This is Ozarks at Large. April Wallace is with me in the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio, our culture vulture.
Kellams: Welcome back.
Wallace: Thank you, Kyle.
Kellams: What are we talking about this week?
Wallace: Well, we're not talking about Seinfeld, but we're not not talking about Seinfeld. Seinfeld is one of the three shows that I could just watch on repeat till the end of time.
Kellams: One of your comfort shows.
Wallace: But because I do live with other people, I can't just watch Seinfeld. So sometimes I have to find other things, like Unfrosted, the movie from 2024, for which he wrote, directed and starred in. It's one of Jerry Seinfeld's favorite things, breakfast. This is a movie set in 1963. Kellogg's versus Post. It's kind of like the space race, but for Pop-Tarts.
Kellams: And it came out at the same time we had the movie that was about the origin of Tetris, whether it had been stolen from the Russians or not, or the Russians had stolen, I can't remember now. It was also the time about the Air Jordan, the Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, how that came about. And there were a couple of others of these origin-of-things stories. So it was kind of a play on those as well. Because this is not a true story.
Wallace: This is great context, thank you. It's just full of comedy stars, which I am a comedy geek, I love it all. So we've got Jerry, but we've got Amy Schumer as Marjorie Post, Melissa McCarthy as Donna, Jim Gaffigan is Edsel Kellogg the third. And those are just the biggest names. There's Hugh Grant, there's tons of familiar faces. So at the very least, you can enjoy it for all of that star action and how they work together.
If you haven't seen it, I know it's been out for a long time, but one of my favorites is Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Not only do I like Seinfeld, but I just love interviews of almost all kinds. And because I'm such a huge comedy fan, this was really the show for me. And then either he or the guest chooses the place that they go. So there's always, it's every single one looks different and says something about that person. So it sets the stage.
Kellams: My favorite episode is when he visits Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks in their apartment. And there, I mean, here are two comedy legends. And at that time they were both in their 90s, and they're eating a microwave meal on TV trays. And you can tell Seinfeld is just, he realizes he's in like among comedy Hall of Fame.
Wallace: Yeah, that is one of my favorites, too. Stuck in my brain. It's one that stands out for me is the Fred Armisen episode, because he actually went to Portland to meet him there. So that's a special one to me, but really just can't go wrong.
Kellams: No. And again, they're short enough that I think it's a perfect last thing before you go to bed.
Wallace: Yes. I think I put it on while doing, you know, menial tasks and stuff too. So you can find that on Netflix. And finally, as I mentioned before, I could always watch Veep again and again. And this does not have Seinfeld, but it has Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the vice president, Selina Meyer.
Kellams: It's one of the funniest shows ever. And everyone gets a chance to shine. Tony Hale, so good as the bag boy.
Wallace: Yes. Gary, I mean, he is just so good as her companion. Like it wouldn't be the same show without either one of them, right?
They are truly co-stars in this. And it was made toward the end of, it was made during Louis-Dreyfus' cancer diagnosis, and they were such a tight little team, she said. It was like working with your friends, and it was something that kind of buoyed her through a difficult time. But I love that when someone enjoys it that much, it just elevates everything.
Kellams: It's over the top. Washington, if you're looking for a likable character, forget it. None of them are. Some are more unlikable than others, but it's so over the top. And I also say, if you're offended by foul language, don't even come close to it. No show incorporates profanity in a funnier, better, more consistent way than Veep, and that's on HBO. Or Max, or whatever it's called right now.
Wallace: Yeah. I've been listening to her podcast, Wiser Than Me, for the last couple of years, and it's just wonderful in its own right. Speaking of interviews, she interviews mostly celebrity women over 60 about their lives. And it's wonderful. Jane Goodall —
Kellams: Oh, yeah.
Wallace: Oh, I'm going to have Jane Fonda, like all the big time. And it is called Wiser Than Me.
Kellams: All right, we got a question.
Wallace: Typically, I know this varies case to case, but typically do you wind up liking the book or the movie better when you have one that's been both?
Kellams: Ooh. That's a — well, often it might be what I experienced first. And I think I can think of a couple of movies that I thought were better than the book. The Firm with Tom Cruise, I liked it. That ending seemed much more natural to me than the book's.
But you know, a movie is constrained. A movie might be two hours and you can't go into the character development, the kind of book, I think generally I like the book better because you spend more time with it and it becomes much more of an intimate situation. I think ultimately I just look at them as two different entities.
Wallace: I do, too, actually. It doesn't bother me quite so much as some of my friends when a movie doesn't portray the depth of a book, mostly because it doesn't have to be the same.
Kellams: No, they're two different mediums.
Wallace: There have been times when I've been angry that, you know, a major something has been left out of the movie version. If they significantly alter a main character or entirely overlook something really important to the plot, then I might be mad.
Kellams: How about a book recommendation?
Wallace: The thing that I read most recently that I would recommend is The Wreck by Katherine Newman. This is technically a sequel to Sandwich, which is a very popular book by her a few years ago. So sequel in that it is the same family. Rocky is the matriarch, and she has a couple adult children, and they're all kind of adjusting to this new phase of life where the children are mostly on their own, forming their own careers and relationships. Her parents are aging, they live with her for a while. That's most of Sandwich.
Kellams: Is that like, um, sandwich generation, you know?
Wallace: Oh, I got you.
Kellams: Okay, where she has both that she's taken care of.
Wallace: And Sandwich is captivating because it was technically a beach story. They all go to the same beach house every summer. Here they are, but they're in a new phase of life. And there's talk of pregnancy, miscarriage, you know, like things that they may not know about each other. And it's that layers and layers of, you know, your family members, but you can wake up and know them differently one day.
The Wreck is the same family a little further into the future. Her father is still living with her, but now she has gotten a diagnosis, or she's about to get a diagnosis, that she's struggling with. And at the same time, a family in their community loses their adult child, who died on a railroad track. And so the knowledge of that, how it impacts her family, is the entire book. And there's a connection with where her son works and how it plays into the responsibility of, like, how could this happen, how could a car get hit on railroad tracks. And it begins to call into question for them, like, what do we know about the places that we work for and the people who work there, what are your intentions, and what is your responsibility as a person who just knows them, you know, not that well, but knows them. It's fascinating and emotional.
Kellams: Would you say it's better to read Sandwich and then go to The Wreck? Or can you pick up The Wreck?
Wallace: You can pick it up and it is standalone ready. I think if you've read Sandwich, it just adds to your context of those same people, but I think they are both great on their own.
Kellams: Katherine Newman. April Wallace, thank you so much.
Wallace: Thank you.
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