Blank Check with Griffin & David: Starman with Katey Rich

Published 2021-09-26; 2:25:08 by the feed.

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

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David” and the episode “Starman with Katey Rich”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: Katey Rich.

Subject films: Starman (1984).

On the transcript: Auto-transcript with no speaker labels; sponsor reads (Audible, Video Game Town, MUBI, Ad Council) skipped. Many proper nouns are phonetic, and some film titles are garbled (e.g. 'Dust women' for Dust Bowl, 'fog to Fargo' for follow-up). The 'times_mentioned' counts are approximate.

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Bill and Coo (1948) was directed by Ken Murray and the honorary Oscar was his, per my memory; the transcript's reading of it seems to be attached to Dean Reisner (Dinky Dean) in error or from a different page. Treat the attachment as the speakers' own.

Films that came up

Claims (81)

industry (marketing comparison): Starman → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The poster's blues and lights invite the E.T. comparison and the film strains to say it is about grown-up love.
“But, um, you know, also the the blues, the lights, the ET comparison is right there.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:02:30 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (box-office rivalry): True Grit → Tron: Legacy. True Grit outgrossed Tron Legacy the same Christmas, with Bridges in both.
“And then True Grit outgrosses Tron Legacy.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:06:29 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (voice role): Bono → Sing 2. Bono plays a lion and has an original song, expected to win an Oscar.
“He knows he knows that Bono plays a lion and he gets the end in the billing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:18:53 · Katey Rich (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Rocketman → Sing. Katie's son knows Elton John's 'I'm Still Standing' from Sing, and the end of Rocketman is where it all ties back together.
“It was Heron's a Voice and Sing. where it all ties back together. He sings I'm still standing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:20:26 · Katey Rich (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (friendship): Garth Jennings → Wes Anderson. Jennings is good friends with Wes Anderson, who voices a giraffe in Sing.
“Garth Jennings is very good friends with Wes Anderson, and Wes Anderson has a voice role in Singh.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:20:56 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
people (voice cameo): Edgar Wright → Sing. Edgar Wright voices a goat in Sing.
“plays a goat, yeah.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:21:22 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career sequence): Christine → The Thing. Carpenter's rising run ended when his big-budget check flopped, and Christine was the safe follow-up.
“his movies have been sort of going up and up and up and up until the thing when he finally gets his blank check”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:21:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career sequence): Starman → Christine. Christine was Carpenter's rebound after his big flop, then Starman followed once it was a hit.
“Christine is kind of like a rebound movie, right?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:22:06 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (adaptation): Stephen King → Christine. Carpenter was the first pick for Christine; King later turned on adaptations.
“he was the pick to make Christine.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:22:44 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
people (feud): Stephen King → The Shining. King famously thought he could beat Kubrick in a reputation fight about The Shining.
“He famously thought he could beat Stanley Kubrick in a reputation off about the shining.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:23:04 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (competing script): Starman → Night Skies. Columbia ran focus groups on the two friendly-alien scripts at script stage and Starman won hands down.
“It was Starman hands down.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:24:23 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (studio rivalry / shadow): Starman → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Columbia chose Starman over Night Skies, which Universal turned into E.T., so Starman carried the stigma of the one that got away and then looked like a ripoff.
“Uh, so they let go of night skies and let Universal acquire and turnaround.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:24:25 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (developed): Michael Douglas → Starman. Douglas shepherded the project at Columbia though he is not credited as a main producer.
“This is a Michael Douglas project, even though he's not credited”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:25:19 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
unmapped (left Starman for): John Badham → WarGames. Badham was first attached to Starman, left after E.T., and made WarGames instead.
“and he does war games instead.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:26:06 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (left because of): John Badham → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. When E.T. blew up Badham quit rather than follow it.
“that when ET comes out and blows up, Badham quits because he's just like, I don't want to have to follow that.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:26:13 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
career (career pattern): Adrian Lyne → Flashdance. After Flashdance became a colossal hit Lyne left Starman; every post-hit film flopped, then he had a hit again.
“every movie he makes after his hits is a huge flop.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:26:43 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career parallel): Ben Affleck → Keanu Reeves. Both ride comeback cycles every seven years.
“Okay, he and Keanu Reeves are just these like both like either side of a coin.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:28:40 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (director): Ridley Scott → The Last Duel. Scott directed The Last Duel and another huge film in the same fall, both shot in the pandemic starring Adam Driver.
“Both starring Adam Driver, America's favorite giant weirdo.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:31:04 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career context): Tony Scott → Top Gun. Tony Scott was attached to Starman right before Top Gun.
“And this is right before Top Gun.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:35:07 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (left Starman for): Mark Rydell → On Golden Pond. Rydell left the project and went on to The River.
“Then it goes to Mark Rydell, who I guess left this to do on Golden Pond?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:35:24 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (left Starman for): Mark Rydell → The River. Rydell went on to The River with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek.
“And so he goes on to do the river, which is that movie with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spaceck.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:35:37 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (tonal turn): Mark Rydell → Starman. Rydell began steering Starman toward a humanist, performance-based movie.
“I think was when they start to skew it more towards what if we do the more humanist performance-based emotional movie”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:36:08 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (star): Vampira → Plan 9 from Outer Space. Vampira, once married to the rewrite man, starred in Plan 9.
“Star, of course, of Plan 9 for Aerospace.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:39:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (credits): Dean Reisner → Dirty Harry. Dinky Dean got screenplay credit on Dirty Harry but mostly did uncredited rewrites.
“But then most of his work is uncredited rewrite work, High Planes Drifter, the enforcer, rich man, poor man, Godfather part three.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:39:46 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (persona): Michael Douglas → Romancing the Stone. In 1984 Douglas excelled at cads and slimeballs, so he would not have worked as the gentle alien.
“the guy excelled at CAD and slime ball.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:41:07 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (production diary): Rod Lurie → The Contender. Lurie's Empire diary made Bridges sound like the coolest person alive.
“he just makes Jeff Bridges sound like the coolest motherfucker alive.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:44:21 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (method detail): Jeff Bridges → The Fabulous Baker Boys. Pfeiffer told the Oscar story of painted broken capillaries on his nose.
“He had the makeup people paint broken capillaries onto his nose to like belide the characters, pass as an alcoholic.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:47:02 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (imitation): Cinderella → Moulin Rouge!. The Amazon Cinderella tries the Moulin Rouge jukebox-musical thing and fails; Moulin Rouge is a lot harder to pull off.
“It's trying to do the Moulin Rouge thing of like, oh, it's like a jukebox musical where we just like picked songs we like”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:50:36 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
unmapped (COVID shoot): Paul Schrader → The Card Counter. Schrader wanted to finish The Card Counter during COVID.
“Let's just finish the card counter at very least.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:51:52 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (favorite): Baz Luhrmann → Romeo + Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is one of David's top 20, more than Moulin Rouge.
“Romeo and Juliet, that movie is perfect.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:53:49 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (permanent producer credit): Michael Douglas → Face/Off. Douglas keeps a producer credit on Face/Off because he was once going to do it with Harrison Ford.
“has a fucking producer credit on face off”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:55:58 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (cast / career): Starman → Raiders of the Lost Ark. Karen Allen came off Raiders into Starman, two years later.
“this is 2 years after Raiders”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:01:38 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Karen Allen → Animal House. Her first film was Animal House, followed shortly by Raiders.
“her 1st movie is Animal House, right?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:01:51 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (stage work): Karen Allen → The Glass Menagerie. Allen played Laura in Paul Newman's Glass Menagerie with Woodward and Malkovich.
“With John Malkovich as Tom, that's that's wild.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:04:15 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (also in): Karen Allen → In the Bedroom. Allen appears in In the Bedroom, where Sissy Spacek famously throws dishes.
“Hell, she's in in the bedroom”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:04:53 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (archetype): Karen Allen → Raiders of the Lost Ark. Marion Ravenwood became the ideal everyone emulated; Allen felt overshadowed and said this role was as good.
“everyone was like, oh, Marion Ravenwood is now the ideal.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:05:57 · Katey Rich (0.45 sure it was them)
unmapped (comedy): Karen Allen → Scrooged. Allen did no comedies until Scrooged and Animal Behavior.
“Until Scrooge and animal behavior, which is right.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:06:47 · Katey Rich (0.35 sure it was them)
programming (recommendation): Karen Allen → The Perfect Storm. Allen is great in The Perfect Storm and King of the Hill.
“She's great in The Perfect Storm, which I loved.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:08:36 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
what-if (almost cast): Kevin Bacon → Christine. Carpenter wanted Bacon for Christine but he chose Footloose.
“Carpenter wanted him for Christine and he chose Footloose instead.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:09:48 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
what-if (almost cast): Kevin Bacon → Starman. After Footloose made him a star Carpenter wanted him for Starman and he nearly did it.
“So then Carpenter wanted him for this, and he almost did it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:09:54 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
what-if (almost cast): Tom Cruise → Starman. Carpenter talked to Cruise, who instead did Legend.
“But then Tom Cruise ended up doing legend.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:11:50 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Starman → John Carpenter. Starman is one of the Carpenter movies he did not score; its synthy score is more emotional than his usual.
“this is one of the Carpenter movies that he did not score.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:17:32 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (visual echo): Starman → Annette. The baby in the transformation sequence recalls the unsettling baby in Annette.
“There were some real baby Annette vibes in that transformation sequence.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:19:49 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (effects lineage): Starman → An American Werewolf in London. The transformation sequence is indebted to American Werewolf's practical, show-it-all body effects.
“Yes, which is very like American werewolf in London, where the body is stretching out.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:20:41 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Stan Winston → Rick Baker. Winston, Baker and Dick Smith, the three effects names in the Starman credits, are called the three wise men of 80s visual effects.
“it's like the 3 like wise men of visual effects of the 80s.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:21:06 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (genre / structure): Starman → Two for the Road. Carpenter reportedly wanted to make something like Two for the Road.
“I want to make like 2 for the road.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:22:06 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (genre / structure): Starman → It Happened One Night. Carpenter wanted a road movie of two people in a car getting to know each other, in the mold of It Happened One Night.
“I want to make it happens one night.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:22:08 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (tone / structure): Starman → Something Wild. The people met along the road each get a world of their own, as in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild.
“I, the thing about it happened when Eddie was thinking about some Jonathan Demi. Something wild? Yes.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:22:19 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (tonal mismatch): Starman → The Terminator. Like Terminator's sex scene, Starman's love scene feels like it is from a different movie.
“That's a movie where it's like, when the sex scene kicks off, you're like, am I watching the same movie?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:26:26 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
lineage (homage): Starman → It Happened One Night. The hay-bale love scene in an empty train car is called a likely conscious homage to It Happened One Night.
“So it's a, maybe it's an homage.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:27:07 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (same cinematographer): Donald M. Morgan → Christine. Starman was shot by Donald Morgan, who also shot Christine.
“This movie is shot by Donald Morgan, who shot Christine.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:31:04 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Dean Cundy → Starman. Griffin says Starman would be better had Cundy shot it, because its sentimentality, lights and blues are ready for him.
“I do think this movie would be better if it was shot by Dean Cundy, just because all movies would be better.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:31:10 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career context): Dean Cundy → Romancing the Stone. Cundy shot Romancing the Stone the same year Carpenter used a different cinematographer on Starman.
“this is the same year that Kundi does romancing the stone.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:31:18 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (returns to Carpenter): Dean Cundy → Big Trouble in Little China. Despite the Starman parting of ways, Cundy comes back for Big Trouble in Little China.
“He's going to come back to do big trouble in Little China.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:31:29 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
career (filmography): Dean Cundy → The Thing. Carpenter praised the look of his pictures from Halloween through The Thing.
“The look of my pictures from Halloween through the thing is beautiful.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:32:00 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (falling-out): Dean Cundy → John Carpenter. Carpenter said they had a parting of ways over attitude problems, while praising Cundy's work from Halloween through The Thing.
“But before we could ever work together again, we would have to clear up some attitude problems.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:32:06 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career gag): Dean Cundy → Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. Cundy reportedly did not return for the Garfield sequel after attitude issues with Garfield.
“which is why he didn't come back for tale of 2 kitties.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:32:55 · Katey Rich (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (irony): Jeff Bridges → K-PAX. Bridges plays the man trying to get into the head of a man claiming to be an alien in K-PAX, after playing an alien here.
“It's funny that Jeff Bridges is in K-pax.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:40:12 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career phases): Jeff Bridges → The Big Lebowski. Lebowski came out ignored, then became his defining mode, and Hollywood asked him to do it again.
“everyone's like, oh, Lebowski's the best shit ever.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:44:45 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (Oscar): Jeff Bridges → Crazy Heart. Crazy Heart won the Oscar over strong rivals, with True Grit coming a year later.
“I just remember like when he's on the Crazy Heart Oscar Trail being like, he's doing true grit with the Coen brothers next.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:47:28 · Katey Rich (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (remake feel): Crazy Heart → Tender Mercies. Crazy Heart is Bridges doing Tender Mercies, only worse.
“Oh, Crazy Hearts also kind of just him doing tender mercies, though.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:48:38 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Ryan Bingham → Up in the Air. The Crazy Heart songwriter Ryan Bingham shares his name with George Clooney's character in Up in the Air.
“the guy who wrote those song, the weird kind, Ryan Bingham, who's like in the movie as musician, that is the name of George Clooney's character and up in the air.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:49:09 · Katey Rich (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (writing): Eddie Murphy → Beverly Hills Cop. Murphy effectively made up the movie's script, so he deserved an acting nod too.
“Eddie Murphy wrote that whole movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:56:16 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
people (performance lineage): Starman → Forrest Gump. Bridges' hat, check shirt, strange speech and not-quite-a-person quality read as a proto-Forrest Gump.
“there's like a proto-Forrest Gump vibe in this performance in the hat and in the check shirt”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:57:23 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Charles Martin Smith → Air Bud. Martin Smith became an animal-movie director.
“He does airbud and the dolphin tail movies.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:02:00 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (director): Jeff Nichols → Midnight Special. Nichols made Midnight Special, called Spielbergian.
“everyone was like, oh, this movie's so Spielbergie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:02:23 · Katey Rich (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (same story, better version): Starman → Midnight Special. Midnight Special is called Spielbergian but really Starman-like; its Adam Driver agent does the benevolent-government-agent role better than Starman's.
“I'm like, God, that's so Starman.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:02:29 · Katey Rich (0.45 sure it was them)
theme (role comparison): Charles Martin Smith → Adam Driver. Driver's benevolent-yet-menacing government agent in Midnight Special works better than Martin Smith's unfocused scientist in Starman.
“works a lot better in that movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:02:37 · Katey Rich (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (sequel / spin-off): Starman → Starman. The 1986 show is set 15 years later, about his son, with a recast Starman.
“is set 15 years in the future because it's about his son.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:08:52 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (format): Starman → The Incredible Hulk. Every episode they are on the run in a new town, like The Incredible Hulk.
“It's like the incredible Hulk.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:09:19 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (premise): Starman → John from Cincinnati. A mysterious odd visitor who solves everyone's problems and parrots dialogue; John from Cincinnati owes a lot to Starman.
“He comes and visits, and he's mysterious, and he's weird, and he solves everybody's problem.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:11:38 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (remake plan): Sean Levy → Starman. Levy announced a 2016 remake with Michael Douglas on board.
“I learned from Wikipedia that in 2016, Sean Levy was planning to direct and produce a remake of Starman.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:13:16 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (tentpole hope): Dune → Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Dune was meant to be the new Star Wars franchise, Lynch writing the sequel, coloring books on shelves.
“I thought it was going to be the Star Wars.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:18:09 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
programming (pairing): Clint Eastwood → City Heat. Eastwood and Reynolds, old friends, finally in a movie together, City Heat.
“It's nice that they finally hit that movie together.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:19:18 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
people (director): Peter Hyams → 2010: The Year We Make Contact. Hyams directed 2010 and was another director who almost made Starman.
“Peter Heim's another person who almost directed Starman.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:22:24 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (blank check): Francis Ford Coppola → The Cotton Club. Coppola re-edited Cotton Club and plans to self-finance Megalopolis.
“He actually had some news about him today and he, you know, has re-edited it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:22:55 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (title): Starman → David Bowie. They wonder whether they had to talk to David Bowie before calling the film Starman.
“Do you think they had to talk to David Bowie before they called this movie Star Man?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:25:11 · Katey Rich (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (alien role): David Bowie → The Man Who Fell to Earth. Bowie already played his alien in The Man Who Fell to Earth.
“Yeah, Manta fell to earth.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:25:21 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): David Bowie → Starman. A host half-expected Bowie's song 'Starman' to play over the film's credits, though it is not that kind of movie.
“Part of me was waiting for it, like, the Starman song to be in the credits.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:25:44 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (soundtrack): The Martian → Starman. The Martian uses Bowie's Starman and disco in its soundtrack.
“Isn't it in a Martian, though?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:26:03 · Katey Rich (0.35 sure it was them)
people (director): Ridley Scott → The Martian. Scott directed The Martian, a comedy winner at the Golden Globes.
“directed by Richie Scott, who's a nice man.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:27:35 · Katey Rich (0.35 sure it was them)

Fun items (25)

fun, about Starman marketing: Studio feared the John Carpenter's name would mislabel it as horror; market research said it just read as a stamp of quality, the most validating thing Carpenter heard to that point.
“It just seems like a stamp of quality.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:10:05 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about John Carpenter: Drew McWeeny's story: asked his favorite Carpenter movie, McWeeny said Starman and Carpenter said 'ah, a romantic'; Carpenter tests fans for being softies.
“and Carpenter smiled and said, ah, a romantic.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:10:32 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Starman development: Directors who passed or left: Badham, Adrian Lyne, Tony Scott, Mark Rydell, Peter Hyams; everyone who turned it down made a hit.
“What's the secret to my success?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:35:20 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Starman script: Original script ended with Starman blowing up the government with his ray gun; Dean Reisner's rewrite humanized it; he got no credit but the film is dedicated to him.
“The whole government with his ray gun.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:37:04 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Dean Reisner: Rewrite man was child actor 'Dinky Dean' in Chaplin's The Pilgrim; Google his photo.
“He's was a child actor named Dinky Dean.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:37:51 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
fun, about Michael Douglas / Starman: Douglas developed Starman as his own star vehicle; they all agree he would have been a disaster in the alien role, a cad and slimeball.
“Michael Douglas was the one who originally developed this movie because he wants a star in it and that would have been a disaster.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:40:34 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Jeff Bridges: Oscar story: Pfeiffer recalled Bridges had broken capillaries painted on his nose for Baker Boys; 'doesn't read on camera' - 'yeah, but it helps me'.
“yeah, but it helps me.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:47:09 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Cinderella: Griffin calls the Amazon jukebox Cinderella rancid and says Moulin Rouge is a lot harder to pull off.
“a lot harder to pull off than maybe, you know”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:50:57 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Baz Luhrmann: Griffin saw Luhrmann in Forbidden Planet buying a Wonder Woman umbrella, looking at comics 'like he was Starman, tilting his entire head'.
“And he walked around the store for like 20 minutes looking at comic books like he was Starman”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 0:54:13 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Karen Allen: Allen turned down the offer at first: a human actor playing an alien, no chemistry for 75 percent of the film; they talked her in.
“pointedly has to spend 75% of the running time having no chemistry with the only person she shares scenes with.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:03:11 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Starman casting: Kevin Bacon (Carpenter's Christine pick who took Footloose) nearly played Starman; Tom Cruise was courted too but did Legend.
“Carpenter wanted him for Christine and he chose Footloose instead.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:09:48 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
fun, about Voyager 2: Voyager 2 carried a golden disk; Starman recites things from it, including the Kurt Waldheim speech.
“He does the Kurt Waldheim speech”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:17:27 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about The baby prop: An auction six years ago sold the original baby prop, skin rotted off, now David's Zoom background.
“An auction from 6 years ago where they auctioned off the original baby prop, where all of the skin has rotted off it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:19:35 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Starman transformation: The baby-to-man transformation by Winston, Baker and Smith; Bridges claimed it would be one unbroken shot; they cut to her reactions.
“You watch a baby turn into like an adult me and it's all in one unbroken shot.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:28:28 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Starman cinematography: Not shot by Dean Cundy: Carpenter quote says they had a parting of the ways and would need to clear up attitude problems before working again.
“we've had a parting of the ways.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:31:50 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Starman scene to see: Diner scene: she orders deviled egg sandwich and pie; he asks why you can't eat the pie first and she says 'I don't know. That's just the way things.'
“That's just the way things.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:34:29 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Karen Allen quote: Allen thought Starman was extremely risky professionally and creatively, not a Muppet or mechanical creature.
“I thought Starman was also extremely risky professionally and creatively.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:36:36 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Jeff Bridges: Five eras of hot: babyface 70s, grown-up 80s, dad-handsome 90s, the Lebowski phase, marble-mouth Crazy Heart onward.
“Bridges has had 5 distinct eras of hot.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:41:59 · Katey Rich (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Steve Martin: At the NY Film Critics awards he thanked 'so many distinguished critics and Rex Reed' after Reed's column about his win.
“it is a great honor to have been given this award by so many distinguished critics and Rex Reed.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:53:20 · Katey Rich (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Oscars 1985: Prince arrived on motorcycles in a purple limo; Amy Irving's pregnancy was debated backstage; Bridges' mother told Sam Waterston 'we rooted for you too'.
“Prince shows up at the red carpet with 20 uniformed escorts on motorcycles”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:53:54 · Katey Rich (0.45 sure it was them)
fun, about Starman jokes: ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons has a gas-station cameo; the yellow light line: 'Red is stop, green is go, yellow is drive faster.'
“Red is stop, green is go, yellow is drive faster.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 1:59:52 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Hank the Cow Dog: Jeff Nichols is making a scripted children's podcast starring Matthew McConaughey as Hank the Cow Dog; Griffin reads the cast list.
“5 episodes of the scripted children's podcast, Hank the Cow Dog”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:04:20 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Starman TV series: Followed his son 15 years later with Robert Hays; John Carpenter's film recast; ran for a decade on the Sci-Fi channel.
“It just played on the fucking sci-fi channel for a decade.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:10:23 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Eastwood and Reynolds: Studio exec shredded both in a meeting; Reynolds grinned: 'I can learn how to act. What are you going to do with that Adam's apple?'
“Every else was like, yeah, but I can learn how to act.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:20:33 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Coppola: Coppola plans to self-fund Megalopolis, after selling wine business: 'I'll just pay for the whole fucking thing.'
“I'll just pay for the whole fucking thing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Starman with Katey Rich · 2:23:55 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Loves classic-Hollywood trivia, obsessive research dossiers, practical effects and the unfussy craft of Bridges' performance. Worships Dean Cundy and wishes he had shot Starman. Cannot stand overstuffed jukebox movies like the Amazon Cinderella. A sucker for Moulin Rouge, Romeo + Juliet and Oscar-clip nostalgia.
David Sims (host): Loves Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen and Oscar-season lore; a fan of Moulin Rouge-era Baz Luhrmann and of a good road movie. Mixed on Charles Martin Smith's role and finds the sex scene off the rack. A sucker for the Midnight Special comparison and the baby-prop weirdness.
Katey Rich (guest): Loves Jeff Bridges and 80s hunks, Karen Allen's performance, Oscar history and the quiet humanity of Carpenter's side characters. Cannot stand Oscar tribute clips she says she hated. A sucker for her sons' obsessions (Coco, Sing, Rocketman).

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

Blackjack/Black Jack (the opening trailer-style read is for 'Starman'; the name is garbled)
Dean Reisner/Riesner (also 'Dean Reiser')
Katie Rich (Katey Rich)
Drew McQueeney / McWheney (Drew McWeeny)
Adrian Lyon (Adrian Lyne)
Kundi / Kunj (Dean Cundy)
Bill and Coo (as spelled); the reading may be from another page than Riesner's
Rod Lury (Rod Lurie)
Idell (Mark Rydell)
Dinky D / Dinky Dave (Dinky Dean)
Jonathan Demi (Jonathan Demme)
Garfield 'Todd' (Tale of 2 Kitties = Tail of Two Kitties)
Manta fell to earth (Man Who Fell to Earth)
Stan Frasier/Brandon Frazier (Brendan Fraser)
Sam Waters (Sam Waterston)
Richie Scott (Ridley Scott)
Sean Levy (Shawn Levy)
Singh (Sing)
'Cohens' (Coen brothers)

Blank Check with Griffin & David: Starman with Katey Rich

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

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Films that came up

subject (1)

compared (20)

passing (103)

anecdote (24)

recommended (2)

Claims (81)

Fun items (25)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong