Blank Check with Griffin & David: After Hours with Alison Sivitz

Published 2026-09-27; 2:26:02 by the feed.

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

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David” and the episode “After Hours with Alison Sivitz”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: Alison Sivitz (aka Bald Ann Dowd, introduced as 'Ali Savvy').

Subject films: After Hours (1985).

On the transcript: Unlabeled speakers throughout, auto-transcribed with many name errors; ad reads at roughly 0:28-0:29, 1:15-1:17 and 1:51.

Films that came up

Claims (64)

theme (joke comparison): After Hours → Men in Black 3. A host calls Men in Black 3 the After Hours of the franchise, mostly set in one night.
“I've seen the after hours of the Men in Black trilogy.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:11:08 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (sound): After Hours → Lost. The cab-meter noise is the same sound used for the smoke monster in Lost.
“the receipt sound of a taxi, which uh, was used for the smoke monster and lost.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:12:53 · unknown host (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (credit): Amy Robinson → Mean Streets. Robinson, After Hours co-producer, was the female lead in Mean Streets; that's how she knew Scorsese.
“His producing partner is Amy Robinson, who was the female lead in Mean Streets.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:14:53 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (rebound): Tim Burton → Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Burton stepped aside for Scorsese and immediately rebounded onto Pee-wee, which came out the same year.
“And then he just like immediately rebounds onto Pee Wee, which comes out the same year or the year after this.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:17:05 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (fan-ranking shift): The King of Comedy → After Hours. King of Comedy was once the not-like-other-fans Scorsese pick; fans have swung round to After Hours.
“for a while, uh, king of comedy was the, I'm not like the other Scorsese fans. And things have now, I think, swung around to after hours.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:21:24 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
theme (location): Ms. 45 → After Hours. A host wants to make a SoHo canon including Ms. 45.
“I want to make a Soho cannon, and I need to look, you know, Ms. 45 for our movies also.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:24:53 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
theme (location): After Hours → Unfaithful. Unfaithful shares great SoHo location work with After Hours.
“The Adrian Lyne movie has a lot of great SoHo stuff.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:25:01 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (industry cause): The Right Stuff → The Last Temptation of Christ. The Right Stuff's failure was the final blow to Paramount's appetite for Last Temptation-style hauteur.
“The right stuff comes out, the Irvin Winkler production, obviously. Another huge Phil Kaufman movie does so poorly. That is the final blow.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:32:03 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (sources of the screenplay): Joseph Minion → After Hours. Minion wrote it under the spell of Kafka, Welles' The Trial, Mamet plays, Henry Miller and Mailer.
“I was under the spell of Kafka. I was obsessed with Orson Welles as the trial.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:33:22 · unknown host (quoting Minion) (0.35 sure it was them)
lineage (unofficial remake): After Hours → The Night Before. After Hours is the template for modern one-crazy-night New York comedies, none of which reach it.
“It is one of those movies that kind of is like unofficially remade every 5 years.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:34:18 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (unofficial remake): After Hours → The Lovebirds. The Lovebirds tried to be the After Hours of its day but never works.
“on paper, you were like, yeah, sure, it's been too long since someone tried to make after hours.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:35:09 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
theme (genre mutation): After Hours → Date Night. Date Night is After Hours turned into an action movie, piling on too much incident.
“Date night is action movie after hours.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:35:40 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (alleged plagiarism): Joe Frank → After Hours. Joe Frank's 1982 monologue 'Lies' was allegedly lifted for After Hours' opening act; 'Lies' was the script's first title.
“the opening act is basically ripping off a 1982 monologue he had called lies, which is the 1st title of this script.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:37:27 · unknown host (reading JJ Bersch's research) (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (comic technique): Ernst Lubitsch → After Hours. The film's elegant timing and characterization is Scorsese flexing Lubitsch, his filmmaking hero.
“this is the movie where Marty gets to flex a little Lubich stuff, who was obviously a big filmmaking hero of his”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:39:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (producing record): Griffin Dunn → Chilly Scenes of Winter. Dunn and Robinson produced Chilly Scenes of Winter and Running on Empty as part of an incredible producing track.
“he and Amy Robinson have an incredible producing track, including chili scenes of winter, and running on empty.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:40:23 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
people (casting): Rosanna Arquette → Baby It's You. Arquette had been in John Sayles's Baby It's You, which is how Scorsese knew her.
“Uh, baby it's you. Yes. Uh, that's a John Sales movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:40:58 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Robert Downey Jr. → Pound. Pound is called Downey's first movie as an adult.
“Excuse me, his 1st movie is Pound.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:41:17 · unknown host (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Griffin Dunn → An American Werewolf in London. Dunn plays the decaying ghost-friend in Landis's film, in Rick Baker makeup.
“Griffin Dunn is the friend who appears to him in these long conversations, but every time he shows up, his body's decaying further.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:42:30 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (technical): Rick Baker → An American Werewolf in London. Baker's makeup makes Dunn's scenes iconic.
“it's Griffin Dunn wearing Rick Baker at the top of his game.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:42:43 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (joke prequel): After Hours → Home Alone. Joked as a Home Alone prequel because O'Hara and Heard play Kevin's future parents.
“this, of course, is a Home Alone prequel that explains how Kevin McAllister's parents meet.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:45:20 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
people (casting): John Heard → Chilly Scenes of Winter. Heard, the After Hours bartender, starred in Chilly Scenes of Winter, part of the Robinson/Dunn circle.
“He's the John Hurd who plays the angry bartender. I guess, in this one, is the star of chili scenes of winter.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:45:34 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (Scorsese's taste): Catherine O'Hara → After Hours. Scorsese loved SCTV, which explains casting O'Hara; he agitated her before takes.
“Scorsese loved SCTV.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:45:47 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (calling card): Vincent → After Hours. Dunn and Robinson hired Burton after seeing his short Vincent.
“So, uh, they they love this script and then they watch Vincent, the Short by Tim Burton.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:46:18 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (almost-director): Tim Burton → After Hours. Burton was originally signed to direct After Hours as his first feature before Scorsese took it.
“Now, so now they're packaged. Griffin Dunn is the star, and Tim Burton is the director.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:47:17 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (proof of concept): Frankenweenie → After Hours. Burton made Frankenweenie partly to prove he could do live action and earn trust for After Hours.
“Burton need to prove that he could do live action to help kind of gain trust for after hours.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:48:24 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
theme (plot comparison): Beverly Hills Cop → Coogan's Bluff. Scorsese would have heard the Beverly Hills Cop pitch as a retread of Don Siegel's Coogan's Bluff.
“oh, you mean like the Don Siegel picture Coogan's bluff?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:49:52 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
what-if (alternate assignment): Witness → After Hours. Scorsese was also offered Witness and refused to go to Pennsylvania/Amish country.
“And Marty was kind of like, I'm not going to Pennsylvania.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:50:09 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (cause): The Last Temptation of Christ → After Hours. After Paramount collapsed Last Temptation, Scorsese wanted a cheap, personal film; After Hours is his reaction to the Hollywood ordeal.
“it's a reaction against my year and a half into Hollywood trying to get last temptation to Christ made.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:50:49 · unknown host (quoting Scorsese) (0.35 sure it was them)
lineage (influence): Isle of the Dead → After Hours. Scorsese cited Isle of the Dead, a one-night Greek island story, as an influence.
“Isle of the Dead, a Val Luton movie that takes place like over one night on a Greek island.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:51:19 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
lineage (influence): North by Northwest → After Hours. The world-against-him framed-man structure of North by Northwest was an influence.
“That's sort of like the world is against him. He's been framed.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:51:28 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
lineage (influence): Fritz Lang → After Hours. Lang's nighttime nightmare noirs (M, Manhunt, Woman in the Window) were influences.
“And then some Fritz Lange movies. like M, Manhunt, Woman in the Window, you know, nighttime noiry, nightmare movies, stuff like that.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:51:36 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (directing credit): Griffin Dunn → Practical Magic. Dunn directed Practical Magic, Addicted to Love, Fierce People, The Accidental Husband.
“I love Addicted to Love, which is an insane movie. and I love practical magic.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:55:41 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
career (career arc): Addicted to Love → Election. Broderick's 90s search for a new persona (Godzilla, Inspector Gadget, Addicted to Love) ends when Election cracks it.
“And then election is how he like closes out the decade where he's like, you fucking cracked it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:56:50 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
unmapped (trailer color): Practical Magic sequel → The Devil Wears Prada (sequel). Trailers look bad because color timing hasn't been finished; Prada trailer looked bad but film looked good.
“I think these trailers are just like not fucking color times.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:57:46 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (same-year role): Rosanna Arquette → Desperately Seeking Susan. Arquette had a hot 1985 with Desperately Seeking Susan; Globe nomination went to that film rather than After Hours.
“The Golden Globes nominated her instead for desperately seeking Susan that same year.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:01:05 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (awards trivia): Rosanna Arquette → The Whole Nine Yards. Arquette earned a Stinkers nomination for most annoying fake accent for The Whole Nine Yards, losing to Adam Sandler in Little Nicky.
“So I will tell you that she lost to Adam Sandler for Little Nicky for most annoying fake...”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:02:06 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Toto → Rosanna Arquette. Toto's song 'Rosanna' is about Arquette, offered as trivia.
“Roseanne, Roseanne. is a song about her. It is about her”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:02:20 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (how they met): Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong → The Corsican Brothers. Scorsese met Cheech and Chong at Cannes, where The Corsican Brothers was playing.
“you should mention the Corsican brothers because when they were in Cannes, that's how they met Marty.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:08:57 · unknown host (0.30 sure it was them)
people (collaborator): Michael Ballhaus → After Hours. Ballhaus shot After Hours, his first with Scorsese; Scorsese hired him for quick setups.
“This is their 1st collaboration. He knew him from Fastbinder movies, which were very low budget, tight schedule movies.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:11:18 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Michael Ballhaus → Fred Schuler. Scorsese hired Ballhaus for quick setups because his previous DP Schuler was slow and the pair fed each other's slowness.
“He thought Fred Schuler was slow and right, it only made him slower and all that.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:11:34 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (technical): Michael Ballhaus → Baby It's You. Ballhaus, After Hours DP, had also shot Baby It's You and came from low-budget Fassbinder.
“Bauhaus had also shot Baby It's You, so he's got a little bit of that.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:11:37 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (rejuvenation): The King of Comedy → After Hours. After Hours rescued Scorsese after King of Comedy the way The Last Waltz followed New York, New York.
“Like last waltz is that after New York, New York, and this is that after King of comedy, where he needed to be saved a little.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:11:51 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (camera style): Goodfellas → After Hours. After Hours already has the Goodfellas-style moving camera.
“Also, there's so much Goodfella's DNA and the way the camera moves and it's really fun to watch.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:12:15 · Alison Sivitz (0.35 sure it was them)
theme (AIDS-era reading): Fran Lebowitz → After Hours. Lebowitz's take that AIDS killed all the people who fucked is invoked to frame After Hours as a disappearing New York.
“the real devastation of the AIDS crisis was that it knocked out all the people who fucked.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:22:33 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (plot comparison): After Hours → Saw. Fiorentino's Kiki is jigsaw-like and the sculpture is set up from the start like Saw's traps.
“And it is like saw in that it's like the sculpture's there from the beginning.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:33:48 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (behind the scenes): Verna Bloom → Mean Streets. Bloom helped get Mean Streets made; she was married to Jay Cocks.
“For getting Mean Streets made.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:01:17 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Verna Bloom → Animal House. Bloom plays the sexiest older lady to dumb young guys in Animal House, a similar role.
“Yes, the world's sexiest, older lady to dumb young guys.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:01:38 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
unmapped (last role): Verna Bloom → The Last Temptation of Christ. Bloom plays Mary in Last Temptation, which with After Hours are her last two films.
“Last temptation, which she plays, Jesus's mom, Mary, heard of her.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:02:56 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (craft): After Hours → Howard Shore. After Hours is light on needle drops and leans on Shore's heavy score.
“Marty hasn't been doing the needle drops as much in this film. It feels big to have, you know, the score's very heavy in this film. Howard Shore.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:03:30 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Howard Shore → Martin Scorsese. Shore became Scorsese's go-to composer, and the host loves their collaborations.
“I really love Shore's collaborations with Marty”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:03:39 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (composer arc): Howard Shore → The Lord of the Rings. Shore went from atonal Cronenberg/Scorsese music to scoring Lord of the Rings.
“Like before he became the Lord of the Rings guy. I mean, he was the weird, you know, atonal music guy.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:03:46 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Howard Shore → David Cronenberg. Shore, once the atonal-music guy, became Cronenberg's go-to composer.
“He becomes David Cronenberg and Martin Scorsese's go-to guys”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:03:59 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (hiring logic): Peter Jackson → Howard Shore. Jackson hired Shore because Jackson came from a Cronenberg-like space.
“Because Jackson comes from a kind of Cronenberg space originally.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:04:14 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (craft): After Hours → Mozart. The music playing as Paul is back at work at the end is Mozart, not Beethoven.
“It's Mozart, not Beethoven, is the music, by the way.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:10:16 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): After Hours → Bad Brains. Bad Brains are the punk band playing in the Berlin club, performing 'Pay to Cum'.
“Bad Brains, that hardcore, that's the punk band that's playing at Niagara, the song, Pay to Come.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:10:22 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (comedy duo ported): Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong → Rat Race. Like Cheech and Chong here, Rat Race's duo was written for Jay and Silent Bob per Kevin Smith.
“Kevin Smith recently revealed on a podcast that that was written for Jay and Silent Bob.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:12:16 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (shared song): Rat Race → Shrek. Rat Race is the second-best 2001 movie to use Smash Mouth's All Star after Shrek.
“It's the 2nd best movie to use Smash Mouse All-Star in the year 2001.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:12:52 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (Cannes competitor): After Hours → The Mission. Both played Cannes; Scorsese won best director while The Mission took the Palme.
“The Palm door went to the mission, one of the worst Palm door winners, in my opinion.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:14:42 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (directing method): After Hours → Boogie Nights. Scorsese startled Dunn with glass-dropping like the firecracker scene in Boogie Nights.
“It's like I'm that part of boogie nights where they're lighting off the...”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:16:06 · unknown host (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (shared star): Teen Wolf → Back to the Future. Michael J. Fox held the number one and two spots at the 1985 box office.
“Michael J. Fox is one and two.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:17:34 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
programming (double feature): After Hours → Dallas Buyers Club. Dallas Buyers Club would pair with After Hours as an AIDS-era double feature.
“It'd be a great double feature with after hours.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:18:42 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
people (same-year, near-director): Pee-wee's Big Adventure → After Hours. Pee-wee's Big Adventure was number 3 at the 1985 box office, directed by the man considered for After Hours.
“directed by a guy who was considered for directing this film.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:19:38 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (easily confused): Volunteers → The Great Outdoors. A speaker mixes up Volunteers and The Great Outdoors; Volunteers is where Hanks met Rita Wilson.
“I always give volunteers and great outdoors confused because great outdoors is Annette Benning's debut film”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:22:19 · Alison Sivitz (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career sequence): After Hours → The Color of Money. After this, Scorsese finally gets an unqualified hit with The Color of Money; next episode.
“After this, Martin Scorsese finally has an unqualified hit.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:25:53 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items (24)

fun, about Alison Sivitz: Sivitz's avatar is a bald Ann Dowd; she feared being sued until Dowd said she'd never sue her.
“For the 1st 6 months, I would have intense nightmares that Andowd was going to sue me.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:09:30 · Alison Sivitz (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Pee-wee Herman: In the Pee-wee documentary, Paul Reubens is haunted that Burton got credit for Pee-wee's success.
“Paul Rubens talks about how haunted he was by like Tim Burton getting all the credit for Pee-wee”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:16:02 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Tim Burton / Griffin Dunn: When Dunn apologized for Scorsese wanting the film, Burton said he wouldn't dream of making a movie Scorsese was flirting with.
“Martin Score says he wants to make your movie. I wouldn't dare make a movie that he's even flirting with.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:16:54 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Griffin Newman: Newman's parents had incompatible name lists (Gaelic names vs Rufus and Tyrone); Griffin was the compromise, and they'd tell people he was named for Griffin Dunn.
“My parents would joke that I was named after Griffin Dunn.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:18:54 · Griffin Newman (0.85 sure it was them)
fun, about Joe Frank: Radio monologist Joe Frank said the opening act was ripped from his 1982 piece 'Lies' and was reportedly paid off.
“I saw the movie. I was like, oh yeah, like this part is ripping me off.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:37:53 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Teri Garr: Garr was attached early as an Oscar nominee but no studio was interested in the dark pitch.
“They actually get Terry Gar attached pretty early.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:47:20 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Beverly Hills Cop: Scorsese was offered Beverly Hills Cop with Stallone and the pitch is lampooned as a Coogan's Bluff remake.
“he was offered that. With Sylvester Stallone, you know, back when it was Sylvester Stallone.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:49:12 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about After Hours (budget): Geffen financed it for $4.5 million; it grossed about $10 million after a one-screen release on September 13, 1985.
“Geffen funds it for 4.5 million dollars.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:52:57 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Griffin Dunn: Scorsese made Dunn go celibate for the 8-week shoot so Paul Hackett would look desire-starved.
“So I need you to not have sex for the 8 weeks of the shoot.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:53:40 · unknown host (quoting Dunn) (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Linda Fiorentino: In the massage scene Dunn was too relaxed, so Scorsese stopped the take and asked if he got laid.
“Marty was like, did you get laid, you fucker?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 0:54:32 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about After Hours (cast): Everyone in the film hung out at Cafe Central, where Bruce Willis tended bar and De Niro and Walken drank.
“Bruce Willis was the bartender. De Niro and Walken were always in there.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:00:25 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Catherine O'Hara: Scorsese would wind her up before takes, telling her to hate Dunn's annoying character.
“who's this little fucker? He thinks he can tell you what to do?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:08:12 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Cheech and Chong: Scorsese phoned them from the Cannes acquaintance; Chong remembered him as the little Italian.
“And they said, yeah, the little Italian.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:09:30 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about After Hours (production): Shot over 40 nights, 5pm to 5am, and Ballhaus and Scorsese were quick; Scorsese had a blast.
“Uh, film was shot in 40 nights.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:11:01 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about After Hours (endings): Original storyboarded ending had Paul crawl into Verna Bloom's womb; Michael Powell suggested a hot-air balloon; Geffen refused to fund the womb; the fix was going back to work.
“he was going to crawl inside of her womb.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:12:55 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about David Geffen: The money man balked at the birth-onto-Westside-Highway ending.
“And David Geffen is like, who the money man is like, that's disgusting.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:13:52 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about After Hours (AIDS reading): A guest-driven take that it's an AIDS crisis movie about sex as life-and-death stakes and a disappearing queer New York.
“I think this is like a fascinating AIDS crisis movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:19:42 · Alison Sivitz (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Fran Lebowitz: Lebowitz's quip that AIDS killed all the people who fucked frames the film's nostalgia.
“New York sucks forever.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:22:41 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Etsy paperweight: Ben bought an Etsy plaster bagel-and-cream-cheese paperweight from a seller named Kiki's Bagels as a gag gift.
“The seller is Kiki's bagels.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:28:51 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Dick Miller: The diner waiter looks down the lens and delivers the film's thesis about after hours being a parallel world.
“You're in a parallel world.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 1:53:32 · unknown host (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Rat Race: The Rat Race brothers were written for Jay and Silent Bob per Kevin Smith.
“it was written to literally be the 2 of them doing that.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:12:35 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about After Hours (Cannes): Gaddafi threatened Cannes, Scorsese didn't go, and the French press called Dunn the bravest American for attending.
“the French press called Griffin Dunn, the Bravest American, because he was the only American actor who went.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:14:30 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about After Hours: Scorsese had a PA drop a box of shattered glass to jolt Dunn and made him run around the block before entering frame.
“he had a box full of shattered glass pieces and he had like a PA would stand next to him.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:15:03 · unknown host (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Cocoon: Once a huge Oscar-winning hit, Cocoon is out of print and unstreamable, per Matt Patches.
“Cocoon has famously been out of circulation. for like a decade.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · After Hours with Alison Sivitz · 2:23:05 · unknown host (0.35 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Treats After Hours as a personal vibe movie and loves oddball details, Scorsese lore and downtown New York. Fond of Pee-wee and Griffin Dunn, plays bits about being named after Dunn. Cannot stand wasteful nostalgia and hates auto-flush toilets.
David Sims (host): Reveres Scorsese's lesser-seen work, loves Addicted to Love and Practical Magic, and delights in awards trivia and box-office rankings. Is a sucker for Hitchcock/noir comparisons and Rosanna Arquette. Hates Weezer covers.
Alison Sivitz (guest): After Hours is her number one Scorsese film; Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is the runner-up. Loves Ann Dowd, weirdo New York texture and Catherine O'Hara; offers an AIDS-crisis reading of the film. Dislikes veneers and blepharoplasty looks, and being called young.

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

'Ali Savvy' = Alison Sivitz
'Andowd / And Out / Hair and Doubt' = Ann Dowd ('Bald Ann Dowd')
'Griffin Dung' = Griffin Dunn
'Rosanna Arquette' also appears as 'Roseanne Arquette'
'Linda Forentino / Florentine' = Linda Fiorentino
'Terry Gar / Garr' = Teri Garr
'John Hurd' = John Heard
'Ballhouse / Bauhaus' = Michael Ballhaus
'Fastbinder' = Fassbinder
'Dusan Makagev' = Dusan Makavejev
'Joseph Minion' correct; 'Val Luton' = Val Lewton
'Lubich' = Lubitsch
'Fritz Lange' = Fritz Lang
'Franley Bevitz' = Fran Lebowitz
'John McClint Silver' = Joan Micklin Silver
'chili scenes of winter' = Chilly Scenes of Winter
'Werner Bloom' / 'Vernon Bloom' = Verna Bloom
'Diploma' = Demme
'Tropicopics' = Tropic of Cancer
'Dangerously' (0:04:50) unclear, possibly a Dunn film title
'Jane Schoen' = Jane Schoenbrun
'JJ Birch' = JJ Bersch
'Remy trilogy' = Raimi trilogy

Blank Check with Griffin & David: After Hours with Alison Sivitz

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

Films that came up

subject (1)

passing (54)

compared (18)

recommended (9)

anecdote (28)

dismissed (4)

Claims (64)

Fun items (24)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong