S3 Ep5: Danny Allman, Superfan

[00:00:16] Welcome to Homicide Life On The Set, a podcast about the Emmy Award winning television show, Homicide Life On The Street, with myself, Chris Carr, and Susan Ingram. On today's podcast, we're joined by superfan Danny Allman.

[00:01:07] Hello everybody and welcome back to Homicide Life On The Set. Today we're joined by a superfan, our first superfan of a few that we're going to have on over the next few episodes. So we have Danny Allman joining us today. So Susan, who is Danny? Because Danny's a really interesting character. Yeah, so Danny contacted me and we couldn't figure out out of the blue from where, if it was through Facebook or email or whatever. Danny, and you'll hear his origin story once again, even though he didn't work on the show, has a really interesting, fun origin story and career.

[00:01:37] Danny Allman, I worked at a local television station and at some point crossed paths with one of the videographers who worked with us on Homicide very, very frequently, Pete O'Neill. And got to know the show, just to repeat talking about it a little bit.

[00:01:56] And, and has become since then, and this was very recently since the show dropped on Peacock with the restoration, has become a superfan of the show and now has lived in Baltimore. He's been here 13 years now. So it was a really, it was a really fun conversation because he did have a tangential link to Homicide, but also talking to someone who just, you know, we're talking about on the shows a lot.

[00:02:25] People that have found the show after the fact and have fallen in love with it. People that didn't see it at the time, people who didn't live or grow up in Baltimore. So that's, that's, that's really fun. And that was a fun part of the conversation, hearing how he, he got very connected and invested with the show. Even 30 years after it, you know, it had been produced here. Yeah. Yeah. So. Really fun interview. Really fun interview. Yeah. Really fun. What a great guy. Really enthusiastic. And this is an entertaining interview, people.

[00:02:53] So like we always say, sit back and grab a coffee and enjoy. It's, it's a lot of, it's a lot of fun. Yeah. Get your squad room coffee ready and your bad donuts and enjoy the interview. And thanks to, and thanks to Danny for taking the time to talk with us because I know he's busy in his day job. So that was appreciated. Now there's been some updates with Homicide. So obviously as you were hearing this interview, the news broke to us during this interview that Peacock were pulling Homicide and they now have pulled it.

[00:03:23] So it's not available to stream on there or to be. Now where, where can we find Homicide these days? Certainly in the U S. So at the moment it's not streaming on Peacock. It went off in mid August and it has not been picked up yet by any major streaming channels, but it is still available broadcast on the Charge TV network, which you can find at chargetv.com.

[00:03:50] I don't think you can stream, you can't stream episodes from there. You can watch them. And I think you might be able to get live charge TV on, on your streaming platform. There are a lot of live TV channels that are showing Westerns and nostalgia TV and, you know, old mysteries and stuff. So you could check and see if it is on one of your streaming platforms, but it's going to be in the live format. But it is on their website as well. So if you just click on watchcharge.com forward slash watch live.

[00:04:20] Okay. So you can watch live from there. Yeah. Yeah. And you can watch it. You can also watch it in the UK, which is good. So if anybody is up at 1am EST, which is about 6am here, you can start your day with Homicide. Yes. Start your day in England with it because it's on in the middle of the night here. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:37] 1 to 2am, which is interesting. It also, if you want to, you know, pay for it, it's as far as we know, still available for purchase on Amazon, Apple TV, and a couple of other, those kind of pay streaming services. It's also still out. It's still out there in the world of DVDs, but that would be the original version, which some people might prefer because it's all the original music would be pre restoration, you know, as far as the images, the visuals go.

[00:05:07] So, and then for people who live around here, I can't vouch for anywhere else in the country, but for the Baltimore area, the Baltimore County Public Library does have all of the seasons. And if you live in Maryland anywhere, you can go to the Marina, the Marina program at your local library and you can get stuff shipped all across the state.

[00:05:31] It would also be available at the Pratt Library because you can get stuff from the Baltimore County Library from the Pratt Baltimore City Library system. So it is available at libraries for free, all the seasons, check your local public library. That was the way I was able to rewatch a lot of them before I got my DVD set.

[00:05:49] Yeah. And in the UK, it's still available on Now TV. I'm not sure how long that will be available for because it was released about six months after the US. So if we, if they're on a similar kind of contract to Peacock was, that might expire in the near future, but it is still currently available on Now TV. So if you haven't watched it fully or even watched the restoration, it might be worth doing it ASAP.

[00:06:16] And the county library system does have a free streaming service. And at this point, I think it's Hoopla. I'm not sure which one it is. I will double check and see if any of them or even maybe just the movie is available through that system where you could actually stream it from your local library system. That'd be cool. Right. Well, that's it. Now, is there anything else you want to mention, Sue? Yes, I did want to just, you know, shout out to the three major icons.

[00:06:44] Obviously, people, you know, in the film business and, you know, major political and social icons die all the time. But it was a rough couple of weeks there when we lost Dolly Parton and right after Dolly, Tim Curry. And then right after Tim Curry, Gloria Steinem. And I just wanted to mention them. I worked with Dolly Parton on a film called A Smoky Mountain Christmas directed by Henry Winkler.

[00:07:12] She was an absolute, absolute delight to work with and was absolutely the same as she presented herself everywhere. Terrifically kind, sweet, funny, energetic, lovely, lovely person. So I just wanted to give a shout out to them. And Tim Curry, what an incredible talent. Rocky Horror Picture Show was something we studied at film grad school. I don't think anybody can touch that performance.

[00:07:41] His performance in Rocky Horror Picture Show, amazing standout characterization. Just a wonderful, wonderful, you know, his ability as characterizations in all his roles. Really, what a standout person. I always remember him in Clue. I think that was the first Tim Curry performance I ever saw. It was just somewhere in the 80s. I was a kid and he was Bosworth the, is it Bosworth the butler? And there was so much energy in his performance.

[00:08:09] And he really, for me, just made that film stand out in my memory as a kid. And then, you know, and I rewatched it a few years ago. They had it on at the Prince Charles Cinema in London. Plus there's a documentary about it as well. But yeah, no, what a loss of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry and Gloria Steinem. So yeah, very sad, very sad. Yeah, Gloria Steinem, huge influence. Huge influence on my mother, who really was influenced by the women's liberation movement.

[00:08:39] And she was about the same age as my mother was. So really an amazing triumvirate of people. And we just wanted to remember them. Yeah, yeah, indeed. Well, thank you for that. Well, if there's anything else? No, just enjoy this episode. It was just delightful. And thanks again to Danny for spending the time with us. Yeah, indeed. Thank you, Danny. That was really great. Okay, well, I hope you all enjoyed this episode and we'll catch you on the other side.

[00:09:24] Danny Allman, welcome to the podcast. You're our first super fan of the show. Hi. So welcome. Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here. How are you doing today? I'm doing pretty well. Doing pretty well. How about you guys? Good. Yeah, good. Just riding out a heat wave in London at the moment. Same here in Baltimore. Yeah. We're getting ready for another one. We just had a couple of nice, really beautiful days. Yeah, this weekend was nice. Ready for some more heat. Right. Right.

[00:09:51] So maybe just as a benefit for the listeners, can you just give us a little bit about your background? Tell us a little bit about yourself. Sure. So I'm originally from Pittsburgh. Born and bred. I went to school there. My family still lives in Pittsburgh, actually. And I moved to Baltimore back in 2013 for a job at the ABC station right here in Baltimore, WMAR TV. Because I originally went to school in Pittsburgh at this small liberal arts college called Point

[00:10:19] Park University for broadcast journalism. I always wanted to work in TV. I went back. I remember as a kid, I'd be watching the credits, like trying to figure out what everybody did, you know, what the crew was, everything like that. And then in elementary school, WQED, which is the PBS station in Pittsburgh where Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was produced. They had an open house one time and we went and I ended up meeting, his name was Lenny Milledandri.

[00:10:49] He was a PA, a production assistant on Mr. Rogers and he did Prince Tuesday's The Voice and the Puppet in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Well, he actually graduated high school with my mom. They were really good friends. Wow, small world. Yeah. Yeah. So we became pen pals and one day they were taping a couple new episodes of The Neighborhood, they called it. So we got to come down. I got to tour the studio and I met Fred Rogers and I remember... No way. Yeah. And it was so funny.

[00:11:18] It was like a Neighborhood of Make-Believe day. So the set was just the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. And so Fred wasn't wearing his sweater or anything. He had his black... Because he did like almost all the puppets. Black shirt, you know, his tennis shoes, jeans. And I remember being on the studio floor between like, you know, there was a break and taping. And I just remember saying to him, I love the studio. I want to work here one day. And he was like, well, who wouldn't want to work here? This is a really exciting place to be.

[00:11:46] And it was just like in real life, you know, like on TV. Wow. So then fast forward to college, I ended up getting an internship at WQED. And by then Fred had passed away. But I got to work with some of his crew that were still there. So it was so great like hearing stories about Mr. Rogers, like how he could be. So you got bit early too, bit early by the TV bug, right? Oh God, yeah. I really did. And being interested in production.

[00:12:15] So what does an associate producer do in a TV, in sort of that kind of live TV setting? Yeah. So my first, the first actual job I had was at WTAE, which is the ABC station in Pittsburgh. And as an AP with like the news side of things, I helped write scripts for like our morning news anchors. I would print. I was also kind of like the P out.

[00:12:41] I'd print and run them out to the studio every half hour between our newscasts. Then I got to produce the cut-ins, they were called. Because like ABC is Good Morning America. So we had like four local news cut-ins during the two-hour block of GMA. So I actually got to booth it, write it, produce it, and do all that. So that's what an associate producer does. Nice. And then, so how did you get down to, did you want to come to Baltimore?

[00:13:09] Was that a, that was a promotion or sort of position to come down as an assignment editor at MAR? So what, how did you get down here? Oh, it's like, once again, it's like the right place at the right time. So my friends in Pittsburgh were on a bowling league and every two years they had a tournament. So people from out of town would come in, you know, with their teams and just, I would help out like whatever they needed. I volunteered at the tournament. Well, I'm wearing a WTA t-shirt and this guy comes up to me and he's like, isn't that

[00:13:39] the ABC station here in Pittsburgh? I said, yeah. He's like, well, I work at the ABC station in Baltimore. So Larry Carney. So he was an executive producer with like the investigative team at MAR. And we stayed in touch because he's like, well, would you ever move? I said, I'm from Pittsburgh, but in this industry, you know, you got to move, you got to go. And you know, if you, you know, if you're from Pittsburgh, you really do want to rather be in Baltimore, wouldn't you? Absolutely.

[00:14:04] Since we're Baltimore people, we have a very, very contentious relationship with Pittsburgh football. Oh, yes. Yeah. We will talk about that later. Like, I hope you're a Ravens fan now. Or at least pretend to be when you're here. That's a funny season because when I was moving here, like what it's like I got the job, you know, and I was looking for places to live in Baltimore and I'm like, I don't know this city. I mean, Baltimore, you really never crossed my mind, but it's like, it's a four hour, you know, drive to Pittsburgh.

[00:14:32] It's so close, you know, up the Pennsylvania turnpike. But it was so funny because my family's like, you better not become a Ravens fan when I moved here. So swapping religions, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, it is, it is. It's so true. I mean, I saw some yellow and black on your back there. I was just hoping that wasn't some kind of... Is that triggering you, Susan? Yeah, right. Yeah, it is. You know what, so moving, living in Baltimore now for 13 years, Baltimore and Pittsburgh

[00:15:01] are like sisters. Seriously, the cities are... Oh, so similar. Yeah. Because of the whole like, you know, and I hate that terminology, but the Rust Belt, you know, we were the big steel producers and the big industrial revolution and, you know, immigrant labor. I mean, we're so similar. One of my favorite films is set in Pittsburgh. Have you ever seen Wonder Boys of Michael Douglas? Oh, yeah. And that was filmed in Pittsburgh. I love that film. And you get a few scenes. I was just thinking the other day, I need to see that again. Oh, so good. So good.

[00:15:31] Yeah. So then, so then, so you came, so you came down. So I'm sorry, was it, I got, I got distracted by the whole thought of Pittsburgh Steelers. So my heart rate went up. So, so when you came down, was it as you came in as the assignment editor? I did. I did. So, yeah. So my friend who lived in DC, I stayed with him when I interviewed, you know, at MAR. When I got the job, I'm like, okay, I got to start looking for places to live.

[00:16:01] And Larry, the executive producer who, you know, luckily helped me because he's like, hey, I own my house now, but my old landlord might have some places open. So I called this guy and I'm like, oh, Larry Carney suggested you. And he's like, we don't really have anything now. And then he calls me back like half hour later. And he's like, actually, February 1st, starting February 1st, we're going to have a one bedroom available in the Hamden neighborhood. And I did not know neighborhoods at all.

[00:16:27] So I Google it right away, Hamden, Baltimore, and I see the Pink Flamingo Cafe Hunt and the Miracle on 34th Street lights. And I'm like, if this, these Christmas lights. Yeah. I was like, if this is the neighborhood, oh, I don't even care what this place looks like if it's a dive. I mean. What a great introduction to Baltimore to move to Hamden first. Oh, yeah. So when Melissa Leo's interview, when she was like, she hung out at Cafe Hunt a lot of times, I died hearing that because I knew Cafe Hunt really well.

[00:16:57] And that's not there anymore. It's some fancy, schmancy restaurant now, which makes no sense to me in Baltimore. Any good? The Dutch is any good? I have not tried it. It's like. I refuse to go. Me too. I'm the exact same way. I'm like, I don't like the uppityness, you know. I mean, it's fine. You know, it's fancy and it's the restaurant owners that have a lot of really good restaurants around. Right. You know, it would be nice if it was still a diner. Right, right, right.

[00:17:23] So you got to WMAR as an assignment editor and you lived in Hamden. I love that. Oh, yeah. That's why. Oh, my gosh. And so how close? Oh, my gosh. And how close were you? You're like right near T.B. Hill in Hamden. Like you just had to go across the railroad tracks. Well, the funny thing was I always laughed because I was literally right next to T.B. Hill, except M.A.R. is on York Road in Towson. Oh, the studio road. Right, right, right. That's right. Right, right. You know, you're near the transmitter, but not the studio. So funny.

[00:17:50] Oh, but I did want to say when Bolander says I'm just a poor, dumb white boy from Hamden, I howled hearing that and reading it in David Simon's book because I'm like, that's what I feel like. But yeah, I mean, Hamden is a real mix of like, you know, old school, long time, long, long, long time Baltimore families. And then like gentrification mixed together, which can, you know, which can be a good mix and can be a volatile mix depending on, you know, who you are.

[00:18:18] But it's also incredibly characterful. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But once again. Yeah. Just a great place to hang out. Lots of great restaurants and shops. Yeah. Just it's a beautiful little it's a beautiful little area. Yeah. And we're such in like a little bubble up here. You know, it's very because it's very isolated from the city because, you know, kind of Baltimore is kind of has a very big grid. But the way Hamden is. Neighborhood. Yes. Very neighborhood. Yeah. So that so you're still there. This is we're talking to you from Hamden. Yeah. You're actually. I love it.

[00:18:48] And your skylights. I love that. So, you know, where I actually live now, it's part of Hamden, but we're our own little enclave. It's Stonehill where the where that Pitbull Sessions episode was shot. Oh, you wrote it there. That literally is right behind my house. Sort of between Hamden and Woodbury. Sort of over in between. Yeah. Because Chris, remember the episode with Pebbleton and Falzone with the Pitbulls? Yeah. That is my neighbor's house. Those stone that when I started the episode,

[00:19:16] because the episode starts with them driving through Stonehill. And I'm like, oh, my God. Are they literally in Stonehill right now? Because nobody knows we're back here at these houses. And I couldn't believe. Nobody knows where. I didn't. I had never seen it before until we shot that episode. That's where I am. I'm like, where the heck are we? Seriously. It's really interesting. Who was the guest star on that? That was somebody big on there. Oh, yeah. Paul Giamatti. That's right. Paul Giamatti. Wow. Paul Giamatti knows where Stonehill is. And most Baltimoreans don't.

[00:19:46] Which is pretty interesting. I always say that never gets old to me. When I get like a delivery or something back here. I'm sure. It's like these old, you know, old time guys come out. They like pop out of their car looking like, I've heard like it called a fever dream back here. They're like, I lived my whole life in Baltimore. I never knew this village was back here. It's crazy. We own the streets. The way the deeds worked out because they were mill number one housing. Really? Yes. So your property got home. We're in charge of paving them, plowing them.

[00:20:13] So, you know, this crazy winter we had in January. Oh, my gosh. Forget it. Oh, my God. My car was frozen in. Buried. Buried for like two weeks. I could not get out. Goodness. Yeah. Yeah. So there you are. So you're still there. Oh, I love it. Okay. Well, I'll have to come down and have coffee sometime. Please do. Yeah. Revisit Stonehill. Maybe I'll take some, we'll do a little video for the show. Like, here's where the pit bulls were. Oh, yeah. You should see because now when I walk past that house, I'm always like homicide house. All right. I love coffee. Yeah. It's hard not to do that in Baltimore.

[00:20:42] Everywhere you go, it's like homicide location, homicide location, homicide location. Yeah, they make a good YouTube video at some point. Somebody just doing a tour of the locations. I mean, we've got one we shot together. Well, you and I did. We have to get that going somewhere. Oh, really? We put that. We met up in. When Chris was here. For the reunion. Oh, for the reunion or whatever. I filmed some bits on my phone, which I've yet to edit, just because my entire life is editing. So the thought of editing, I don't know why, just the thought of editing something gives me a mental block. I never do.

[00:21:11] But I do need to edit it. Where were we all? Fels Point? Vaccaro's? Yeah, we went all over the place. We went past John Waters' house. Fort McHenry. John's house. Yeah, we went everywhere. It was great. It was really good fun. It was really good fun. It was. Yeah, yeah. It must be quite trippy for you living in Baltimore then as a fan of the show. Because I remember I used to live in a place called Hounslow where they filmed Bend It Like Beckham. And when I finished watching that film, suddenly walking around Hounslow felt very different.

[00:21:40] And then the same thing for Brick Lane. I used to, I went to see the film Brick Lane at a cinema in Brick Lane. Then you walk out after. It's like, oh my God. And I get that a lot elsewhere too. I mean, what is that like for you living in Baltimore as a fan of the show? Oh, yeah. So that's actually what drew me in to Homicide to begin with was the locations, just recognizing everything, you know, and seeing like Baltimore in the 90s versus what it's like, you know, in the 2000s.

[00:22:06] So I love being able to identify different places and just every scene. I mean, every time that it was, you know, a new homicide, so it was a whole new house or whatever. It was so great being able to like pinpoint them or try to look them up on Google Maps and see what they are like now. Or, oh, how do I recognize? You know, that was one of the things that really drew me into the show. Oh, that's cool. So yeah. So, so yeah. So back up. So, so you were an assignment editor there and then you met Pete, who was our, our cameraman

[00:22:33] who did all the video anytime, pretty much anytime there was a, an episode and many episodes included one of the characters being inundated by the press when they walked out to front door or being at a press conference on the, on the squad room sets. And Pete O'Neill would come over from channel two with his rig and be our cameraman. And sometimes I believe, I'm pretty sure he also shot video for us that we used as video.

[00:23:01] Oh, you know, we used as the video side. I think we did sometime, not all the time, but definitely because yeah. Right. Some of Pete's stuff, I think he actually shot. That's interesting to hear because right when like Max becomes, yeah. When Max became like the videographer, it was interesting to see because not so much on the streaming, it looks kind of all the same quality, but on the DVD, you can tell it's tape. Like when it's Max's. Yeah. I think, but I do think some of Max's stuff is, is fudged and it was stuff that we shot

[00:23:30] as film and then fudged in, you know, with an effect afterward. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The fake viewfinder, that kind of thing. Yeah. So. So, so, so, so tell us about, yeah, M-A-R and Pete and then, and, and I want to hear some of Pete's stories he related to. Well, the funny thing was, I mean, you know, cause Pete and I were birthday twins, by the way, August 12th. We discovered we were the same. Oh, really? Oh, happy birthday coming up. Oh, thank you. Yeah. So Pete was, he was so great to work with. So as an assignment editor, basically it was kind of like what I did as an AP in Pittsburgh.

[00:24:00] I was in charge of the desk. And I would say that's the heartbeat of the newsroom. Like where news breaks, it all comes through me. So like we had police scanners, you know, fire listening to anytime there were police involved shootings, fires, whatever. We went, then we confirm it. Yeah. We'd have to call like a public information officer just to be able to run with the story, you know, to post it online, to be able to air it. But I was also in charge of assigning crews like Pete and reporters to different stories.

[00:24:31] Like, you know, depending on what was leading the day, you know, if it was a follow up, because I worked night side, it was called. So I helped plan the 11 o'clock news. And Pete was a night side photographer. So we always worked the same shift. Pete was so great there because, I mean, he had been there since 1985 and he knew the streets, you know, and he was very into Baltimore. So he, we each, each photographer had their own like station vehicle. Well, his SUV had a scanner in it.

[00:24:58] So if you didn't assign Pete a story, he would just get in his, his little Chevy Equinox and drive around listening to the radio. And he'd call the desk. He'd call me and be like, Hey Danny, I'm going to go check this out. I'm like, okay, Pete. But sometimes there was an interview or something I had to have him do. I'm like, okay, Pete, well, can you hold off for a minute? Like, can you do this first? And then, you know, when I started talking to him and getting to know him, he said that he, he's like, oh, well, you know, I've done, I've worked with like HBO and worked with some other stuff.

[00:25:26] And he said, I was like the technical advisor on homicide. And I, and I had never heard of the show yet. And I'm like, oh, what was that? He's like, oh, it was like a police procedural on NBC in the nineties. And I'm like, oh, that's interesting. And I looked it up and you know, it had never streamed anywhere. It seemed so hard to find. There was just like the out of print box that I didn't think it was still in print at that time. And I'm like, oh, that seems so interesting. I'm like, oh, that seems like a cool show. And he didn't really tell me much more about working on the show.

[00:25:55] And then when it went to streaming and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to, I had Peacock, I'm going to give it a shot. So I added it to my queue and then I started watching it soon after it dropped. And I, that's the, I was hooked instantly because the right, the writing, the, I mean, and the acting and the characters were so kind of already well, well defined right from the, the start. And, and it, and, you know, that what's making, what makes a good show is the writing first of

[00:26:24] all, and then the chemistry and the characters and the actors had such good chemistry. So that's what really dragged me in. And then when I started saying Pete, like making a cameo constantly, I would always like take a screen grab and send it to my friend, Larry, the executive producer. And I'm like, here's Pete. And he's like, oh geez, there he is again. That's really interesting to talk to somebody who did not grow up in Baltimore, who did not

[00:26:48] live here when we were shooting it, who discovered it happenstance many years later, then couldn't find it because it was not anywhere. I think right after it, it went off NBC, I think it was on, what one did I say it was on? It was on Court TV or something. Yes. It was on Court TV broadcast for a minute. Yeah. And, and then nothing like you said, until it came on to Peacock and, and Tubi. It's not on Tubi now. Oh, it's not.

[00:27:17] It got taken off Tubi. Yeah. Well, you know what? I looked on my, on the Peacock app. It's leaving Peacock in like 25 days. I guess they're not renewing the contract. Oh no. Oh, we didn't know that. Oh no. That's terrible. We'll have to do that in the intros and outros. I don't know. I don't know. Well then, then it'll, we'll have to scan all the other streamers and see who, because somebody's going to pick it up. You know?

[00:27:42] I swear Netflix or Amazon would have been a better place for it just because I think younger people would have caught up with it. But, you know. Yeah. That's. I know. I wanted to tell you guys. Who's leaving? I mean, that's NBC. They produced it initially. Why wouldn't they just keep it? That's why I was really surprised because that's what I was thinking too. I'm like, is it going to pop up somewhere else? But I'm like, NBC is the one behind it. I mean, don't they still kind of co-own the show? I mean, I don't understand. No. Nobody understands. What?

[00:28:09] They think they're going to make more money selling it to another streamer or something? Oh no. We need to contact Tom. Thanks for telling us because we did not know that. It's hard to break the news. We'd have hated to know it after the fact. Right. Right. We'd have to look that up. But it made sense because didn't it drop like August of 2024? So that must've been a two year contract or something. I'll email Tom and see what he knows about it. Fontana, right. But hopefully it bounces over to somebody else.

[00:28:34] You know, I mean like Plex or Pluto or somebody where we can tell people to go watch it free. If someone would grab it, you know? If we could get a new DVD or Blu-ray release of the restored version, but with the original soundtrack, that would please everybody. Right. Well, it wouldn't because so many people don't have DVD players or VHS players or cassette players or any kind of player. But they can get them again. We're all going analog now. So, you know, it could be the cool kids. That's true. They can get them again.

[00:29:03] And that's a good thing to always tell people is they say, listen, you know, just everyone relying on streaming all the time, you're at the whims of them. Yeah. So when they remove something, it's gone. Yeah. So physical media is always the best way to always have something, always be able to, you know, watch it forever. Yeah. So true. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So, okay. Like I had a heart attack when you said that. So let me calm down from that. Guys, two triggers today. Goodness. Great. That's right. I literally just discovered that when I looked at Peacock.

[00:29:32] Because, you know. Wait a minute. Where's my medication? Yeah. Oh. You're going to get my digitalis. I don't have that. Just kidding. Oh, man. So then. Oh, so in M.A.R. Yeah. So just a little bit back to what I covered there. I mean, I helped cover the Freddie Gray protests. Oh, gosh. Yeah. Like, you know, send crews out to the scene for that. I don't know if you remember, but do you remember her? She was nicknamed Riot Mom.

[00:30:00] She was the mother who was, who saw her son being like part of the Bondi when they were Bondi against the police line. Oh, the kids. Yeah. Well, it was our photographer. It wasn't Pete. His name was Manny. Was the one that was, it was so crazy because when that, you know, because it was right when the kids were getting out of school and my shift started at 3.30. Getting off the bus. We're trying to get to the Metro, you know, trying to get through there. Well, I remember Manny calling in and he's like, Danny, he's like, I'm on the other side of the police line.

[00:30:28] All of a sudden I was hearing like bricks and things being, our van, you know, was getting hit and stuff. And I said to Manny, I don't know what to tell you. You try to get, you know, hide behind the van, put, go back in the van and try to shoot from the van, you know? Well, finally, when things were starting to calm down, he was able to get out and all of a sudden he calls in and he's like, Danny, feed in. So one of the things that we also, I did on the desk was I would roll on live video and pictures when it was coming in. And sometimes when it was like a breaking news, really national breaking news, ABC network

[00:30:57] wanted our feed, you know? So I'd be like, yeah, here it is. It's coming in live or whatever. You know, I coordinate all that. But well, Manny's like, Danny, I got some great video of a mother pulling her son out and like hitting him to get him out of the, cause he was starting to like, you know, protest with his friends. And so she was nicknamed Riot Mom. And that was our camera. That was our video that, and somehow we couldn't even, we somehow Good Morning America was able

[00:31:25] to find her and put her on a train to New York for the next day for GMA before we got to even interview her. But it was, it was our footage that did that. Wow. That's amazing. And interesting. I love this. It's, it's so true. Like the show must go on. It wasn't like Manny get out of there. No, I'm sorry. It was Manny find somewhere where you can get a shot. That's exactly it. Like when we were getting, we were, there was gunshots going off somewhere when we were shooting around Druid Lake Park. And it wasn't like everybody go home.

[00:31:54] It was like everybody ducked behind a car. And then after the shooting stopped, it was like back to work. That is, you know, that's so funny. Wow. Yeah. That was a horrible, horrible, horrible couple of days. I mean, it just, it was, it was completely understandable and also just so sad. It really was. It was just sad. I know. Cause we had to have a, because there was a curfew in the city and like I worked, you know, till 1130.

[00:32:22] So I had to have a like signed letter from WMAR in case I would get stopped to say, Hey, I'm a member of the media, you know, I'm the press. So I, I can, we kind of had like a hall pass, you know, to be able to be out after, after hours. But that actually it's, it's terrible. You know how, like they always say if it bleeds, it leads. It's, that's actually one of the reasons I was offered the job at CNN was because of helping cover Freda Gray, you know, and I kind of told the recruiter and everybody at

[00:32:52] CNN what I did and that helped me get my job there. So. Yeah. And I remember going down after the fact to the protests in front of city hall, just as a person, you know, just to go down, you know, support. Wow. So yeah. So you've had quite the, you've had quite the experience, not on homicide, but quite the experience in Baltimore, in Baltimore-ishness things happening and huge, huge stories like that.

[00:33:19] So did you, so have you like, while you're watching the show, since you didn't grow up here, did you recognize every place or did you go sort of seek out some of the locations and have you been in, in the, in the wreck pier since it became a schmancy hotel, since it became the Pendry? No, I. Oh, you haven't? I have not. Oh, wow. I have not actually been into the Pendry. Oh, you have to go. Is it? It's really cool. Yeah. You have to go, at least go up to, just talk to, there'll be somebody there because

[00:33:48] the upstairs is for like for catering and for events. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And so the main staircase is still there, all back to their original glory of beauty. And the, and the ballroom upstairs, which was completely, you know, subverted by our sets where you could sort of see some of the big arch windows, but not really. You couldn't see the seal. Obviously, we're not shooting up at the ceiling. You couldn't really see the whole scope of how beautiful that ballroom was.

[00:34:17] So if you go over there, go over to the left side where the original main staircase was. And if the doors are locked or they're, you know, just say to somebody, hey, just tell you the full tour. They'll give you the tour of your order. Oh, right. I want to, like, scout. I want to scout it out. They'll hand me the brochures and stuff. Yeah.

[00:34:47] But it is, it is definitely, it's definitely worth going over there. Of course, you didn't see it, what it looked like before it was changed over, but also the bar behind. So there's a bar, obviously bar in a restaurant in the area that used to be the garage where all the cars were. And the restaurant in the front looks out through the windows, which were the archway of the garage. Now there's big windows there.

[00:35:14] But if you go behind the restaurant, there's a bar back there. And that's where it's just hanging out in and being in that space. Wow. So that's... And then the whole rest of it's open to the back that goes back to the pool, which is all that open space used to be the covered garage. Okay. Yeah. Which is now open back to the... And by the way, let me give Pendry a commercial. It used to be, I'm assuming so, they're a really nice bar back by the pool. And the pool looks right out over the harbor. It's really nice back there.

[00:35:44] Go back there and have a martini or something. Yeah, I definitely will. So that's really what it's like. Yeah, definitely go. Definitely go. It's amazing. That's what I was wondering, because I was like, how did they fill that in? Because I knew that was the garage, like where all the cars and... Is that where the trailers were kept too? Is that where you guys had your trailers? Trailers. Yeah. Yep. Trailers, all the cars, golf carts, all that. Yeah. Back in there. And they all filled that in now. So is that all actually like part of the building like enclosed now? So if you go into the center, if you go up the front where, you know, where the, you

[00:36:12] know, the, I don't know if it's a term anymore, the bellhops are that, you know, Greek people that come up. There's a little like, you know, arc driveway. People drive up and drop their bags off. And you go in the front, but yeah, right then be right behind them is this big window in the arch, which used to be the open garage. And behind that's the restaurant and the bar and past the bar is all open, but now it's really beautifully landscaped courtyard that goes out to the pool in the back that looks over the harbor. Oh, that's incredible.

[00:36:42] So yeah, Pendry, send us a couple dollars. Buy me a coffee dot com. That's right. For that commercial. We need, we need to get some underwriting going on this show. Oh, but, but, but back to the, to the rec pier, cause you asked me your question is like, did you know about it? And the thing is I did it, but you won't believe this. So my first weekend in Baltimore was when the Ravens won the 2013 Superbowl. Oh, amazing. I was going to ask you in my brain, I'm going, okay. Wasn't that like a Superbowl year? Yes.

[00:37:11] So my mom took a week off work and came down to help me move in and she's like, I cannot believe I'm in Baltimore right now for, for this. Like she, but that day. Did she put her earplugs in? Superbowl. Or did she wear her Steelers t-shirt? That would have been dangerous. On the Avenue. We went over and was celebrating, you know, here in Hamden. The wind. But that day, Superbowl Sunday, we actually decided, cause my friend from DC came down to help, to came up to help me move in.

[00:37:36] And we actually came, we went down to Fells to kind of, you know, see the sights. And we actually, there's a picture of us on the, what is that pier, what is the pier next to where the Pemdry is? The pier like right next to it, you know? With the Broadway pier on that side or the other side? Is it the Broadway pier? I think it's the Broadway pier. Where the morgue sets used to be. I guess the one to the, like if you're looking at the Pemdry. The one that's open that doesn't have buildings on it is the Broadway pier. Yes. We actually all got a photo at the Broadway pier.

[00:38:05] And I'm like, little did I know there's Homicide basically, you know, in the background of me. And that was 2013 before it had been touched. So it was still empty. It's empty for years and years and years and years. I can't believe it was right behind me and I wasn't even aware of what it was. Now you know. Right. Now you know. Now Superbowl Sunday. That is hysterical. I was down there screaming and down whatever Pratt Street screaming my head off when the parade went by. Oh, wow.

[00:38:35] That's for sure. That's great. I had an extra location question if you wanted me to ask you this point. I mean, do you feel, how do you feel Baltimore sort of changed since seeing it on TV in the 90s? Has anything stood out for you as a positive or a negative? It honestly seems a bit more like desolate than it did in the 90s. Wow. It seems like it's a little bit more empty. Some of it seems a lot more gentrified versus like what it looked like, you know, from the

[00:39:03] on location, from all the scenes, from what I can tell. There's just so much more. Another thing that even in Hamden here, there's so much more graffiti and things are just kind of, it feels like some things are more run down than they were in the 90s. But like I said, it just seems more isolated, more desolate. It's like smaller businesses are more, it seems like things are more out of business. Almost to a point. But then, like you said, then there are all that new stuff like Harbor East and all that

[00:39:31] that did not exist at all. Like if you went down to the end of Thames Street where it dead ended, we would shoot down there sometimes. And I remember being down there, I think at the corner of Caroline and Thames Street and looking over at what had been an asphalt capped lot that was capped because it used to be a chromium plant. And they had capped it with asphalt. And there were guys over there, not kidding, and I think I might have told this story before,

[00:39:56] sorry, in full hazmat suits walking around on the capped asphalt. And they were, I think they were sinking core samples because at that point, even that long ago, I think they were trying to figure out when they could or would be able to develop that area. And of course now Harbor East is just like, I mean, that was nothing. That was just a big, empty industrial nothingness there. Jeez. And now it's just high rise hotels and restaurants.

[00:40:26] I mean, it is unrecognizable if you go down that way on the water on that side that where nothing used to be. So it's kind of interesting. Oh my. But yeah, I think the desolate part, I don't really feel that way, but it may be because I saw it change over time. But I think the one part that's disturbing because I remember the inner harbor before there was, you know, the light, the pavilions before all that development and help before Harbor Place was there.

[00:40:53] And actually there were, I don't know if it was a year or two when it was just brick walkways and lantern lampposts around. It was a beautiful open space. All had been redone before the buildings were built. I actually have 16 millimeter black and white footage of that in one of the films I made in college. Oh, wow. So I remember Harbor Place before and now to see it emptied, almost emptied out is really kind of sad.

[00:41:18] And I, you know, I haven't gotten a good look at the, you probably have at the plans of what they're going to do. And I think they're going to put a high rise right on the water. I think, well, let's not get political. I think the high rises should stay on the corner there, should stay across the street. They shouldn't be right on, right on the harbor because then you're blocking it for everybody that's coming by and walking up and all that. Anyway. I agree with you. So that, those, those are, those, that's definitely sad to see Harbor Place mostly empty.

[00:41:49] Right. Right. But let's not get too depressed. So, so did you, so if you have gone through, have you seen all the seasons and all 120 episodes now? I absolutely have. Yes. You have. All 100, what, 22 episodes in the film. Something like that. Yeah. And the crossovers with Law & Order. Yeah. Yeah. So do you have, do you have specials, like, you know, favorite episodes, favorite characters, favorite storylines? Oh yeah. I know. Favorite scripts. That's such a loaded question. I mean, cause.

[00:42:19] Totally. We'd talk another three hours. Right, right, right, right, right. I mean, of course, you know, Frank Pendleton, you know, absolute, my favorite, absolute favorite. He, you know, he, like Andre brought so much to the role. It was just so wonderful. And, and, and it was so great. Now see, that's what I also love about living in Baltimore. Oh, I guess we could talk about the John Loire's connection. I know all of John's, the ones that still live in Baltimore, Susan Lowe, George Figgs, who owned the Orpheum.

[00:42:47] And theater across that used to be across from. Yes. You know, you guys. Yeah. The Daily Grind. Right. Right. But, and he, and I, so I said, oh, did you, did you, were ever involved with homicide? Like, did you get to do anything? And he said, well, he's like, cause they were always shooting. They were just right here. And he said, I said, how about like Andre? Did you ever meet Andre? And he said, Andre was such a down to earth, wanted to know everybody's stories. He said, cause one time, I guess him and Andre got to talking and, you know, George

[00:43:16] was like a projectionist by trade. And Andre asked him all about it. Like, what was it like? You know, how, how, how do you do that? Like, how, how, how is it being a projectionist? What, you know? And, and then back to when they shot Pitbull Sessions here in my neighborhood, my, my neighbor Alice, she's been here since like the eighties. So she's seen it all. She's like our, I would say the mayor of Stonehill. And so she got to meet Andre when, when you guys were shooting and she said he was such

[00:43:43] a nice down to earth guy, met everybody in the neighborhood, you know, is so, so So, so I love hearing these stories. Like, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So how about any episodes stand out for you? The hat. Yeah. I really love that. Oh, interesting. Really? Why that particularly? Well, I love the Lake Tomlin and it was so funny, like, you know, seeing her cause I'd like, and that was the best thing that when I was watching the show for the first time all the way through, you never know who was going to pop up, you know, cause I'd see

[00:44:12] the opening credits with the guest stars, but I loved seeing it sometimes like, you know, the, the pre credits. And it was like, you know, that episode starts with Lily barreling down, you know, uh, Ellicott city. Right. Smashing it. Running into a fire. And the door opens and it's Lily Tomlin. Like, oh my God, Lily Tomlin is guest story. Really, really well done. And it was so fascinating listening to about how, what did you guys, was that the one time you actually cut one of the Cavaliers in half? Cut a Cavalier in half.

[00:44:42] And you were like, towed it, what, up 83 or something? Oh, with plexi across the front so they could shoot through the front. Cause they couldn't sit in the back seat with Lily. Right. Cause she was the whole, all the scenes in the car were with Lily in the back seat. Right, right, right. That was, that was fascinating to me. And I liked it cause you guys were actually out of Baltimore for a change. Right. Because we're 40. Yep. And just, well, just last night I watched the last of the watermen and that was another good episode. Oh, that was beautiful. Yeah. Was that shot on Tilgman Island?

[00:45:11] You know, we, we were back and forth about that. I have to ask somebody else about that. How far we went, you know, cause there's tons and tons of places we could have been on the water, right. That, that weren't like St. Mary's County and there weren't, you know, way down there. And I can't remember. I mean, I remember, I don't think I took a crew van. I want to say we drove to that location. So I don't remember where it was. Yeah. Cause I just thought it was Tilgman Island because of, you know, Melissa Leo's brother

[00:45:40] or whatever, or her boyfriend or the hat that he had said Tilgman Island. And that's why I'm like, oh, were they actually there? No, I don't think we went that far. And also the, the bar originally, the bar that we shot in that the, whoever, the brother, the friend. Yeah. So that is next to, if you go down Barrison Point Road to the end down off of Essex, like Essex Middle River area, there's a, there's a little, what's it called?

[00:46:09] The something aisle in the, there's a restaurant all the way at the end, right on the water. And next to it used to be a bar. I don't know if it was the bar from the restaurant or that originally was the restaurant and then it moved. Anyway, so that, that, that was, was really basically Essex on the water, the two, the restaurant area, an area where they, she walks out with her boyfriend on the water. Yeah, right.

[00:46:36] That was behind what is now, what is it called? I used to go there all the time with my mom. It's a great place to go, really easy to get to. And just, you feel like you're somewhere else because you're right, you know, right down on the water. I do not know that's where that was. Yeah. And I'll have to see if who remembers where we did the boats, where we got on the boats because I can't remember. Yeah. Okay. You know, that was the way, how old were we? A long time ago. But yeah, that's a beautiful, that's a beautiful episode. And also it was nice to see that, you know, it, it always is nice every once in a while

[00:47:07] when they open up stories outside of their, you know, original sort of, you know, hot house, you know, we had really like a hot house of, of locations in Baltimore and to go somewhere else, you know, it was even, even just when we went to Druid Lake Park or Patterson Park where you're sort of more in an open area. Yeah, right. And even, who were we talking to? Alan Taylor the other day when we shot the night stuff at the zoo at that, the original,

[00:47:34] and I think at the time they were the administrative offices that one of the original buildings at the Baltimore Zoo we shot outside of. So, you know, getting outside in the air a little bit was always a little, was always nice to be outside. Outside the stages and the city a little bit. I like the episodes when you were guys like driving around like Druid Hill Park or whatever. I'm laughing because I'm like, you know, because I know the area and I'm like, oh, that's just like an enclosure. They're just kind of going around and around. Around circles, right. Yeah.

[00:48:04] And sometimes it's hard to sort of figure out where we were because we might have been right in Druid Hill or right in Patterson Park. But if all you're seeing is trees and a road, it's hard to know exactly where we were. Another good episode I love is the documentary. Oh, yeah. Yes. Oh, my God. Just, and it was so, and back to a point, I did read David Simon's, I read Homicide, right after I finished the series. I got his book. Oh, after you finished. That's interesting.

[00:48:33] That's how I did it. Wow. That's interesting to read it after so that you like recognize so many of the stories as you're going through it. So many stories, so many like dialogue that they put into the show straight from his book. And that's why I was thinking with the documentary episode when they did those like what random thoughts when they were like talking to the camera is like it's suspect in the box, you know, so much of that dialogue was taken right from David's book, which was really fascinating. Yeah.

[00:49:02] So I saw the episode, you know, the documentary. And then when I was reading the dialogue, I'm like, oh, my God. It was totally like how Frank was saying like, you know, bunk and saying, you know, things right to the camera. I'm like, wow, this is directly right out of David's book. Yeah, it's interesting. When we interviewed Tom and he talked about like literally using every paragraph, every sentence, every period, they squeezed everything they could out of it. I remember hearing that they like picked it like a bone. Yeah.

[00:49:27] And once they'd done that, they had such a sense of the types of the types of stories that they then, you know, then they were original stories after that. But obviously, you know, super based on all the things they knew from from writing from reality. Right. Right. The original, the source material. Mm hmm.

[00:49:46] What's interesting, you're the first person as a super fan we've talked to that didn't work on the show, you know, that isn't reflecting from 30 years ago or reflecting 30 years ago. So why why do you think, you know, they have everybody's got different ideas about why and you are a person who 30 years later was interested in it.

[00:50:11] It did retain interest for you because you've never seen you had never seen it before. So what what was it that captivated you about, you know, a 30 year old television show? And did it feel that old? And and why do you think it does still grab people like it grabbed you?

[00:50:35] Honestly, I think it's just it's the the production values, the style of shooting, which I really love. You know, like film noir ish almost art house kind of, but also the writing and the acting, the chemistry between the characters, the development as the show went on. I think that's what's you know, that's kind of like that's will always be timeless. I feel a good story, a good acting, you know, and I think that's why that could never go out of style.

[00:51:05] It's just it's just so well done. And do you feel like so many of the story lines are just, you know, and it's interesting talking to you as a news producer. So many of the story lines, you know, are are reflective or universal of what's still happening. It's not old news, right? It's not old news. I mean, literally talking to a news person. It's not old news, right? Is that some of it? Do you think? I think so. I think so.

[00:51:34] Yeah, because it's so many of those story lines, you know, of the homicides could be still existing today. You know, I mean, that is so funny because when I see current storyline, I mean, current real news events in Baltimore now, like the one where that there was like that, I guess there was a bad batch of drugs. This was like maybe a couple months ago. Yeah. And everybody was ODing, you know, overdosing. Yeah.

[00:52:03] Down here in Baltimore. And I was like, oh, sounds like a job for the homicide team. You know, really? Really? It's like things that could still exist today. And I feel like that's why it's still so like timeless. Yeah, that was, yeah, people were falling out on the street, Chris. I mean, like really bad. Like, was it 20, 25 people? Yeah. All at the same time. I mean, they had. That's like Luther Mahoney story, isn't it? They had AMTs. Yeah. Yeah, right.

[00:52:31] All over the city, probably county trying to cover, you know, go helping people. And I'm sure they had their, like a ton of naloxone down there trying to help people, revive people. I think, I think the first time, I don't think anybody died. Am I correct? Yeah, I think you're correct. Yeah. I don't think anybody. And then there was a second smaller one, I think, more recently. But yeah, that's interesting. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:52:56] So I do want to go back real quick because John Waters obviously is a big Baltimore name and obviously is also one of those people who just loves Baltimore and features Baltimore in his films and also was in Homicide twice. Yes. So, so tell me, so, so tell me about, about the camp that you go to in Connecticut, which I can't believe I've never heard of.

[00:53:22] And also I do want to find out whether you were stalking Vince Perrano's house. Now you ended up to be, we have a photo of Danny in front of Vince's old, like the three or four, was it four row houses they used to live to, that they'd put together in fells. Well, they had, they basically made, made a villa. It was like an Italian villa in there. So how did, so, so those two, so first tell us about stalking Vince's house. Oh, you want to hear that? Oh, you want to hear that? Meeting the origin, the new owners.

[00:53:52] And then, and then just curious about the John's camp and if you're still doing that and what that's all about. So, okay. Well, yeah, let's backtrack. I became a John Waters fan in Pittsburgh. My friend, we went to see, it was like a midnight showing at this Cole theater that did the, they called the Moonlight Matinees. And in the summer, they'd show like cult classic films. And that's the first time I saw Female Trouble. And that was my first John Waters film I saw, even before Hairspray. And I'm like, wow, this guy is nuts. This is a wild, you know.

[00:54:21] And even then his, all the characters he pulled in his early films were straight from Baltimore. So I heard the Baltimore accent, all that. I'm like, wow, Baltimore seems like a wild town. So I was kind of hooked into John Waters' world. And then when I moved to Baltimore, of course, the first thing I did was like, oh, where does he live? You know, I want to find it because everyone's like, he still lives in town. You'll see him around, you know. And I finally saw him like a year after I moved and just walking down the street one day.

[00:54:48] Well, so then I find out this camp John Waters that he started in 2017. It's going to be, this is going to be his last year for it because I think he turned 80 and I guess the contract with the camp in Connecticut ended. So this is it. Well, I've gone now. I'm going to be a senior. So I'm going to graduate. It's hilarious. So it's my fourth year going. I'm going to get it. He gives you a diploma. He says your name and you get to shake his hand. It's like the first, because it's a weekend and it's the first night when we have dinner together and him and Mink stole.

[00:55:18] It feels like you're at like a wedding or something. They sit at like the head table and all the campers sit like around them, you know, and it's really cute. Then he does this like. Is it like a seminar? Do you show his films? Yeah. Or is it a campy camp? I mean, what is it? We stay in cabins. It's like, it's like an adult. How do you say it? Like adult, a kid's camp for adults basically. So we stay in all these cabins and throughout the weekend, every afternoon you have like

[00:55:45] a Q&A and lunch with one of his camp counselors. So I've met Kathleen Turner, Johnny Knoxville. It's always actors from his films. Kathleen Turner was great. Oh, Sheila's something else. Meeting her. She brought her daughter. She brought her. So her daughter was actually hanging out with us and like partying with us because so. So then John, then John does his Q&A. And also we're like his test audience because you know how he does his like his one man Christmas show every year.

[00:56:15] He tries new material on us. We're like the guinea pigs at Camp John Waters. I love it. So it's been so great meeting people and you can ask them whatever you want. Then there's like the photo op. Oh, and I also met Melanie Griffith two years ago. And my grandma was turning 90. So I'm like, Melanie, can I record a video of you saying like happy birthday to my grandma? She was like, happy birthday, Francine. Happy birthday. Okay. But so. But anyway, tying that with like.

[00:56:45] Oh, because also when I moved to Baltimore, you know, they always say welcome to Smalltimore. It's such a small world. Smalltimore. I just said that to Chris today. Oh, really? On who everybody knows everybody. I'd never heard that phrase until today. Oh, really? Just today, Chris. Yeah, just today. Welcome to Smalltimore when I first moved here. But but it was so fascinating. And Susan, listening to you and Chris on your podcast here, how how all of you worked on John's films before Homicide started.

[00:57:15] And during. I mean, I left Homicide to go and I can't remember which one it was because I did Serial Mom before Homicide. So it must have been Pecker Pecker that left and and and came back. Yeah. Yeah. Because and Pecker was all shot in Hamden. And like that was my neighborhood was the basis for that whole film. Yeah. That's fun going around seeing those sites, you know. But yeah. So so tying that into Vince, you know, because like Vince got his start with John.

[00:57:45] He was a Micah graduate. And Pat Moran. And Pat Moran. They were all the whole original crew. We have to get them on. Gosh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And talking about shooting in Hamden, we shot I think now it I think it's now that it's the I think it was the corner. The corner restaurant that's now the new Sushi Hana or Hana sushi. Yes. And 36. I don't remember what it was at the time. I think we shot in that space. As and wasn't like a pizza shop because when I moved here was Philly's best. It was still a pizza place.

[00:58:14] Yes. Yeah. And I on on John's movies, unlike on Homicide, there were no marks hardly ever on the show. On John's movies, we put marks on the floor. So I was looking later. I don't know if it was on his website or on someplace that had the photographs and the things that he has become known as art.

[00:58:38] You know, his gallery of, you know, he does sort of, I don't want to call it found art, but stuff where he takes like deconstructed photos of films on off the television where the colors are all munged.

[00:58:58] Oh, uh-huh. One was red and one was black is what I remember. But anyway, yeah, Pecker.

[00:59:24] So then how did you end up in front of Vince's house? So since, you know, there's a bunch of us campers that live in Baltimore, and this is like the Holy Grail, you know, this is Mecca for John Waters, you know. Right. So we started doing a camper reunion pretty much every May. So anyone who can come into Baltimore, we have like a host hotel, you know, with a bunch of rooms.

[00:59:48] And then our friend who lives off Falls Road on the other side of Hamden, she'll have a welcome barbecue like Friday night, and we make a weekend out of it. So this year, we were able to get, do you know Marmia? That's that, like, it's the archive. They bought all of WJZ's film and everything. They're archiving and everything.

[01:00:08] One of the archivists offered a tour of Fells, and he took us all around to the shooting locations of Multimaniacs, one of John's, like, first films from 1970. Oh, geez, that's old school. Yeah, right? And he was showing us, like, Pete's Hotel, where that was, and this and that. And while I was, like, nerding out because of homicide, I'm like, oh, no, no. I want to do, like, a homicide tour of Fells, you know. So I wore all my, I had one of my homicide t-shirts on. Oh, and another one. Do you recognize this one?

[01:00:38] Yeah, I don't have all the swag. That might have been season one. Really? And I hate to say this, but I sold some of my jackets. Oh. Some of them. And then I hate myself now, but I kept one of them. So anyway, we're all dressed up. I'm dressed up like that. And it's so cute. This, like, tour guide, it's like, he doesn't know much of what he's telling us, but he's saying, like, what scenes were shot exactly where, you know. And then he all of a sudden is like, oh, well, his name is Vince Perenio.

[01:01:06] He was, like, John's, like, production designer. He's done a lot with The Wire and Homicide. And he's like, he actually lives a little farther up. If you guys want to take a walk, he's like, I can show you the outside of his house. He doesn't live there anymore. So we're like, yeah, let's do it. Well, one of the guys in our group knew the current owners of Vince's house. So he said, hey, we're coming in. It's small to more. I can't. He was like, we're coming in. And he's like, oh, it was him and his husband that lived there.

[01:01:35] And they're like, oh, sure. We'll give you a tour of the house. You know, they open up the gates. We all, there was, like, maybe 12 of us all walk in. And then they start giving us the grand tour. Nice. And he was like, it was, like, originally three row houses. I think they demolished one. And, I mean, it's such, like, a work of art. And seeing that and, like, you know, knowing how Vince, his location scouting on Homicide and what his sets look like there. It's like, wow. You can totally tell, like, an artist lived in this house.

[01:02:06] Cool. And the funniest thing. Oh, so then I have my Homicide gear on, right? My T-shirt and my hat. And, like, the one owner's like, I think Vince left some stuff from Homicide here. And he comes, he's like, just wait a minute. He disappears, comes back. And he has two empty evidence bags that were passed out for Homicide's 100th episode. Like a little.

[01:02:30] See, and I don't remember, I remember, I have the badges from the 100th episode party, which was awesome. But I don't remember what was in it. What was in the evidence bag? They were empty here. That's why I was going to ask you. I'm like, do you remember what was in them? Were the badges in the bag? Yeah, maybe the badges were in there. Huh. Huh. Gosh. You know, it's so many things you go, oh, I don't need that. But, you know, then you think, okay, so I used to have a teabag, because it was a big

[01:02:59] joke in the movie Pecker. I used to have a teabag. Oh, teabag it. Which was one of the schwag little jokes from Pecker. And then I have a glow-in-the-dark Mary. Must have been from Serial Mom. Or maybe that was from Pecker, too. That's from Pecker, too. Yeah. Oh, one of the things. So funny. And then you're like, oh, maybe I shouldn't have taken that little bag of swag apart and left it all together and make a million dollars when I'm 100 years old.

[01:03:26] One of the things John likes to do at his weekend, his camp, you know, is a costume contest that he judges personally himself. So, I mean, of course, everybody's dressed like every different divine character. Uh-huh. But one time I dressed like Me Mama from Pecker, you know. Yes. Yes. And I found like a statue of Mary. Yeah. And I was like, full of grease. Full of grease. Oh, I have to watch that again. I haven't seen that in a while.

[01:03:57] Oh. Goodness. But back to Vince for real quick. So, the Criterion Collection just released Desperate Living and Hairspray on Blu-ray with like new features and stuff. And there was a 2004 interview with Vince. Oh. Oh, nice. From his house. And yeah. And he didn't, he explained, and I had no idea because the current owners didn't know, those houses in Female Trouble where Divine and, you know, Edith Massey is like throwing trash at her in the street.

[01:04:27] That, those are those houses. Oh, really? I didn't know that either. Yes. And Vince said the one though was still, I think the one that Divine lived in or whatever was a wooden frame and it was so rotted out. And he said, oh yeah, Divine was the last person to live in the house because it's kind of like abandoned that Fell's Point demolished them. Oh, wow. But then Vince ended up buying the ones around it. So, that's actually where that was shot. Wow. Which I did not know. Small, once again, small to more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's cool.

[01:04:57] So, any parting thoughts about, you know, discovering it? You know, I mean, it's really pretty interesting. You know what I'm trying to figure out is how you got connected with me. Did you Facebook message me? I can't remember how. Something. I don't know. Like, did I see you? Did you post on the group or something? No, I don't post on the group. I mean, I also obviously post the podcast episodes on Facebook every time and they're public. Those particular ones are. So, I don't know. Because at some point we got chatting. Right. So, good.

[01:05:26] It was good to meet you. And I had no idea about your whole TV background. That's fantastic. So, that's just a really interesting local connection. Yes. And I've finally seen Riot Mom, the video now. It's really good. Yeah. Gosh, yeah. From news TV to TV production in town and that sort of overlap. It's really interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Cool. Because I never did go like the crew route, you know, like you guys, you know, but I should have, you know. But, you know, broadcasting, broadcast journalism was such, because like my college did have

[01:05:55] like film and digital arts, but I didn't, you know, we didn't really over, we overlap when we needed the editing suite together. Right. Yeah, exactly. I was putting together like news packages when they were like shooting, when they were putting together their, you know, films. Yeah. And, you know, my brother's still in it. My brother's still a video engineer and he does the PGA circuit now. So, he's still working from getting a job out of, you know, he went to, I think CCB, you

[01:06:23] know, community college and then to University of Maryland and then to Towson and got the TV degree, whatever it was way back then. Yeah. Wow. You know, started working with Rick somewhere and then, you know, and is still working in broadcast television. So, it's a good route to go because obviously you saw, you know, what happens with episodic and films here. It just depends on if somebody comes to town. Right. Right? Right. It's a different sort of job market. So, good for you for finding the good.

[01:06:52] And then now you're at MDOT. Yes. So, now. So, I'll know when I hear all the MDOT news, it's from you. It's from your laptop. Right. I'll know that. Well, the funny thing is, so now I'm a media relations manager. So, I can give interviews to reporters. I set up interviews. I write press releases, traffic alerts. So, yeah, Susan, the thing is, you can't see me, especially at wintertime when all the media goes snow crazy and, you know, they try to book us to talk about how many plows we have out on the roads. Nice.

[01:07:22] Get a stand-up in front of the salt dome. Right, right, right, right, right. So, now I do that. So, it's like the other side of the looking glass because I used to be the one having to book the subject matter experts. Now, I'm the one that can, like, do interviews. So, now I'm talking to the assignment editors on this side of it, which is really interesting, you know. But it's so great being out of, oh, God, media, especially the media landscape has changed so much, you know. I mean, I've only been in the industry, like, 15, 20 years. I mean, it's changed so much.

[01:07:52] So, Danny, you know, thank you so much. One last question, which I actually asked our guests, but this works for you, too. Any kind of food memories, favorite food, and maybe a time of a location to Hummerside. So, we've been there, like, the waterfront, etc. Anything that stands out for you? The funny thing is, I am not a crab fan. So, the Maryland blue crab. I've been to a couple of crab feasts. Don't say, that's because you're from Pittsburgh.

[01:08:22] What do you like, sausage? How about the kisses? Sausage eater, right? And they eat up there. I like some. Have you ever heard of chipped ham? No, I haven't. Yes. Okay, yeah. Chipped chop ham, it's called. It was invented Isley's, and that's all Pittsburgh. Really? Really, that's interesting, because when I was a kid, shout out to my brother, we used to make grilled, chip-chopped ham sandwiches. And I wondered the other day, like, does anybody call it, is there still a thing, such a thing as chip-chopped ham?

[01:08:50] Right, I can't believe you know about that, because that was so specific to Pittsburgh. Oh, no. Who knows? I was a trader when I was a kid, and I didn't even know it. He didn't even know it, right. But I would say that. So, do you have favorite food places, favorite Baltimore food places besides crab things? I'm trying to think, you know, because like. Oh. Well, you live in Hamden. I live in Hamden. There is. There's a lot of stuff right in Hamden. But you know what? I really love, and I've yet to actually go to their sit-down restaurant, Cooper's. Oh, yeah.

[01:09:19] Their food trucks, sometimes we get. It is so. Their burgers are so good. Oh, my gosh. Their food truck. Oh, you haven't been to the actual food truck. They do. They've got the boards in there. You've got to go. The Hummer's like boards in there. Yes. I've seen that. I'm like, I've got to see the board on there. Yeah. A lot of our DNA. There's lots of our crude DNA in there. Oh, man. Apparently, Caesar Salads was one that was very popular with some of the cast on the show. Oh. Oh, that's right. Who said that? Yeah. The Salad and French fries. That was Tony Lewis's. Yeah. She's like that. Yeah.

[01:09:49] Oh, we have to get Peter on. We keep saying, Patrick. We have to get Patrick on. I think he would have some really good stories, too. Oh, and I do want to say. Yeah. And I have one other question. If you go down to go to Cooper's, apparently Jimmy's is reopened. Really? Jimmy's, you know, where we would shoot. They would be eating breakfast in there. Jimmy's. It opened for a little while as something else. And now it's reopened as a breakfast lunch place. Oh, wow. So I have not been down there yet.

[01:10:17] But that's nice to know that that's great. That it's functioning. Some great scenes of film there. Functioning again. Yeah. Oh. Because last time when Chris and I were down there, it was empty. It wasn't open as anything. Hey, Chris, what did you think of Fell's Point, Baltimore, like when you first saw it? I loved it. It kind of reminds me of Shoreditch a little bit in London. It's got a very, it's sort of, I call it almost Shoreditch on the bay, I guess. It's got a lot of, yeah, that kind of Shoreditch in East London, which is where Jack the Ripper was.

[01:10:47] Oh, really? That Baltimore vibe. So it's a very trendy but murderous place. Perfect. You know? Jack the Ripper of Baltimore. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, you know, the whole Belgian block cobblestone streets and all the original buildings and stuff. Yeah. It is pretty cool. Yeah. No, I loved Baltimore. It was a great way to come to Baltimore, too, for the anniversary. It was the most Baltimore experience.

[01:11:16] And he stayed at the Admiral Fell Inn. I did. I love that place. Wait, where is that? Yeah. He got real native when he stayed. Wait, is that, where exactly? Is that down in Fell's? Where is that? Yeah, it's on the corner. So it overlooks the building. I think some of the B-roll shots of the building may have been filmed from my hotel room because the vantage is about the same. The corner, north corner, northwest corner. Yeah. The winning room is where I stayed. So yeah, the winning room of Broadway and Game Street. Yeah.

[01:11:44] I swear they did the B-roll from there. That's incredible. It's virtually the same view. Wow. But yeah, very cool place. Very cool place. So yeah, they've renovated it recently, but yeah. Yes, they did. Yeah. So this has been great. And thank you so much, Daniel. Thank you. Thank you for being our first super fan guest and really interesting to hear all of the overlaps from your background and Homicide and with John Waters. Oh, yes. Yeah. Thank you for having me. It's been so great.

[01:12:12] So wonderful listening to all your different podcasts and it brings such a whole new element to the show. So now when I rewatch it, I'm just thinking of things I've heard through your podcast and makes me laugh. You know, hearing the backstage stories sometimes. That's right. Cool. Well, thank you so much, Danny. That's been awesome. Yes.

[01:12:53] So that was Danny. And honestly, I really, really enjoyed that. I found it quite fun at the very beginning where he was talking about him being a Pittsburgh native and then you were talking about the Ravens and the Steelers, which is the kind of rivalry. And then we ended up talking about Wonder Boys, which is one of my favorite films that was filmed in Pittsburgh. It was great to hear Danny's origin story and his moving to Baltimore and things. Is there anything that stood out for you? Yeah, that was fun.

[01:13:19] You know, and what happened with the Steelers-Ravens rivalry was that it turned into a city rivalry, right? It was like, we hate Pittsburgh. Sorry, Pittsburgh. But, you know, and Pittsburgh hates Baltimore. So that was fun. And, you know, I loved his spirit in talking about that. And I did just weirdly this morning, I don't know what I was looking for. It might have been something on my doom scroll, a story about like the best towns to live in.

[01:13:48] And one of them was Ingram, Pennsylvania. And I looked through it and I thought to myself, that sounds interesting. And then when I saw that it was four miles outside of Pittsburgh, I was like, forget it. I'm not going up there. The rivalry is that strong. So Ingram, which is my last name, Pennsylvania is a suburb apparently of Pittsburgh, which is funny. Might be worth a visit. I actually hear Pittsburgh is a great town and has Lake Homicide, not Homicide, Lake Baltimore. Yeah. Has done a great, you know, renovations of their waterfront.

[01:14:17] Supposed to be really kind of cool. So props to Pittsburgh for that and that only that. But they just lost their, they lost their longtime coach. Mike Thomson is not back with the Steelers this year. So that'll be really interesting to see what happens with the Steelers this year. But also he's going to be a broadcast color commentator. So it'll be, it'll be interesting to hear him, you know, as a former coach calling games, which is always interesting to see. Like Tom Brady's first, first season doing that.

[01:14:46] He was awful. And now he's great. So it's interesting to see the athletes and the, and the coaches when they get on the, on the air, how they do. But yeah, Danny was just really a lot of fun. And then, and also all of his, his talking about, you know, how we got here, how we found things, how we found out from really great stories about Pete O'Neill and, and working with Pete O'Neill. Shout out to Pete, terrific guy. Also want to shout out to Ricky White, who's one of the producers at WMAR.

[01:15:15] Also want to shout out to everybody at WMAR because the company that owns it nationally fired, we should probably take this out, fired producers, directors, anchors, and videographers. And now it's an AI streaming newscast with no anchors. So that's kind of a weird local broadcast thing, but it's something that's happening nationally. And, you know, we're losing news people.

[01:15:44] We're losing talented, experienced people. And it's a very cold kind of broadcast. So it's kind of weird, but shout out to everybody at WMAR, especially Pete and Ricky. And Pete, you know, having a really nice relationship with us on homicide, terrific guy to work for. And it was just cool that Danny knew him and Danny had worked with him. And that's how he found out about homicide. Yeah. That's such a, such a connection. And was it small to more?

[01:16:14] Is that what the expression was? That's what everybody calls it around here, right? Talk to us about this. It's small to more. What is small to more? Everybody knows everybody. Everybody, you literally can't say almost such and such. You might be talking to somebody and go, oh, I just talked to him yesterday. Or I just saw his sister-in-law yesterday. And it is very much like that. We used to be touted as a city of neighborhood. Baltimore was touted as a city of neighborhoods.

[01:16:37] And that it had one of the lowest or highest retention rates of any city. People didn't leave because they liked their neighborhoods. I don't know that that's still the case anymore. It still does have its neighborhood-y feel in some ways. But, but yeah. And, you know, and then his journey from, you know, coming in to WMAR and then ending up at CNN during a presidential election, which is crazy. Oh my God. Crazy. Yeah, yeah.

[01:17:06] But we talked about, the other thing I did want to mention, we talked about the video that we shot during the reunion. We talked about that in this episode. And I did want to mention all the places we went, including one of the things we didn't talk about was Fort Hollibird, which Chris was interested in. Because Fort Hollibird at one point, for a long time, from 1945 to 1972, was the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps school.

[01:17:36] And it featured in Homicide, didn't it? In that episode. Yeah. Yes. That's why I wanted to mention it. So the episode was Lies and Other Truths, which was about some crazy Cold War club group of guys who actually bury somebody alive. Yeah. As you do.

[01:17:54] But interesting to visit over there, because there is one building remaining from the spy school, which was now the Vietnam Veterans of America Post 451. I heard there was some, they were about to lose their lease. I hope they didn't. So there's one remaining building there. And for anybody who's wondering where it is, go to Dundalk, the Dundalk area, go to Jimmy's Famous Seafood, have some crabs. Yep. Brilliant place. Go across the street.

[01:18:22] That's where Fort Hollibird was and is now an industrial professional park. But that one remaining building is still there. And you'll, if the Vietnam Veterans Post is still there, there are, there was a howitzer or something, there was a gun outside. So you'll recognize it as a VFW post. If you want to visit that location, which was a homicide location, that was a really roundabout way of getting to that.

[01:18:49] But I was thinking about that when we were talking about the places we went location-wise. Oh, that was great fun. And, you know, I still have yet to edit this video. Yeah, we went all over the place. And so maybe, I won't promise anything just yet, but hopefully by the end of this season, I can- Hey, we'll do it for a Christmas gift. Let's do a Christmas gift video. Maybe an Easter gift. Give yourself a deadline. That always helps. It does.

[01:19:17] But I do know I've got quite a few things on before Christmas. So it might be an Easter. I didn't work on that episode. I think I was off working on the John Waters episode. It was season six, episode 14, Lies and Other Truths. And that was directed by Nick Gomez. And it was shot at that point. Alec Zakrzewski was the cameraman. And oh, I also did, because this is another, okay, let's just talk about the homicide locations we talked about on the episode with Danny.

[01:19:46] The other one we talked about was the Waterman episode and where we went and where we were. And I did want to mention that the restaurant, which was the bar, originally that was actually a restaurant bar. Recently it was not anymore. And the house next to it was the restaurant. It was called the Island View Waterfront Cafe, which you could access when you're in Essex, go down Barrison Point Road. I think it's Turkey Point Road, De Barrison Point Road, go to the end of that.

[01:20:16] And I used to go there a lot with my mom. It is now, and this happened with another place I was looking at recently, it is now not a restaurant. It's only a weddings and events place. So you can go get married there. You can give parties there. But it is not a restaurant anymore. You can also rent kayaks there, though. So if you want to go check out the location, and it was in the scene at night where Melissa is out back with her former boyfriend, and you see the restaurant in the background, and

[01:20:44] there's colored lights around the way. That, you could go, you could rent a kayak there and check out that homicide location. So that's where that was we talked about. Yeah. And then Danny also mentioned the famous, well, infamous Cafe Hun, didn't he? Which was Melissa Leo's favorite restaurant during filming of the show, which has changed ownership. But you can go and visit the building and the new restaurant there. And it was interesting, actually, because Danny was talking about how one of the big things

[01:21:11] that drew him into the show were the locations, because he was quite new to Baltimore. And there's something kind of interesting about when you watch a film or a TV show, and you're in the area where it was filmed. So I talk a little bit about when I used to live in Hounslow, where they filmed Bend It Like Beckham. And I was just watching a movie the other day, not a particularly great movie, but it's Gal Gadot's latest film called The Runner, and that's filmed all around London. And it's actually a very, I think, a very well shot recent London movie.

[01:21:41] And on that very day of seeing it, I had to go and meet a friend and ended up in quite a few areas where they filmed that movie. And it's just something interesting about, I don't know, going to a place where it's just like, you know, you just walked out from seeing it on screen, suddenly see it in reality or something kind of fun about that. And that just came out. They were plugging in on The Today Show this morning. So I wondered if it came out last week, if it was out here too, or out in London first was out here too. No, no, no. I think it'd be out worldwide because it was an Amazon production.

[01:22:11] And apparently she did most of her running in that, and she was not a runner. She had to train to be a runner for that, which is interesting. Yeah, yeah, indeed. But for a film, it's quite interesting technically, actually. I mean, it's slightly diverting, but just the way they managed to film it and make it look so nice with some quite tight locations occasionally, I was quite impressed by it. Anyway, there's a whole other podcast. Do you know what they shot it with? Is it out there anywhere? What system? I don't.

[01:22:39] All I know is the DP was Anthony Dodd Mantle. They could well have used the Ronin 4D, which is the kind of good in vogue camera for filming these things. Let me just check on IMDb quickly, just in case it's listed. Hang on. Because Anthony Dodd Mantle's quite famous for being quite innovative with his photography, and he was part of the Dogma 95 movement back in the day. So this says, cinematographer Anthony Dodd Mantle shot Kevin MacDonald's thriller,

[01:23:04] the runner, using the Arri Alexa Mini LF camera. Okay. They must have just used stabilizers with it. That's quite a bog step. Nothing wrong with the Arri Alexa. It's kind of a standard camera for digital these days. I mean, I wouldn't mind one. But in terms of camera, that's not the most exciting camera around, especially for movement, because usually the Ronin 4D gets used, because that was used on warfare, which we were

[01:23:28] talking about off-air, because it's sort of an inbuilt gimbal on a very high quality camera. Because usually to then stabilize a camera, you need a steadicam and stuff. And with the Alexa Mini LF, I think it's small enough to be going on a kind of a gimbal. Well, it's interesting. It also says, much of the dynamic on-the-move tracking in London was captured by a specialized camera operator on rollerblades and skateboards. Oh, wow. Wow, wow, wow.

[01:23:57] So yeah, honestly, great looking film. But anyway. So that'll be fun to watch and see how that was done. And obviously, if they're on rollerblades and skateboards, they're not doing it digitally, right? They actually did that in space. Yeah. No, no. They actually did it. So yeah. All the camera geeks out there, the lenses that were used, according to AI, of course, we know AI is not always correct, but it says a mix of lenses.

[01:24:25] It's the Clavius, the Leica Thalia, Schneider Cine Xenon, Canon K35, Canon FD, and Lens Baby Composer Pro, and various zoom lenses. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there we go. So anyway, another film to watch there. Yeah. So you want to see London very well contemporarily shot and looking like it does at the moment? That's a film to watch. Okay, cool. Not going to change your life. It's a very standard film.

[01:24:54] It's sort of in there, but it looks nice. So there we are. Now, back to our interview with Danny. Yeah. I also enjoyed his description of these John Waters camps. I had no idea they existed. And I was like, wow. Who knew? I didn't know. That's hilarious. And I live here and I worked with John. If I'd ever known there was a John Waters camp, I would have gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, hopefully. I mean, it did sound like this might be the last one, I think. But if not, you should definitely check out the next one. There is another one. But yeah. So there we go.

[01:25:23] Yeah, and I loved it. You know, Danny was out on a tour, a homicide tour of Fells Point and got a chance to get inside Vince Perenio's house after they had moved out with the new guys that lived there. Really interesting what they did with their, I think, three or four row houses, some of which they broke through and made a beautiful sort of Italian villa kind of thing. Yeah, and also that he'd never been to Cooper's.

[01:25:53] So we need to keep harassing him to go to Cooper's. Maybe I'll make him meet me down there at one point. And the Jimmy's, the former Jimmy's is now, at least last time I checked, is now open as another sort of breakfast cafe spot. So that was kind of cool to know as far as homicide locations go. I'm just going to just share something to you in the chat, Susan. So bear with me a second. I'm sorry. I'm trying to be very high tech in 21st century about what I'm doing, and I'm not doing a very good job of it.

[01:26:22] Oh, look at that. Yeah. So some interesting, interesting things. Wow, he looks like Pambleton. He does, doesn't he? So I'm just sharing an image with Susan here from the Baltimore Sun. So apparently Baltimore could record its lowest homicide rate in nearly 50 years, which is fantastic news for Baltimore. But what was interesting? Yes. And it's been dropping. I just wanted to say it's been dropping over the last couple of years. So yeah, amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So that's fantastic news.

[01:26:52] But what was great about the Baltimore Sun article, if you find it, there's a picture of two police officers. One's a detective and one is a uniformed officer. And the detective looks like he could be in the next series of homicide. He's brilliant. He's got this bow tie, blue jacket, and a blue kind of blue trilby kind of hat and gray trousers. Very stylish looking man. And I'm like, when I saw that, I thought, my goodness, we do need to get a new series of homicide going one day.

[01:27:22] I'd love to see their stories. But I suppose if the murder rates fall and they might not have a lot to do, who knows? Yeah. I mean, to see a contemporary homicide detective with a bow tie on is just really lovely. I love it. Ain't that something. So that was cool. Yeah. And then another little tidbit that's relevant to us is recently we had a post on our Instagram account that Danny Baldwin interacted with.

[01:27:48] And so basically somebody, he was referring to our, we did a post about our episode from like season one, where we interviewed Tom Fontana, Julie Martin and Jorge Zamacona. And he left a comment just saying, it's funny. The attention given to the fourth season and beyond. Don't get me wrong. Fine work. Tremendous writing. But this was after they had to slow it all down. Cater to the network notes.

[01:28:14] If you really want to see the stuff that rocked the TV world that made NYPD blue decide to copy us and get on the game, watch the first three or four seasons of homicide. Strap on is the real deal in cutting edge television before the wire before ours, the original OGs. That's from Danny Baldwin himself. So Danny, if you're listening, hello, you know, thank you for leaving a comment on our page.

[01:28:40] Nice to have the cast interacting with us on Instagram, our slightly neglected Instagram page. I apologize for that. I'm really bad at social media, but we do leave the odd story from time to time, which come and go. But yeah, it's great to see people are interacting with the page. And we do get a lot of comments and messages from Reed Diamonds. Reed, if you're listening, thank you. And to other cast as well from time to time. But I think Reed's our most active member of the homicide squad on Instagram. So yeah. And Facebook.

[01:29:10] And Facebook too. Yeah. Thanks to Danny. That was a terrific comment. And I think totally true. You know, everybody noticed there was a little shift in things to try to please the network and to get more ratings. But thanks, Danny. Yeah, thanks. And shout out to all the other actors. Yeah. The regular cast, the regular squad room actors we haven't had on yet. We'd love to have on. We're going to try to reach out to many of them and see who else we can get on.

[01:29:39] Well, one thing we have been doing, we have been reaching out to people via our agents and sometimes things get lost. So if you're a cast member, whether you're a big cast, small cast, whatever, and you're listening to this and you're thinking, why have they not approached me? Drop us a line. We're around. Just go to, you could do it via social media or you can email us at homicidepod, homicidepod at gmail.com. We have reached out to Michael Michelle and Callie Thorne, but I only had contacts through their representatives. So those are people.

[01:30:07] And then love to, we will be getting to Max and hopefully Jelko and Clayton Leberf, Eric Dellums, all those people. I want everybody to, yeah, we want everybody to know. We do have the rest of the cast on our radar. And in addition to additional writers and crew members, certainly for sure. So yeah. So anybody out there who hasn't been contacted and you're listening now, feel free to drop us a line.

[01:30:35] If you haven't heard from us, it might be your representative hasn't emailed you. But anyway, that's a whole other thing. So I think that's us done, isn't it? Is that us done? I think that's it. And everybody out there who loves us, please drop a couple quarters in the can, in the coffee room can on buymeacoffee.com. Forward slash homicide POQ, isn't it? Oh gosh, yeah. Say it again. So buymeacoffee.com forward slash homicide POQ, which is Latin.

[01:31:04] I think Pempleton's always right from the record. Somebody told us that it was Latin. Yeah, we didn't know that at the time. There we go. Yeah. And if you can't remember all that, just go to... The show notes. In our show notes. Appreciate that. We both have day jobs. We're juggling lots of things, which is why our social media isn't great either. Yeah. Oh dear. But we love doing this. And we love you all.

[01:31:30] And it was such a pleasure to have Danny Allman on and someone from outside, you know, my purview, outside the crew, outside creators, directors, cast, crew, who really had a lot of great insight into the show and also to Baltimore itself. So thank you to him. And we will, as Chris said, we will be having on more super fans in the future. Yeah, indeed. So we've got some very interesting people coming up and people who've been directly inspired by the show and it's led to certain life choices, etc.

[01:32:00] So no, some very interesting people out there. And if you have an interesting story and you were directly inspired by the show, obviously, again, feel free to ping us a message on social media or our email address. Or if you buy us a coffee, you can leave a message there too. Yes. That will be even more gratefully received. And when you leave us a message, it will be after you gave us money. So thank you. So thank you in advance. Thank you in advance. Thank you.

[01:32:25] Yeah, it's pumpkin spice latte season now and I need those pumpkin spice lattes to keep going. Oh gosh. And you know, it was free pumpkin spice latte day. I believe it was yesterday. Wow, I should have just come on the plane. And I did not motivate myself out of my chair. I was working on a project for my real job. Wow. And even though, and it didn't occur to me until today, I have a Dunkin' Donuts like three blocks from me. I never go to because it's the opposite direction of the way I normally travel. Yeah.

[01:32:55] I could have gone over there. So yeah. Well, well, do you know what my secret is? Buy us a pumpkin spice latte. Is that a website? Buy us a pumpkin spice latte dot com. It should be. It should be. It should be, but it'd be seasonal, wouldn't it? So they work like three months to a year. But my little secret is I actually bought the syrup. So I make my own lattes at home. So I make my own pumpkin spice lattes now. You have the syrup. I have the syrup. I have the pumpkin spice. Yeah, I've got that too. So maybe I'll do that when we're done. Although I just ran out of whipped cream the other day. Oh no. Oh well.

[01:33:25] Maybe I'll put lots of sugar in it. Yeah. There we go. Cool. Well, thank you everybody out there for listening. And yeah, we're now in the fall. So stay warm and we will catch you on the next one. Yes. Bye for now. Thank you. Thanks everyone.