You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
And this must be the worst weekend of all for the box office. I
know movie theaters from coast to coast are just begging, begging for the summer
season to begin, because there's no way in the world that theaters can survive
off this listless box office. You heard the review from Mark Ronner on Friday
for The Fall Guy. The good news is it came in at number one.
The bad news is only twenty seven million, which doesn't mean a lot
for theater business on a day to day basis. And the number two movie
in all of America Star Wars Episode one, The Phantom Menace, a re
release which originally came out in nineteen ninety nine. This is the twenty fifth
anniversary, and of course it was Star Wars weekend. May the fourth be
with you and all that. Do you remember where you were when you first
saw The Phantom Menace. I'm glad that I asked, because I remember I
was working for Warner Brothers Records, and to all of you probably have a
similar story. I was working for Warner Brothers Records. I worked late that
night and I got in line, purchased my ticket early, got in line,
stood in line for hours waiting for like the twelve thirty post midnight show.
The movie didn't end to almost three in the morning. I went home,
got two hours of sleep, and went right into the office. I
remember, and Mark Ronnie, you probably agree with this. I remember how
disappointed I was at that movie, with the exception of Darth Maul. With
Darth Maul the pod race, the pod race was cool. Everything else,
Darth Maul, pod Race, everything else. Yeah, the soundtrack track was
good. Oh yeah, yes, fit the Duly Fates. Yeah, that
was great. Yeah, I was terrible. In fact, I remember at
the time, I believe I was working at the Seattle Times and I was
reporting on people camping out in line for days and days to get into the
movie first. That was their reward that movie. Hey, look, you're
basically talking to one. I didn't camp out for days, but I was
there for a bunch of hours waiting for that movie opening night. I remember
I saw it in Westwood, as a matter of fact, because I was
living on the west side of town at that time. It was that whole
jar Jar Binks thing. Oh that was unbearable. That was unbearable. The
thing is, though, I didn't have to camp out because I was working
at of course, at the Beat at the time, and a bunch of
people from the station they had got we got tickets for I believe it's like
a midnight or twelve thir or something showing at the Man Chinese. So I
was still at the station. I said, I'm gonna wait here a little
more work, waited, and then went over there just like you got out
blurry eyed. But I enjoyed myself. We had fun, and I think
I enjoyed the experience. Maybe not the movie because that that whole Anakin and
the Midi chloreans and all that that was like, give me a break,
But the experience those standing in line late at night took me back to when
I was a kid. Yeah, I enjoyed that experience. I just felt
very disappointed with the final product, if only because I felt it was Ewok
adjacent. Yeah, if you're not a real Star Wars fan, you may
not remember. Return of the Jedi had a very different treatment when it originally
came out in nineteen eighty three. They had this whole Ewok song that they
were playing on the radio. It was made almost for kids. It's a
very different movie that you see now. They've redone a lot of things with
it. I felt the Phantom Menace was trying to do a lot of the
similar stuff from Return of the Jedi. The whole thing with Jar Jar Binks
is like, who are you trying to appeal to? It's not serious,
not Star Wars. The movie didn't work for me outside of Darth Maul pod
racing was fine, but that was kind of a beat by beat thing where
in every Star Wars movie you have the opening action scene, you have the
mid scene where there's some sort of racing or something fast going on, like
in Return of the Jedi you have it in the forest, didn't have the
big battle scene at the end. It hit all those beats, those Star
Wars beats. Those are fine, but it seemed like it was trending in
that direction where they were trying too hard for the humor as opposed to letting
it more naturally happen. Han Solo's character, his lines were naturally funny.
Phantom mens it seemed like, oh, they're just going for jokes now,
and it didn't. It didn't work for me and plus the actors were very,
very dry, So yes, it didn't hit. It didn't hit Lim's
Nissen and McGregor and them. Nah, their humor was not good. The
kid was stupid. It was stupid, right, the kid was stupid,
grows up to become Darth Vader. No way, no way, no way.
Well, to me, the only good part of the whole trilogy that
was the buddy cop Jedis and the rest of it was painfully bad. And
you bring up jar Jar Binks. I mean, I don't know if you
want to go there, but I along with the fact that it signaled there
was nobody around George Lucas to telling me ho had a bad idea and like,
maybe this isn't such a great thing we want to put on there.
Well, you know, maybe they were trying to appeal to the elderly folks
who missed the old minstrel shows from their youth. It was right there.
You know, I'm my best actor who played jar Jar Binks and that really
disappointed me because he's a black actor and he should have known better. I
feel bad for him because I've read stories about his life after that. He
didn't deserve that. No, now, the amount of abuse that he took
after that. It literally led him to the Golden gate Bridge and he was
going to jump and take his life, and I'm glad he did not,
and I'm glad he has the story to pass along to a son, especially
because of what he did. Return learning to the Star Wars franchise is one
of the most badass jedis in the worst co series The Serius No No,
No, No Man Lauren and Lauren. Yes, however it was still it
was. It was a nice ending to his particular story, The Phantom Menace.
I don't hate it, but I hate that they killed off Darth Maul.
It was a great character. Would have loved to have seen him the
next two movies, but no, we ended up with Dooku. You know.
It was old and Geritoh no, That's why. That's why the animated
series was so good, because his story did not end. His story in
the series. You're never gonna hear me complain about Christopher Lee being in something.
He's terrific, But he was nearly dead at the time, literally literally
nearly dead. And I liked him as an actor. I just as someone
to supplant Darth Maul. It's like, no, no, you had a
great villain, someone who was worthy of preceding Darth Vader. Oh and is
a terrific martial artist as well. Yes, like the real deal. Oh
no, no, no, I look we know Ray Park. Tawala was
even hanging out with Ray Park. Cool ass dude. Okay, look his
voice threw me. I did not, because when I saw him, I
said, oh my god, you're Ray Park. And he had this voice
one an accident, but also this voice that was very very almost high almost
high pitched in tone, and so I was like, oh, yeah,
they really did do it a voiceover. But yeah, I met Ray Park
and hung out with him at the The Force Awakens World premiere. Amazingly cool
guy, amazingly cool, like so cool. And I'm sitting there geeking out,
like your Ray Park. You are the man to just and just all
the villain. This work he's done, he was told and he is.
He has stuff. Yes, yes he was, Yes he was. See
now Tony, now your nurse that's coming out. I love him. But
we say all that to say, you know, it's bittersweet. Twenty five
years ago, The Phantom Menace Star Wars Episode one, The Phantom Menace debut
in theaters, but it also tells you the lasting impact of Star Wars that
Universe. Twenty five years later, one of the lesser regarded movies of the
nine still is the number two movie in all of America. Well, that
means the bar is really low. And by the way, it is with
twenty eight million bucks for The Fall Guy. That thing cost one hundred and
thirty million to make. They got a lot to go. Yeah, that's
a road. No they're not. It's not gonna be any better after the
first weekend. Nope, it's gonna cut in half by next week and then
we're gonna see it on cable really fast. I'm almost disappointed. I didn't
see it at theaters, Like not really. Oh no, no, it
was painful for me to sit through. It's Later with Mo Kelly when we
come back. There is some good news on the entertainment front in the sense
of contracts. Sag After has inked to deal with Nielsen to measure streaming content
that's going to have all sorts of repercussions. I would say positive ones for
contracts down the road. We'll tell you about it next. You're listening to
Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty. Remember you can
always hit me on Instagram at later with Moe Kelly. Also on Facebook at
later with mo Kelly. As we broaden our social media footprint. You may
remember last year. Of course, you remember we talked about it frequently during
the actor strike and the writer strike. One of the key sticking points was
streaming being paid adequately for streams, being paid adequately for working on streaming shows,
getting enough episodes, and also the metrics involved. For the most part,
streaming platforms were very very close to the vests with their numbers. They
did not share them publicly or even privately for that matter, and actors and
writers knew that they were missing out on some degree of residuals. Well sag
After has now cut a deal with Nielsen to be a third party provider of
streaming content measurement. And this is really important because, as I was saying,
there was no way to really monitor how often people were watching, or
what they're watching, or how long they're watching it. They didn't have the
metrics outside of what the streaming platforms would tell you or me, and that
was basically nothing. Netflix, Prime Video and Peacock they are the platforms which
you would see all these bona fide hit shows. And the deal saw that
streamers agree to release some data privately to the union to help gauge what shows
or hits and which are not. And also they can be residuals which can
be tallied from that. The Nielsen deal suggests that the union wants to be
sure that there's another party involved for forecasting and enforcement. In other words,
you have someone on those We don't have to just take Netflix's numbers for granted,
We don't have to just take them at their word just because they say,
yeah, you know that squid game thing, only two people saw it.
Only two people watched it, you know, over six months. It's
really a shame. It didn't make any money. And we're not necessarily obligated
to pay anyone because of that. And this is what needed to be done
to ensure actors and writers have a backstop, to ensure that the deals are
not only fair, but they're being enforced. It's one thing to have it
on paper, but if you don't have the measuring, the yardstick to somehow
validate and verify how often something's been watched, how long something's been watched how
many times? Then it's very difficult to actually go to these streaming platforms and
get the money that you deserve as an actor and also a content creator.
This is going to change everything now. In radio they have that to a
certain degree, but they didn't have it in television enter entertainment in regard to
streaming, which is kind of strange. You would think Nielsen would have been
way out in front of that. But I guess it's easier, correct me
if I'm wrong, Mark. Maybe it's easier because it was broadcast television and
those are public signals and they could monitor that as opposed to the private signals
where they didn't have to give up any of that information. Well, they've
kept that so close to the vest that there's no way for even us to
know without I mean, let me try to gather my thoughts here. You
brought up Squid Game, which was a perfect example of this, because the
show is a massive, massive hit for Netflix, and they weren't given the
people who made it anything. You remember that, not a time, not
a dime, not the actors, not the writers, not a dime.
They bought it and that was it. They got a flat rate, right,
So We have to have more transparency just for basic you know, paying
people what they're owed, and also we get a better sense as a viewer
what people actually like. It's one thing when we put on Netflix and it
says it's the top ten, Well, what does that mean? It is
one and two? Are they equidistant from three and four? How close is
number five to number one? I'm all into those statistics, but we really
never had a true sense of how much something was actually valued by you and
me. I mean, how often were or how long people were spending time
with these titles, not just squid Game, but anything which may be at
the top of the charts in the given week. We had Rebel Moon,
which was at the top of the charts for just one week. Now I
think it's dropped to number seven, and rightfully so, because it sucked.
Oh yeah, you actually did you watch part two? Because part one was
so bad? I cut my losses. No, no, no, I
started part two and I stopped because people were singing too much. There's a
lot of singing. Oh god, now, Ja Walla corrected me. He
said, no, they weren't singing. He was like he was yodling or
something. I don't know what, well, I said, he said,
what it wasn't singing. I said, it was singing to me. They
wasn't singing. It was a tribal chant. Well, there it is,
Okay, a tribal chant with melody. Okay. Look, it was like
it was a tribal thing, and that's why he wanted to include it.
It wasn't that bad. I mean, come on, look, it was
fine for something being included in my subscription. Yes, I would have never
paid three ninety nine for it. I never would have paid five ninety nine.
I wouldn't have paid ninety nine fort But it was fine for being included
in my subscription. Yes, rated in for Netflix, rated C for never
Mind. Don't say that I am fascinated by all this rating stuff though,
because we grew up in a time when there were only three networks in PBS,
and to this day I am watching compilations on YouTube of shows that I
never really saw because there was no way to watch or catch up on anything
if you watched one of the three shows that were on at at any given
time, you know, and it was not uncommon at the time for like,
say, I don't know, like in nineteen sixty eight, an episode
of the Wild Wild West to have a fifty share, which means half of
all the people watching TV were watching one show together. We don't have anything
approaching that anymore, nothing even close. But streaming is what you make it.
And when they say that we are in the Golden Age, I wholeheartedly
agree with that. For me, I am never at a loss to find
something to watch. It just depends on my mood. But I know there's
something I want to watch, especially if it's an old show, I can
find it. I am really enjoying going back and watching shows of my childhood
because now as an adult, they're completely new. I'm going back and watching
a Policewoman, Angie Dickinson, Oh yeah, just all rock from Files,
all sorts of shows that I watched as a child, but they would seem
very different now. Like, for example, I said that I was rewatching
speed Racer from first episode all the way through episode fifty in a chronological order.
I get a kick out of that, and we can only do that
now in history. We couldn't do that ten years ago. For me,
this is absolutely wonderful. I don't need new content all the time, but
Netflix does satisfy that need if and when I'm looking for the latest action movie,
and it doesn't have to be the blockbuster. It could be the movie
from France that has been dubbed into English and it's good enough. And I
agree with you. I think part of the reason that I watch so much
old TV is that so much current TV is so worthless. Yes, yes,
yeah, almost, like there's no real care or attention put into good
storytelling. That's part of the reason of as far as broadcast TV, I
still watch the Dick Wolf shows, be it you know, Chicago PD or
Law and Order SVU, Law and Order Organized Crime. I still think in
an episodic sense, that's the best of primetime television. Well, you know
that I wrote for a Law and Order video game, so I love that
stuff. But I'll tell you I discovered the rediscovered the best show that I
had almost forgotten about, called The Immortal with Christopher George. You got,
Yes, they're all on YouTube, you don't have to order a DVD or
anything like that. And it's about a guy who has blood that makes him
immortal, and a rich guy wants it so that he can live forever.
And so the Christopher George is on the run from people who want to capture
him and hold him hostage and take his blood. Terrific, terrific show.
And I'm just not finding things that are that compelling on most normal broadcast TV
right now. It could be worse. It could be like Twala who didn't
discover Law and Order until he was in the hospital for like a month and
he was forced to watch it. That's how he discovered Law and Order.
It's comfort viewing for true story, Yeah it is. It is comfort viewing.
And now I've seen every single episode, like at least fifty eleven times.
Can you defend yourself in court? Now? I can? I think
I really can. Yeah, that's how I started feeling after about one hundred
episodes. Y'all like hilarious, It's lady with bo Kelly. Look at the
time, can if I amswers forty? We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
And since Tuala is producing the show tonight, you will notice a theme
back for the horoscope. We were talking about how May was National Month.
Well, when we come back, we have to have a conversation about a
convention of furries and how it descended into sexual chaos. Because Tuala is a
producer of the show, We have a furry update when we come back.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
I'm a firm believer in meeting someone where they are. I shouldn't assume that
everybody knows what a furry is. Tony's you know what a furry is?
Sadly yes, Okay, Mark Ronnerd, do you know what a furry is?
I'm sorry to say that I do. Okay, Twala, I know
you know what a furry is, but I'm not going to assume. Okay,
I'm not gonna shure everyone knows. There are these confabs, these groups
who dress up in animal outfits furries for lack of a better word, and
they role play, they do things together, and they're large conventions in which
furries come together and meet up, usually for sex, drugs, some other
form of debauchery. And there was a furry convention back in twenty fifteen,
which is legendary in nature, which trashed a hotel and then had the Furry
Convention ban from the city of Seattle forever. It was called Rain First twenty
fifteen, and more and more stories are still coming out I mean ending up
in the news. It supposedly was meant to be an annual convention designed for
and by furries, but the debauchery that ensued this, according to Daily Mail,
left animal loving organizers banned from ever holding another event in the city of
Seattle after they trashed a hotel the floor. Let me let me just start
like this. The event started off to go off the rails when someone purposely
loosened a bolt on one of the Hilton Seattle Airport and Conference Centers toilets,
causing it to flood instantly. Mark, have you ever been there? I
have the airport, I've been to that hotel many times. That's where they
have the Crypticon Horror convention each year. Oh, you're there for Crypticon,
but not rain frost. The floor was soon filled with two inches of putrid
toilet water. The first side host had overestimated the wholesomeness of their guests.
I guess they thought it was going to be like a Disneyland convention because everyone
was coming in costumes. Well, they're cute furry costas, So being a
furry is not just necessarily wearing an animal costume. It's wearing a cute cuddly
animal costume. Attendees indulged in drink and drugs that eventually gave way to destruction.
A series of arrests ensued as attendees downed diapers and even went as far
as defecating in a pool. A hot tub was also flooded when a person
shoved towels and the pump filling it with water. The hotel was left in
ruins, more than one hundred thousand dollars in damages, and the Furry Convention
was banned for life. How can you not know in the age of the
Internet, what a furry is in what they do the whole point. It's
almost like eyes white shut. People are wearing masks so they can have sex,
and you don't know who the person is, or at least there's somewhat
anonymous. Well, back in twenty fifteen, this was also still relatively new,
and it was thought to just be a gathering of like LARP players,
like live action role players coming together, you know, almost like Trekky's coming
together. They thought, oh, it's gonna be something like that, and
then they found out furries go wild. They go wild like the animals that
they portray. I gotta tell you that. I bet there's some overlap between
the Trekies and the furries. And I've been to Star Trek conventions when I
was a kid. It would not shock me the least bit. There has
to be overlap, if only because the convention culture, I think is a
very similar culture. Regardless. If you go to conventions, you kind of
know that's when people tend to let loose and you throw in some anonymity and
some costumes and some sex, some alcohol and some drugs. Yeah, only
one bad thing could happen, I think everything. Last year there was a
furry attack at Huntington Beach. I think a guy was out there trying to
film some furries like live in Nature, and the furries attacked the wild and
the while they were on the Huntington Beach they attacked him. Furries trunk of
a guy. Well, they can't be very aggressive because they're very territorial in
that regard. I just I'm surprised though that this still goes on in an
age where you know the cameras everywhere. They're not as anonymous as they may
believe, because why they're checking in the hotels under their real name. Yeah,
but they also have like one individual who will get the room like,
they'll have an assistant. How do you rent? I don't know. I'm
just saying I have heard of what furries do, and they oftentimes what they
will do is they will have a representative, uh, check rooms because the
anonymity is part of being a furry for the most part. But you know,
I'm just I don't get it. I just don't get the allure.
I'm not a furry, so I guess I'm not supposed to get it.
But I mean, they're no different than people that you know, wear those
full body latex suit and whip each other. What are you talking about?
What are they called? What are they called? Me? Domina talking about
those you know Dominatris where they go and they get the guys and they put
them, put them in diapers and cuff them and whip them with whoa.
It's a whole different show. Now, I don't know what you're talking about.
Maybe sometimes furries just want to cuddle. You ever think of that cuddle
with drugs? Well, go ahead, somebody said, some drugs I'm sure
to make you want to cuddle more. No, I don't do drugs.
I don't do furries. I'm not a furry efor. Let's just go to
break, just like I have no idea what this show is going. You're
listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty and twala.
Did you see our boss sense the message? She's very, very very
interested in our last segment. Yeah, he's running down the hall right now.
That that subject matter tends to get people's attention right away. No,
but she had her own personal anecdote to offer, and that's all I'm gonna
say. I'm not gonna say anything more. But evidently everybody has a furry
story or something like that, or an encounter or something. You know,
I've seen furries from a distance, have you? Did you? No?
My experiences is zero with furries. I'm oh, i've seen furries from a
distance. You can tell out grown ass people walking somewhere in animal costumes aren't
a dead giveaway and of them. Okay, no, I was not.
Let me rephrase that. Where were you where you saw furries? Oh?
It was somewhere near the LA Convention Center, So I sue there's something going
on there. Yeah, so my immediate I have to look up the date
because find out exactly what it was, but my immediate assumption was, oh,
there must be some sort of furry convention coming going on right now.
So it didn't strike me as odd because we had been covering furries no put
intended for quite some time. Well let's just say, theoretically you did decide
to explore the world of furries. What would you be mo? I wouldn't,
so I won't, so I don't have an answer. But if I
did, if you did, that's like saying if I had four legs,
I'm not, so it doesn't matter. So your answer is a bear,
I got it. No, that's just what's been on your mind. That's
a Freudian slip on your part. No, No, I'm just trying to
be a diligent journalist here with a recalcitrant subject. And yes I am.
Answer is witness, loud and clear, A bear got it. Look to
be serious. We all have our thing, we all like what we like.
Some of that may be, you know, put on public display.
Most of it probably will not. I'm not an exhibitionist anymore, so you
know that that time of my life is behind me. But I was never
furry adjacent. Never. When you say anymore could you please go into detail.
Oh no, I got some stories that I can tell. I have
lived life, if if, if, if, my time on this earth,
heaven forbid, should be up sometime soon. I know that I can
say I have lived. I have too many stories that I cannot tell on
the radio. How many of them involve a bear costume? No, not
a one, Okay, not a one, But they do involve moments in
the music industry and things of that nature. I would like to be yes.
No. I have been invited to some group settings in the valley.
I have never been invited to a furry gathering. I would I would not
be mad at going to see I don't know furries and heat. I don't
know what happens at one of these gatherings, but I would go and just
kind of check out the scene and see what they're doing. I don't know.
Do I have to dress up? I don't think if I have to
dress up, I can't go. You do, of course. You know.
It's like those those swinger parties that you've been invited to that you told
us about. You have to there rules, and there there are rules.
That's what kept me from going. I was like, oh, no,
yeah. Just the phrase group settings in the valley. It makes you think,
oh, so Ron Jeremy's going to be there. He probably was.
Yeah, no, no, no, no no. And look, I've
hung out with Ron Jeremy. He would always go to Jerry's Deli in Studio
City. You would always find them there. So I got there are times
where get to hang out and sit with Ron Jerry Jeremy and ask him questions.
He's as weird as you may think he would be. Oh yeah,
I don't look, I got some stories. I got some stories for you.
I could I told you about porn, star karaoke and all that.
I got some stories. Not all of them can be told on the radio.
And no I'm not going to put them in a book. Nope,
to just have to die with me. No, just a small book,
a hand waller, oh, a picture book, maybe a crayon coloring book.
Yeah, no, to be serious. Working in the music industry in
the late nineties early two thousands, it was a different time because it was
pre internet, and it allowed a level of freedom that just will never exist
again. So you were able to move in certain spaces which would seem fantastical
to a person who never would encounter that world, the whole eyes wide shut,
all that kind of thing. Luther Campbell parties, Diddy parties, that's
the stuff that for us was very normal. When the stories come out about
Diddy or Luther Campbell or whomever, those stories were legend years and years ago.
The general public are just now hearing about some of the things which were
going on in the height of the music industry in my day, in Tawalla's
day. There's so many stories, a lot of them I've just forgotten.
I've seen things that I can't unsee. I've done some things I wish I
hadn't done, as a matter of fact, But those are just stories I
can't tell on the radio. And so what you're saying is that when you
took your bear costume to the dry cleaner, there was nobody there to film
you with their camera phone. There were camera there were camera back then.
There were no camera phones back then, right, And there were a lot
of things going on in rooms in which there were a lot of people that
just could not go on today because of social media and the internet, paparazzi,
tmz, things like that. You know, how you go to like
a Diddy party or even most celebrities. Now you have to sign an NDA.
They won't even let you near the party without signing an NDA. Is
that how you know party is going to be good? In twenty twenty four
you got to sign an NDA? Pretty much. No, not a good
party. But that type of party, you know, mo of being a
furry goes back to the eighties, So there probably were a lot of furry
parties going on when we were in the music industry. Oh probably, yeah,
probably, but it would have struck us as odd the stuff that we
were seeing. No, back then, absolutely would not a s I would
have said, yeah, where's didiot. I'll give you a perfect example.
This is a tame story. We were doing a music promotion for this thing
called the Impact Convention in Miami, and it was me Tula, it was
Adam Favors, he can tell you about this, and we were entertaining the
DJs. This is a breakfast. We called it a legs and eggs breakfast,
so that ought to tell you where all this is going. We hired
dancers I am Ron Burgundy to show up and do table dances as centerpieces as
we were serving eggs and grits and pancakes. And they were dancing over your
food and other stuff. That's that's the PG version I can tell on the
radio. I wish I did there. No, I don't want anything fall
into my food. It's like a lot of things. It sounds a whole
lot better than the reality because then in reality you realize there's certain things you
don't want to smell it. Eid no more on that note, get us
out of here. True sorry, truth story. I wasn't expecting it to
go there. Oh you said you want to be there, No you didn't.
Ladies and gentlemens and eggs can't buy am sick forty tony just in the
show. Oh no, I'm letting this go. Press the button. We
gotta say it. I had the lockout everywhere radio app. We go through
all that that's going on so that we can tell you just like you need
to know. K F I, K O, S, T H D
two Los Angeles, Orange County Live everywhere on the radio.