before he's an adult. I can't force him to talk to you.

And I'm not upset with you, Dan. I appreciate you trying. I just don't understand. I, you know, Mike Schur, if he wants to talk to Ariel Helwani or Billy Corbin or other people who before they met me had a problem with me and then they met me, we spent time together and everything ended up being fine. Mike's just not willing to do that. And the fact is that I am in contact and know people who also know Mike and who

who like Mike and also like me, you'd think the transit of property, he'd give me at least a minute. And I understand he's busy, but I could talk art, I could talk sports, I could talk finance, I could talk movies. I'm just interested in also complimenting people when they do great jobs,

And Mike doesn't make anything bad. And I just want him to know it. And I thought we were all on the same team. But quite obviously, he still doesn't feel that way. But it doesn't stop me or in any way prejudice my review of his stuff because so many people do that. They use a personal issue in terms of a professional result. And I would never let that happen.

You're trying too hard, David. Just let it happen. Like, stop talking about wanting to talk to Mike, meeting Mike. You're just starting. I'm telling you, just let it happen naturally. Eventually, you'll meet him. It's all too hard to get. Yeah. I have a feeler out, actually, that I think I have a way in. Are you stalking? What does that mean? No, that's gross. I do not stalk. And I'm not desperate. I don't even want money from him. I don't even want a lot of time from him. I simply want a text response. Too much. Yeah.

You're not desperate. You don't stalk. Did you get those George Michael glasses so you can put on the same glasses George Michael wore or what? I did get those, Billy. They have not arrived yet from England, but you just didn't ruin it. But I will do this show wearing the George Michael glasses. You were going to wear them. You were going to unveil them in a week or two. Correct. You ruined your surprise. Yes, he did. Did you get the license plate? Yes, I did.

And I may have gotten one other thing, Billy. I may have gotten Elton John sunglasses. What? Being a bad father was all worth it in the end. Thank you, David. An absent Elton John glasses. Because you can buy the trinkets of famous people. It's okay that you were never around for the kids. It was okay.

It's okay that you're lonely late in life and that Thanksgiving is something you hate and you make up trades in order to avoid... At least at the very end when you work toward the very end, you have the trinkets of Elton John and George Michael to show. Set them around the Thanksgiving table. Hello, Elton. Provided that you're only there from 4.02 to 5.27. I've done it all right.

And God forbid that somebody does an end zone celebration Trump dance at a Thanksgiving dinner near you. Got the remote in hand. See you later, Samson. I don't know what to do about that. His podcast is nothing personal. He wants to talk to Mike Schur. I can only ask so many times. Mike Schur is being stubborn.

Doesn't want to be friends with David. You're doing a thing, aren't you? That thing that you do where you divide people. No, no, no. Samson keeps telling me, send him my regards. And I have to force my regards over there. And then sure is like, I don't want to talk to him anymore. Like, what do you want me to do? I've never said send regards. I've always had a purpose for the communication. Not like, hey, how's your day going? Trying too hard.