Blank Check with Griffin & David: The Color of Money with Chris Ryan

Published 2026-10-04; 3:15:39 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David” and the episode “The Color of Money with Chris Ryan”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: Chris Ryan.

Subject films: The Color of Money (1986).

On the transcript: Auto-transcribed with no speaker labels and heavy mishearing of proper names; ad reads between 0:28 and 0:29 and 1:00-1:03 interrupt the conversation. Many fragmentary lines make exact speaker attribution low-confidence.

Films that came up

Claims (96)

unmapped (voice role): Paul Newman → Cars. Newman's late gravelly voice evolves into Doc Hudson, the grumpy small-town judge who was a racing legend.
“The voice changes. He becomes Doc Hudson.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:00:15 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (early old-Newman voice): The Color of Money → Absence of Malice. Absence of Malice marks the earliest time Newman plays an old man in the grave voice, with Color of Money as the later full version.
“Absence of malice feels to me like the earliest I can identify. He is playing old man.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:01:48 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (late-career persona): The Hudsucker Proxy → Paul Newman. In Hudsucker Newman plays the old man as comedic evil, a heightened version of the elder-statesman role.
“Which Hudsucker, he's obviously doing full on old man, but also full on evil.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:02:49 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
verdict (career best): Paul Newman → The Verdict. The Verdict is named Newman's best performance and the one he should have won an Oscar for.
“Verdict, I think, is his best performance.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:03:17 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (Oscar loss): Paul Newman → Cool Hand Luke. He lost for Cool Hand Luke to Rod Steiger in In the Heat of the Night, in a year with Beatty and Hoffman rising.
“He loses to Rod Steiger for in the heat of the night.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:04:02 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (structural copy): Cars → Doc Hollywood. Cars follows Doc Hollywood beat for beat, swapping in a hidden-legend old racer as the town mentor.
“Cars is Doc Hollywood basically beat for beat.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:07:08 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Cars 2 → Cars 3. Cars 2 is so bad it makes the mediocre Cars 3 look like the first Cars by contrast.
“Cars 2 is so much worse. And then cars 3 isn't great, but it's so much of a rebound that I would argue that cars 2 makes cars 3 look like cars one.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:09:37 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (thematic lesson): Cars → The Color of Money. The lesson of Cars and Color of Money is that excellence is in how you use it, not raw skill, and the hosts tie the tagline line to the film.
“And I would say the lesson of cars and the lesson of, uh, the color of money is, uh, it's in the way that you use it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:10:27 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (continuing tragedy): The Hustler → The Color of Money. The Color of Money carries the original film's tragedy as backstory without explaining it in a monologue.
“And that's all the backstory for this movie, which is so interesting that he doesn't give the big monologue explaining what happened in the 1st film.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:12:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (sequel): The Color of Money → The Hustler. The Color of Money is the sequel to The Hustler, but built from a new script that keeps only the title of the Tevis sequel novel.
“Even when they start developing scripts and go, like, throw all that out, start fresh, they kept writing in parts from Minnesota fats.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:13:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (final film): Jackie Gleason → Nothing in Common. Gleason's last film is Nothing in Common with Tom Hanks, the film that cemented the Videology trivia-night origin of Griffin and David's friendship.
“His final film is nothing in common, which is the Gary Marshall, Tom Hanks. Bad dad comedy.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:14:53 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career enabler): The Color of Money → The Last Temptation of Christ. The paycheck-gig hit stabilizes Scorsese's career and makes Last Temptation and Goodfellas possible.
“Must admit though, it is the guarantor that allows him to immediately then make. Last temptation of Christ in Goodfellas.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:17:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (blank check scale): The Color of Money → Gangs of New York. Gangs of New York is Scorsese's true blank check, a nonfiction book about Bowery gangsters he wanted $100 million for.
“But that movie was so risky and he had tried to do it for so long, like his blank check is gangs of New York.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:18:50 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career-arc analogue): The Color of Money → Raiders of the Lost Ark. Raiders is cited as a comeback after the flop 1941; Color of Money is instead a stabilizer rather than a comeback.
“Like Raiders of the Lost Arc as a comeback post-1941 is a pure like he bottomed out and then he struck gold as hard as you possibly could.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:20:06 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (legacy-sequel precedent): The Color of Money → Return to Oz. Reddit consensus calls Color of Money the first legacy sequel, with Return to Oz as a debated earlier candidate dismissed as too weird.
“Uh, color money is generally agreed to on to be the 1st legacy sequel. Some people are like, does return to Oz count?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:20:34 · David Sims (0.55 sure it was them)
lineage (legacy-sequel precedent): The Color of Money → Dawn of the Dead. Another early sequel candidate that shares no characters, just a long gap and iconography.
“Dawn of the Dead kind of counts because it was a long, like, weight. between movies that like they don't have the same characters.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:20:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (first horror): Mirror, Mirror (Amazing Stories episode) → Martin Scorsese. Directed right before Color of Money, his first horror-adjacent work on Spielberg's Amazing Stories, a 24-minute film with a six-day shoot and no final cut.
“It's 24 minute television film, 6 day shoot. He didn't have final cut, so I don't know that he really enjoyed it, but it was his 1st ever horror movie or horror thing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:46:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (horror proximity): Martin Scorsese → Shutter Island. Shutter Island is named as the closest Scorsese gets to horror, with Cape Fear called a thriller.
“Shutter Island is definitely the closest. Shutter Island, he's really using... He's a horror imagery of those...”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:47:24 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (voice cameo): Martin Scorsese → The Mandalorian and Grogu. Scorsese voices an alien in the Mandalorian movie and is the standout performance.
“I didn't know he was doing the voice of an alien.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:48:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (acting cameo origin): Round Midnight → Martin Scorsese. Scorsese got his Round Midnight club-owner role because Tavernier insisted when he was scouting Last Temptation locations in Paris.
“Bert's just like, you will have to play the owner of the club, you know, like when I do this. And so that is why he's in that film.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:50:17 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career pivot): The Color of Money → After Hours. After Last Temptation failed in the early 80s, Scorsese made cheap After Hours to prove he could finish something, then took Color of Money.
“Uh, it fails and so he makes after hours as a sort of pivot out of that of like, I'll just do something.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:50:35 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (shared coke energy): After Hours → The Color of Money. Both films feel like the sense memory of cocaine, from a director saying goodbye to it.
“That is also another movie, which is somehow not made on cocaine. Yeah. where it's just, but it is, it is the sense memory of cocaine.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:51:12 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (cocaine arc): Goodfellas → The Color of Money. Scorsese's cocaine-obsessed run culminates in Goodfellas and its helicopters; Color of Money is part of that goodbye.
“Yeah, it really culminates with the helicopters above Henry. Right. And then it's like goodbye to cocaine.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:51:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (origin of collaboration): Raging Bull → The Color of Money. Newman watched Raging Bull on Ovitz's recommendation and wanted to work with Scorsese.
“Paul Newman watches Raging Bull on, I guess Ovid's his recommendation and says, like, that's one of the best things I've ever seen.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:53:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (cameo): Jake LaMotta → The Hustler. The real Jake LaMotta appears as a bartender in The Hustler, a link that Newman saw in Raging Bull.
“Jake Lamata is in the hustler as a bartender.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:53:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (neighbor / patron): Michael Ovitz → Martin Scorsese. Ovitz lived near or under Scorsese early on, borrowing movies and being shown VHS tapes upstairs.
“Ovitz was Scorsese's neighbor for a long time. I think he lived underneath him.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:54:17 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
people (people): Robbie Robertson → Martin Scorsese. A joke pictures Scorsese and Robertson staying up all night watching horror movies while editing.
“Scorsese and Robbie Robertson staying up all night watching horror movies when they're editing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:54:32 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
industry (packager): Michael Ovitz → The Color of Money. Ovitz engineered the Newman-plus-Scorsese pairing, nudging Newman to write a letter and nudging Scorsese toward a commercial project.
“I know he's an artiste. He's probably not going to want to do like a commercial thing. So I'm going to try and like nudge him towards something commercial.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:55:45 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (super-packaging precedent): Michael Ovitz → Ghostbusters. Ovitz's famous packaging example: assembling the cast, director and effects on paper and forcing studios to bid, as with Ghostbusters.
“His famous example of this is that he puts together like Ghostbusters and goes to all of the studios and is like, like, it's on everyone's table, you know, like, start bidding.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:57:34 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
verdict (career best): Paul Newman → The Hustler. Chris argues The Hustler is the best of the young Newman performances.
“I think this is the best of the young Newman performances.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:03:42 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
verdict (career best): Paul Newman → Hud. Hud is claimed as the best young Newman performance and arguably the best screen performance ever.
“Yeah, my favorite's HUD. For me, it's like 100%. That's like the best screen performance of all time.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:03:56 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
lineage (sequel script comparison): The Color of Money → Rocky II. The original Tevis-based script, a two-hander with Fats in Florida, would have been more by-the-book, like Rocky II or Creed II.
“It's more going by the book, right? It's like Rocky 2.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:06:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (legacy-sequel heirs): The Color of Money → Top Gun: Maverick. Gap-based legacy sequels like Top Gun Maverick, Tron Legacy and Blade Runner follow the template Color of Money invented, though in 1986 sequels were derided.
“now we get more and more like your your Tron legacies and your Top Gun Mavericks, where it's just casually... 37, 40 years later”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:07:05 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (mentor anecdote): Tom Cruise → Paul Newman. Cruise's story: Newman had a PA bring a warm coat and heater between takes and said 54 pictures, kid, teaching him the craft of the job.
“And Paul Newman says something like 54 pictures, kid. basically implying like, I've learned how to make movies.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:14:23 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (production overlap): The Color of Money → Top Gun. Cruise shot Top Gun first, then this, then did Top Gun reshoots (shower scene, shadowy love scene) because his hair had grown out.
“he shoots Top Gun first, then shoots this, and then has to go back and do reshoots for Top Gun.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:15:47 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
people (casting analogy): Tom Cruise → Whiplash. Casting Cruise after Risky Business is likened to Top Gun hiring Miles Teller because he was good in Whiplash.
“This casting is closer to hiring Miles Teller for Top Gun because you're like he was good in whiplash.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:16:25 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (casting link): Michael Chapman → Tom Cruise. Chapman shot Raging Bull and directed Cruise in All the Right Moves, which is cited as a reason Scorsese had his eye on Cruise.
“Michael Chapman, who is, of course, he's cinematographer for, like, Raging Bull and stuff, directed all the right moves. So that was another reason for, says he had his eye on cruise.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:17:53 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (cinematographer reuse): Michael Ballhaus → After Hours. Ballhaus shot After Hours and Color of Money, making this his second Scorsese film, and the researcher calls him the best DP Scorsese worked with.
“This is his 2nd ball house movie. Ballhouse shot after hours.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:20:50 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Michael Ballhaus → The Color of Money. The host's dossier notes the bounce lights Ballhaus used to light the film.
“But, you know, there's a lot of stuff here about, you know, the kind of bounce lights he used.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:21:03 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Michael Ballhaus → The Color of Money. Ballhaus keeps the camera moving in roughly seven of every ten shots, which suits Scorsese.
“Like, Bauhaus is like, I think out of every, like, 7 out of every 10 shots, the camera's moving.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:21:24 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (camera-movement coverage): The Color of Money → Raiders of the Lost Ark. Scorsese covers scenes with morphing moving master shots, like Spielberg's quick efficient coverage, to stay under schedule.
“But he's doing like all this Spielberg, like coverage with camera movement.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:21:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career-arc analogue): The Color of Money → 1941. Spielberg's lean style forged by 1941 failure is compared with Scorsese compressing his shoot to regain trust.
“That's always been a famous, uh, Spielberg thing, that he's so forged in the failure of 1941 that he adopts that style for Raiders”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:22:10 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
people (boxing/pool cinematography): The Color of Money → Raging Bull. Boxing is the most cinematic sport because it is contained; billiards is an even tinier version of that.
“A thing, I'm sure we've talked about extensively, on a raging bull episode, but billiards is like an even tinier version of that.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:23:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (baton-passing contrast): Top Gun: Maverick → The Color of Money. Cruise keeps making baton-pass movies where he refuses to pass the baton; Maverick saves Teller instead of elevating him.
“Also, the fact that Cruz keeps making baton pass movies where he refuses to pass the baton.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:31:55 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (bad sequel idea): Tom Cruise → Days of Thunder. A Days of Thunder 2 would be a mistake, especially post-F1, versus a pool sequel where Cruise is credible.
“Versus Days of Thunder, where it's like, get out of the car, Tom.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:32:36 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career balancing): Rain Man → Cocktail. Cruise balanced fluffy Cocktail with a big director and bigger actor in Rain Man; he reportedly steals Rain Man from Hoffman.
“He, in my opinion, he steals Rayman out from Hoffman.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:33:32 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (near-miss): Rain Man → Steven Spielberg. Many A-list actors and directors chased the Rain Man script, including Spielberg almost making it with Bill Murray in the Hoffman part.
“you know, Spielberg almost makes it with Bill Murray in the Hoffman part.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:34:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (Sorkin legacy-sequel comparison): A Few Good Men → Heat 2. A hypothetical Sorkin A Few Good Men sequel is compared to Heat 2 as a legacy-sequel recast by its original creator.
“it's not Fincher doing the legacyquel with an entirely different cast, but it is Sorkin making his own legacy.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:36:10 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (TV lineage): A Few Good Men → NCIS. A Few Good Men's JAG lawyer role is linked to the JAG/NCIS rights tangle as the joke legacy sequel.
“As we all know, NCIS is based on JAG. is a spinoff. technically a spinoff of the TV show, Jack.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:37:25 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (unlikeable-actor trifecta): John Turturro → Quiz Show. Turturro in Miller's Crossing, Quiz Show and Color of Money makes the audience say something about him is off; Chris thinks the Quiz Show performance should have won.
“Miller's crossing quiz show, that kind of trifecta. everyone just being like, there's something I don't like about you.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:45:58 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
contrast (tonal contrast): The Color of Money → The Verdict. In both films Newman is battered yet hot, but pool hustler reads as cool while The Verdict makes the loser life look sad.
“In this one, it's like, you're like, air pool player, that's cool. And the verdict, you're like, wow, you you suck.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:46:17 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (spinoff): The Jesus Rolls → The Big Lebowski. Turturro's The Jesus Rolls is a Big Lebowski side-quel made without the Coens, but is really a remake of Going Places.
“The Jesus roles, which, of course, was the Jesus, uh, Santana side cool to Big Lebowski that he made without the participation of the, uh, the Cohen brothers.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:47:10 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (set-design / visual): The Color of Money → The Verdict. Both are ranked on the podium of burnished-wood movies.
“I call that the greatest burnished wood movie of all time. This one has a, but this is in on the podium with that.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:47:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (remake): The Jesus Rolls → Going Places (Les valseuses). The Jesus Rolls is a straight remake of Going Places, the Depardieu-Blier road trip film, credited as based on it.
“It is credited as like based on going places.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:47:53 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (video-game movie parallel): The Color of Money → The Last Starfighter. Vincent's obsession with an arcade game that supposedly sharpens his skills is compared with the game in The Last Starfighter.
“What was the video game in Last Starfighter?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:49:00 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (world-sharing): The Color of Money → Tron. The Tron arcade cabinet in Vincent's game room makes the film feel set in the Tron world; both Disney.
“obviously the Tron cabinet was like real and was more successful than the movie and stayed in arcades for years, but it does make it feel like this is a movie that takes place in the world of Tron.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:49:23 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (manager/partner dynamic): The Hustler → The Color of Money. The original is about the partnership he lost and the flashier partner who destroyed him; Eddie's interest in Vincent and Carmen echoes it.
“the sort of tragedy of him fucking up the partner he had who he valued and felt safe with and then getting fucked by the new flashier partner who like destroys his life”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:52:07 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (long opening set piece): The Hustler → The Color of Money. Both films open with a transfixing, sustained 20-30 minute chunk in one space.
“All of that is basically a sustained like 20 minute chunk of the movie, much like the hustler, where you're just really staying in this space and the dynamics of all of it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:53:41 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (family link): Lorraine Bracco → The Color of Money. Mastrantonio's character's sister in the dinner scene is played by Lorraine Bracco's sister (as said).
“But, um, that's Lorraine Brocko's sister.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:56:34 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (poor castings): Lorraine Bracco → Medicine Man. Blank Check has only covered Bracco's worst performances, Medicine Man and Zemeckis's Pinocchio, with Goodfellas as the promised redemption.
“this podcast has been so damaging to Lorraine Brocco, where we have only covered her worst performances ever.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:56:46 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (refused award): George C. Scott → Patton. Scott refused the Hustler nomination and refused the Patton Oscar, which the Academy gave him anyway.
“They gave it to him the one time for Patton where they're like, look, you're one of the greatest actors ever, and you just were in this movie that's winning best picture”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:05:42 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (recurring face): Bill Cobb → The Hudsucker Proxy. The Color of Money's pool house owner is the magical janitor in Hudsucker and is in thousands of things.
“he's also the, um, the magical janitor in Hudsucker proxy, but he's in 8000 things.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:08:10 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (scene highlight): The Color of Money → Werewolves of London scene (pool hall). The Werewolves of London sequence is called the film's Flight-of-the-Valkyries-problem peak at around minute 55, a transcendent set piece the movie cannot match afterward.
“the flight of the Valkyries problem in a movie, when it peaks to her, when you peak at minute 55.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:10:22 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (peaks early): Apocalypse Now → The Color of Money. Apocalypse Now is the example of a film whose best sequence arrives in the middle, so the viewer stops watching around 65 minutes.
“Everyone's like, I love apocalypse now. Of course, I always stop watching about 65 minutes.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:10:52 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (multiple transcendent scenes): Goodfellas → The Color of Money. Goodfellas has several transcendent scenes (like the Copacabana and the shine box) so it stays satisfying, unlike Color of Money's single peak.
“Goodfellas is an interesting comparison point because it has like 4 of these.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:12:22 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Robbie Robertson → The Color of Money. Robertson's early dub-style music work on the film is singled out as the fun part of the Werewolves of London sequence.
“Early Robbie Robertson, like, dubmaster stuff going on here where... The Robbie stuff in this is so fun.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:13:17 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
people (script vs director choice): Richard Price → The Color of Money. The script said James Brown but Scorsese substituted Werewolves of London, showing the difference between Price and Scorsese.
“In the script, it's James Brown. So that's it's supposed to be James Brown, not Werewolves of London.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:13:31 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Clapton → The Color of Money. Clapton plays through the pool hall PA before the film cuts to Werewolves of London.
“it's like digetic, so it's like playing through a PA system at the pool hall and they're playing Clapton.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:13:51 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (song choice): Warren Zevon → The Color of Money. Werewolves of London plays in the pool hall scene; Chris prefers Zevon's self-titled second album as the best rock album of the 70s.
“His 2nd album, Warren Zvon, is the greatest rock album of the 70s.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:14:52 · Chris Ryan (0.55 sure it was them)
unmapped (cover): Adam Sandler → Warren Zevon. Sandler recorded and performed Werewolves of London live on Letterman for the Zevon tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich.
“Sandler did werewolves of London as recording, but also performed it live on Letterman. it's incredible.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:16:21 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (Cruise persona template): Cocktail → Top Gun. The Cruise movie-star template begins in Top Gun and cocktail: a guy who is the best at something and is doubted before proving everyone wrong.
“Tom Cruise movies are primarily about a guy who is the fucking best at something.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:17:00 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (the loser mentality): The Hustler → The Color of Money. George C. Scott calls Eddie a loser in The Hustler; Whitaker's hustle in Color of Money undoes the same insecurity.
“That's what undoes him when the Forrest Whitaker character in color of money beats him is he's like basically like, I've uncovered the old wound”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:19:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (re-emergence year): Forest Whitaker → Platoon. 1986 was Whitaker's re-emergence, working with Scorsese and Oliver Stone after pulling out of auditions to study acting.
“He gets a couple parts early on and he's like, I don't know enough about acting and basically pulls himself out of auditioning and is like, I need to study more seriously.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:23:14 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career arc): Forest Whitaker → Bird. Whitaker's Color of Money scene leads to Good Morning Vietnam and then Bird, and his run of Ghost Dog, Last King of Scotland and The Butler as movie-star vehicles.
“And then the year after that is bird, which is just, I mean, it's one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies, it's probably my favorite forest, what a performance”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:23:51 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (typecasting / trope): Forest Whitaker → Species. He is called a tired cop or hostage in any movie, with Species as the odd example where he is a psychic cop.
“He's a very effective psychic cop in a species.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:24:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (first role): Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio → Scarface. Mastrantonio's film debut was Scarface, followed by Color of Money; she was an understudy on West Side Story and in the Amadeus Broadway cast.
“She was on Broadway and various musicals, including as an understudy in the 1980 run of West Side Story, but that's like 3 years before Scarface.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:28:32 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career endpoint): Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio → Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Prince of Thieves is called her last major movie-star move, and its praise leads to a Costner-series discussion.
“Robin Hood Prince of Thieves is kind of her final major movie star move.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:29:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (cameo): Iggy Pop → The Color of Money. Iggy Pop appears as the credited skinny player on the road.
“Fantastic Iggy Pop. as credited as skinny player on road.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:33:52 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (recurring face): Paul Herman → Goodfellas. Beansie from The Sopranos is also Color of Money's Atlantic City bettor, Goodfellas's Pittsburgh gun dealer, and De Niro's Eagles buddy in Silver Linings.
“But I always think of he has the gun dealer from Pittsburgh and Goodfellas.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:35:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (David O. Russell decline arc): Silver Linings Playbook → The Fighter. The Fighter holds up while the subsequent Russell films get worse, ending in Joy where it fell apart.
“All 3 of those worked for me until Joy, where it fell apart so hard, and I have not rewatched any of them.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:36:01 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (loyal collaborator): Christian Bale → David O. Russell. Bale's Oscar nominations all come from Adam McKay or David O. Russell movies, and he is doing an Al Davis film for Russell.
“All of his Oscar nominations are either for Adam McKay or David O. Russell movies.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:37:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (performance mode): Long Legs → Nicolas Cage. After Long Legs, directors hand Cage lit firecrackers, so the Madden movie is expected to be over the top.
“It's just the thing with Cage is it's just like, you're handing him lit firecrackers.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:40:04 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (ending/aging parallel): The Color of Money → Slap Shot. Both films play Newman's age as a strength, battered but still the hottest thing, and end with a nonconventional, self-satisfying triumph rather than a big win.
“not unlike Slapshot, where the movie's culmination is, I'm going to take all my clothes off and skate around in circles.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:43:46 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
theme (ending analogy): The Color of Money → Rocky IV. The private Eddie-Vince final game is likened to Rocky versus Apollo Creed in private.
“and gives Vince the money back and is like, you know, let's do, it's like Rocky versus Apollo Creed in private.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:53:28 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (Oscar gold watch): The Color of Money → The Verdict. The Oscar for Color of Money is treated as a gold-watch win after the Verdict snub, awarded the year after his honorary Oscar.
“This is kind of one of the most famous gold watch Oscar wins, right? They give it to him the year after they give him the lifetime achievement award.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:57:18 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (Oscar rival): Mona Lisa → The Color of Money. Bob Hoskins's Mona Lisa was the critical favorite and won the Globe, making Newman's Oscar win a surprise on the night.
“Huskins and Mona Lisa is the better performance, right? Taking on its own. incredibly good performance.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:58:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (Oscar loss): Paul Newman → Absence of Malice. Newman lost for Absence of Malice to Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond.
“and then he loses for absence of malice the year, like a few years before this, to Henry Fonda for on Golden Pond.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:00:42 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (dismissed-at-the-time): The Color of Money → The Untouchables. Both got tepid, popcorn-fluff reviews at release despite being directed by great filmmakers.
“It feels very akin to the untouchables to me, where you read those reviews and you're like, it's more summer popcorn fluff.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:05:48 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): The Untouchables → Armani. The Untouchables is defended as more than popcorn fluff, citing its Armani costumes.
“It has costumes by like Armani.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:06:00 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): The Untouchables → Morricone. The Untouchables is defended as more than popcorn fluff, citing its Morricone score.
“It has a Morricone score.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:06:03 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (box office rival): The Color of Money → Crocodile Dundee. Color of Money opened number two in October 1986; Crocodile Dundee was the year's number one hit.
“Number one at the box office. is a film we've covered, one of the biggest hits of 1986.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:09:47 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (directorial debut): Jumping Jack Flash → Penny Marshall. Number three at the box office, Jumping Jack Flash, is Penny Marshall's directorial debut, who the show will cover someday.
“I think it's her directorial debut. Is it a Sphereus? Nope. It's not a Penny Marshall. It is. It's Jumping Jack Flash.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:10:14 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (same director): Peggy Sue Got Married → Tucker: The Man and His Dream. Both are later Coppola films noted by the hosts as good; Tucker bombed but the bombing suits its text.
“But that's also a movie where it bombing only helps its legacy.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:11:34 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (box-office neighbor): The Color of Money → Tough Guys. Number five on the 1986 box office list, an old-guy gangster comedy with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster.
“It's called tough guys. Tough guys. And it's Kirk Douglas. And the other one is Burt Lancaster?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:12:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (same director): Tough Guys → Revenge of the Nerds. Tough Guys was directed by Jeff Kanew, who also made Revenge of the Nerds.
“That is crazy, the director of Revenge of the Nerds.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:12:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (studio interference): Deadly Friend → Wes Craven. Craven's Deadly Friend got pickups after the studio demanded a basketball be thrown through someone's head.
“Number 8 is a Deadly Friend, the insane West Craven movie, where someone throws a basketball through a woman's whole head.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:13:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Fun items (37)

fun, about Paul Newman / Cars: Griffin explains Cars as Doc Hollywood beat for beat, with the reveal that the grumpy old man in town used to be the best racer, and jokes Doc Hudson invented drifting.
“Cars is Doc Hollywood basically beat for beat. But the reveal is that the grumpy old man in town who's like, I force you to community service is like, actually, I used to be the best racer in the world.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:07:08 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Nobody's Fool: Griffin recounts being rounded up with kids from PS 87 to audition for Nobody's Fool in 1994, his only audition, part of New York's flyers-in-every-school casting.
“They came to PS 87 and they just talked to a bunch of kids.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:08:01 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about The Color of Money: Chris says the hosts' concept for a rep series: movies where you want to live the objectively stressful low life of the people in them.
“movies where you want to live the objectively, like, stressful low life of the people involved. Like you watch it and you're like, what's cooler than being a pool hustler who lives at bars?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:10:58 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Jackie Gleason / Minnesota Fats: Gleason was offered a Minnesota Fats cameo but said it was too small and declined; the original sequel novel is full of Fats.
“they offered it to Gleason and he was like too small, not going to do it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:13:21 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Jackie Gleason / Nothing in Common: Griffin and David's friendship origin: Videology trivia night where Griffin could picture the poster of Gleason and Tom Hanks but couldn't name Nothing in Common until looking at teammate Kamen.
“I looked at one of our teammates whose name is K-A-M-E-N. And I went common.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:15:29 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Minnesota Fats: Pool Legend: A licensed Sega Genesis and Saturn game shares the book character's name while using some other fat guy on the box, with full motion video.
“We're not going to pay the Jackie Gleason likeness rights, but can we just get the name of the character from the book and put some other fat guy on the card?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:16:25 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Blank Check lexicon: Adding stabilizer to the show lexicon: a hit that guarantees future blank checks, distinct from a comeback; Color of Money is Scorsese's stabilizer.
“But stabilizer is a term we haven't used before. And you're right. Let's add it to the lexicon”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:19:50 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
fun, about Scorsese: Rejected tagline for the film joke: Nine ball is rotation pool.
“The rejected tagline for this movie was 9 ball is rotation pool.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:21:15 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Chris Ryan: Chris Ryan's CR Month picks on The Rewatchables: Sicario, Fargo, To Live and Die in L.A., L.A. Confidential, The Nice Guys, a lineup that turned out to be all L.A. movies.
“Sicario, Fargo, to live and die in LA, LA confidential, and I feel like...”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:24:16 · Chris Ryan (0.55 sure it was them)
fun, about Michael Ovitz: Ovitz coaxes Newman into writing Scorsese a fan letter; Scorsese lights up despite it being addressed to Michael Scorsett.
“it is addressed to Michael Scorsett. But he forgives that.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:55:35 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Martin Scorsese: A story from Vinyl set: Scorsese says Ovitz told him at a party, there is a way to make money doing this, the line that lured him into Color of Money, and that he never made a film just for money.
“Marty, there is a way to make money doing this.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 0:59:28 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
fun, about Richard Price: Price's account of the Malibu beach meeting: Marty in a jacket with nasal spray, Price coughing, Newman tanned and eating a grapefruit, hammering out the plot in a day.
“Marty's sitting there with his jacket and his nasal spray. I'm smoking a cigarette hunched over coughing. Newman comes out all tanned up.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:10:08 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Newman: When asked why a man would start playing pool again at 52, Newman told Price, why do you race if you don't win every time, and that's the picture.
“I said, to Paul, why do you race if you don't win every time? ... And uh, Newman just sort of looks at him and goes like, that's the picture.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:11:04 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Tom Cruise: Cruise recounts Newman's coat-and-heater lesson, 54 pictures, kid, while freezing shooting outside in Chicago in January with summer wardrobe.
“Yeah, because he does his wardrobe fitting in the summer. So he's like, it'll be cool if I'm wearing a leather jacket and a t-shirt and it's like they're shooting in Chicago in January.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:14:50 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Tom Cruise / Top Gun: Cruise shot Top Gun first, then this, then did reshoots for Top Gun: the shower scene wets his grown-out hair and the love scene is shot in total shadow.
“There's the scene where he's coming out of the shower in Top Gun, and that's because they had to wet his hair because he had grown it out.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:16:00 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about The Color of Money: Cruise went turbo on prep, trying a jump-ball shot that would take days; the hosts speculate it's what he regrets, and Cruise has dinner with Scorsese's parents nightly.
“Uh, Cruz like has dinner with them every night. You know, he really loves Marty.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:18:51 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about The Color of Money: Production trivia: Scorsese's one film that came in under schedule and budget ($13M under $14.5M) to prove a point; shot 10 weeks, locations in Chicago after New York pool halls were gone and Toronto was too clean.
“It's the only time he did that in his career and it felt like he needed to do that to prove a point.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:19:25 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Pool and snooker: Chris Ryan's British upbringing: snooker was prime-time TV, with a pro-Brexit celebrity hosting a snooker game show called Big Break; darts is the funniest televised sport.
“All I know is I used to watch when I was a kid, the game show, the big break hosted by Jim Davidson”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:28:01 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about The Color of Money: The opening is a Scorsese voiceover about cigarette imagery; the hosts say it makes them want to drink and smoke and become a hustler.
“The most grotesque and also the most beautiful image of a cigarette. where you're like, I gotta have that.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:38:25 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Scum Friends: Ben's franchise pitch for children called Scum Friends alongside Scum Apprentice, a hustler-training franchise idea the hosts riff on.
“Ben has a franchise who's been trying to launch for children called Scum Friends.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:39:23 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about The Color of Money: The spectator pool-hall chair, an elevated wooden throne also called a shoeshine or lifeguard chair, which one host asked for in the studio.
“Elevated wooden throne that overlooks so that you get like a good angle on the action. It's technically known as a spectator.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:43:09 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Newman: Chris praises Newman's ability to strike a pose: no overly expressive John Wayne thing, just sit and hold the frame, leaning 10 percent of his weight over.
“Also, man, Newman just fucking knew how to strike a pose and he could do it in a way where it felt natural.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:43:54 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about John Turturro: Griffin compares Turturro's coked-up Julian to Fear from Inside Out, a rat piece of shit, and notes the Jesus Rolls remake of Going Places.
“He looks like fear from inside out.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:45:29 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Stalker video game: Vincent's arcade game Stalker is said to look like Spy Hunter or Pole Position and to have influenced Doom, with the Tron cabinet being a real arcade fixture.
“It apparently influenced the actual video game Doom.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:48:40 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Richard Price: Price's first draft was too dark: Newman said he'd made Eddie a nightmare, and the team agreed to build a suit for the star; the dialogue was cut because it sounded too written.
“And then they would say like, it's too written.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 1:54:21 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about George C. Scott: Scott was federally barred from pool halls in the joke; the Academy gave him Patton anyway after he refused; he refused the Hustler nomination too.
“He was like, I call bullshit on your whole thing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:05:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Species: Species has a psychic cop Whitaker, a Species Quattro title that never happened, and novelizations of 1 and 2 by a woman.
“I do want to call out that Species 4 was briefly titled Species Colon Quattro.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:26:54 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio: Griffin and David riff on the pleasure of saying her name and whether Mary Stuart Masterson fought her for three names; her father ran a bronze foundry in Oak Park.
“Mary Elizabeth Master Antonio feels like a roller coaster. It's fun to say, you feel satisfied when you come into the landing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:27:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Tracy (Big Picture): Running bit on Bill Simmons-pod colleague Tracy and his AV man, who could have appeared in the film as the guy who loses to Eddie and offers to buy a drink.
“Tracy very convincingly could have appeared in this film.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:33:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Kevin McCready: A real hustler who plays as Earthquake appears in the film; his unusual side form is part of his hustle.
“He is a real hustler who plays under the name earthquake.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:33:31 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about The Color of Money: The film turns into an advertisement for optometry once Eddie gets glasses and his problems clear.
“And then this movie turns into a sort of an advertisement for optometry because it turns out that a lot of his problems were just that he needed a prescription glass.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:42:36 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Atlantic City: Griffin and David riff on Atlantic City: ruined by plane travel and Indian casinos; Griffin visited for a birthday; Vegas is similarly hit by phone sports betting.
“it is a celebration of a certain kind of American 3rd space that is disappearing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:47:05 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Color of Money: The original title was As Good as It Gets; the ending is praised as haunted rather than resolved.
“and the original title for this movie was as good as a guest.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:55:24 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Newman / Oscars: Newman skipped the ceremony for his Color of Money win; at his lifetime Oscar Robert Wise accepted and Betty Davis gave a tangential speech about Wise.
“Robert Wise saying, like, Paul wanted everyone to know that after coming here for 7 other occasions like this, and then Betty Davis goes, Robert, for 2 minutes, let me say something about you”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:03:38 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Martin Scorsese: Chris's story of a 20-minute talk with Scorsese on the Vinyl set: he said his rivals had hits like Jaws and Graffiti while he had only the Color of Money and Cape Fear accused as selling out.
“I didn't even have Carrie, you know? I didn't have Godfather.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:08:31 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Jumping Jack Flash: A screening anecdote: Jonathan Pryce came to Metrograph for Listen Up Philip and was surprised to be introducing Jumping Jack Flash too.
“And he's like, I guess I'm in this. I don't remember.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:11:04 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Blake Edwards: Blake Edwards was only in Blank Check's Oscar-winners vs. Razzie-winners bracket because they could not fill it otherwise; he made three more Pink Panther films after Peter Sellers died.
“Because it truly we could not fill out the bracket unless Blake Edwards was in there.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 3:14:43 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Loves quirky or deep-cut cinema and playful franchise lore (Muppets, Species, Pink Panther sequels), and enjoys the abjectly stressful pool-hall world. Is a sucker for movie-star mannerisms and for fan trivia. Cannot stand Cars 2 or Zemeckis's Pinocchio.
David Sims (host): Loves 80s star vehicles and detailed Hollywood production history. Is a sucker for Paul Newman and for the idea of living inside a pool hall. Defends polished mid-budget studio work and is wary of Cruise's late-career legacy-sequel plans.
Chris Ryan (guest): Obsessive about Color of Money since childhood and fascinated by working vocabularies, hustles, and movie-star craft. Loves Newman's ease, Scorsese camera movement, Warren Zevon, and 80s-90s prestige crime. Is a sucker for the lost American third space of bars and pool halls and distrusts phone gambling.

The show's recurring bits

The box office game: Guessing the film's opening weekend and what it was up against.
The sung theme: "Blank Check with Griffin and David", sung; the transcriber garbles it.

Names the transcriber got wrong

Old Newman / 'Ford Apache Apache the Bronx' → Fort Apache, the Bronx
'Smoking the Band' (0:12:40) → Smokey and the Bandit
'Gleaston Dice' → Gleason died
'Shy with bike check' (0:00:13) → the show name/intro
'Elizabeth slander' → Lisbeth Salander
'Hotsucker box' → The Hudsucker Proxy
'Beansie' ok; 'Brady Seasons' → Grady Seasons? (character Grady Seasons; played by Randall Arney)
'Mary Elizabeth Mass Trentonio / Master Antonio / Mestrantoni' → Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
'Forrest Whitaker' → Forest Whitaker
'Teturo / Taturo / Turo' → John Turturro
'Ovitz / Ovid' → Michael Ovitz
'Corsese / Scorsett' → Scorsese
'Ballhaus / Bauhaus / Ball house' → Michael Ballhaus
'Warren Z-Von / Zvon / Zivon' → Warren Zevon
'Jonathan Price' → Jonathan Pryce
'Lorraine Brocko / Broncos' → Lorraine Bracco
'Betty Davis' → Bette Davis
'Huskins' → Bob Hoskins
'Tevis' correct; 'Robbie Robertson' correct
'Mia Masters / Sanchez Vicario' tennis names garbled in a name bit
'Madden/ Muslim' mis-hearings of Madden
'Hume Cronin' → Hume Cronyn
'Jeff Canoe / Canoe' → Jeff Kanew
'Fast Bender' (0:25:41) → Fassbender
'Radiance and transmission' → Radiance Films/Transmission
'Aranta' unclear
'Martin Fink' (1:09:15) → unclear; possibly Marty (Chayefsky) with Tucci doing Q and A; unresolved
'Kamen' friend is as said
'Cruz' is used for Cruise throughout
'Mr. Siinski' → likely Newman greeting (garbled)
'Pat May / Patrick May' garbled; 'Padme and Anakin' joke

Blank Check with Griffin & David: The Color of Money with Chris Ryan

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

subject (1)

passing (85)

compared (50)

anecdote (34)

dismissed (11)

recommended (6)

Claims (96)

Fun items (37)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong