Show Notes
A L Katz’s love of film began as a child in Baltimore with Laurel & Hardy and Groucho Marx. He went to college in Vassar and really learned story telling there. After one audition, he decided he didn’t want to act but write.
After a high school friend moved to L.A. to be an agent and Mr. Katz was trying to put together a play in New York, she convinced him to write a screenplay and go to L.A., which of course he thought was ridiculous but he was convinced, won over by the people and the weather, after a short visit.
The first week, his agent set up a meeting with the first producer he ever met, Gilbert Adler, in 1985. Who was instrumental in Alan’s move to California and they were good friends for a decade. They co-produced and wrote together on the job of his dreams, Tales From The Crypt. But by the release of Bordello of Blood, their friendship was over.
Alan and Gil reconnected 25 years later to create, How Not To Make a Movie Podcast. Where they talk about their work together and have guests they once worked with to tell their stories.
Gil was hired by HBO to do something with More Stories, he worked on The Hitchhiker and the 3rd season of Tales From the Crypt that was struggling and was slated to end.
Alan and Gil resurrected the concept of Tales from the Crypt. Alan reimagined the Cryptkeeper played by John Kassir and his role in the series. Plus balancing the show with the budget, which priorly was always in a deficit.
They corrected it by hiring Gil. And Gil brought Alan on as a story editor. (“You manage the budget by managing the script!”) Alan’s first experience with the show was as a judge for the Cable Ace Awards and he viewed the first 3 episodes of the Tales from the Crypt and he loved them!
Since Alan was a DC comic and Mad Magazine fan and he wanted the show to be more black comedy than horror.
How it was working with Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver? How HBO’s ad slogan came out of a screening of Tales with HBO executives? Great stories about MeatLoaf, getting Kirk Douglas for Yellow. And how Bordello of Blood came to be. Another movie was supposed to be made in it’s place but the machinations of Hollywood turned and suddenly everything changed but this story is for part 2.
This is a great story from a great story teller!!
Find A L Katz
https://howtolivebullshit-free.com/
On Mastodon: https://lor.sh/@Alan
And his podcast, How Not To Make a Movie Podcast, is wherever you get your podcasts!
Also on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17 at NOON PACIFIC TIME, there is a table read of the movie that never was, Dead Easy, for the charity The Motion Picture Home (the MPTF). For retired entertainment industry artists who need help. Find out more at the link below…
https://how-not-to-make-a-movie.com/2022/11/26/the-dead-easy-table-read-for-charity/?amp=1
Christopher Thompson on IG @theauthor__ and mastodon @https://mastodon.world/@WestReAnimated
Kimberly at http://www.macabreish.com and IG and Tiktok @macabre_ish. https://linktr.ee/macabre_ish
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