Month: August 2020

It has been a very long time since we’ve seen a new episode in The Walking Dead universe. April 5th, to be exact. Thankfully, AMC is putting the finishing touches on what was supposed to be the 10th season finale, but is now just the 16th episode of the season. That will finally air on October 4th, while showrunner Angela Kang has also announced that season 10 will be extended by six episodes, which will air in 2021. Nothing official has been announced, but it is my guess that the extended 10th season of The Walking Dead will air in the Spring of 2021, and the 11th season of the series will kick off in its usual spot in October, a year off its originally scheduled date.

Meanwhile, the sixth-season premiere Fear the Walking Dead has also been scheduled. It will air on the following week, October 11th, and it will continue to share Sunday nights with the spin-off series, The Walking Dead: The World Beyond, which will explicitly tie The Walking Dead universe to the Rick Grimes movies. What isn’t clear, however, is how many episodes of Fear the Walking Dead are ready to go when the series resumes, and if a full sixth season will air.

We don’t have exact answers to that question, but we do now know that Fear the Walking Dead will (try) to resume production on the sixth season. In fact, it’s set to resume production this month, while The Walking Dead will start filming those six The Walking Dead episodes beginning in October. That is, according to AMC CEO Josh Sapan. From Deadline:

AMC Networks said it plans to restart production on the second half of Season 6 of Fear the Walking Dead in Texas in late August, on new series Kevin Can F*** Himself in Boston at the end of September, and on Season 11 of The Walking Dead in Georgia in October.

The Walking Dead films in Georgia, where Tyler Perry has been in production for a number of weeks while in a bubble. Meanwhile, several other high-profile projects are raring to go in Atlanta, as well, like Netflix’s Red Notice with Dwayne Johnson and the final season of Ozark. Meanwhile, with the number of coronavirus cases continuing to climb in Texas, it is not clear when or how Fear will get started — there are not yet any Instagram photos from cast in Texas, so it’s unlikely they are in Austin yet. However, the rapid spit test developed by the NBA and Yale University and recently approved by the FDA could make resuming production in Texas, Georgia, and everywhere else much easier.

Source: Deadline

LeBron James shot his Space Jam sequel in the before times, well before there was a bubble and the entire NBA postseason was in it. Still, there’s a lot we don’t know about the movie and what James will do to live up to the legacy of Michael Jordan’s Looney Tunes movie.

Thanks to TMZ, however, we know what James said to the cast and crew once the movie wrapped. The news organization snagged an audio recording of the speech he gave at the end of the movie’s filming, a recording that took nearly a year to see the light of day. You can listen to the full recording of the speech here, but it’s an emotional farewell speech that spoke to the importance of the now-franchise to him and how much he appreciated the people who worked on the film.

“I’m gonna be honest completely with you guys — when I found out about the project, I was like it’s ‘Space Jam’! It’s a movie that I grew up watching. People in the movie that I idolize. I was like absolutely, I gotta do it. There’s no way I can turn down ‘Space Jam’!”

James also reflected on the struggle he endured to find success in the basketball world, calling the project “extra credit” that was well-worth the time and demanding film schedule that was required to complete it.

Perhaps most interestingly, the images included with the audio recording seem to reveal what the new-look Tune Squad will be wearing when the movie is finally released. An image of James in a very different Tune Squad uniform, wearing the No. 6, accompanied the story about James’ speech. Until now, we’ve only seen a single “A New Legacy” logo on a hat, which James shared in April.

We know James worked out extensively all summer while filming the movie, meaning lots of early mornings in the basketball court put together for him on set. And while it’s possible the outfit he’s wearing was just something he’s doing real basketball stuff in without the cameras rolling, don’t be surprised if there’s a lot of similar-looking Tune Squad merch available in the leadup to the movie’s release.

It has been 25 years since the release of Tommy Boy, one of the most beloved and quoted comedies of all time. While director Peter Segal reflected back on the movie earlier this year, David Spade chatted with Rob Lowe about their experience on it, as well, on Lowe’s podcast, Literally!

As Lowe tells it, he got the movie while playing tennis with Lorne Michaels after the success of Wayne’s World. Lowe also shared that he went to dinner with Spade and Farley one night during the shoot, and Chris Farley ate “two bone-in steaks, and on top of each bite, he put a full-square of butter on every single bite.”

“It needs a hat!” Farley had said.

During the shooting of the film, there was also a huge blowout fight between Farley and Spade that Spade relays on the podcast. The famous Tommy Boy fight was actually about Rob Lowe. At the time, Farley and Spade were spending every minute of the day together, flying from SNL to the set of Tommy Boy in Toronto together on a private jet. They would spend the entire week flying back and forth between Toronto and New York. Unlike today, when a cast member like Pete Davidson can take off a week to attend a fashion show or shoot a movie, “We couldn’t get off a full week of SNL on a movie that Lorne Michaels was producing,” Spade said.

The travel and work schedule was difficult. Spade was losing weight; Farley was gaining weight. He was “eating all the time,” and “we were all burned out. We were both fu*king dying. It’s like an old married couple; we’re fu*king fighting all the time. We were never apart.”

One night, after leaving NYC for Toronto, they arrived around 1 a.m. for a 6 a.m. shoot. Farley said to Spade, “I”m feeling sick. I think I have the flu or something. I’m going to go and crash.” Meanwhile, Spade stayed up a little longer and called Rob Lowe, and they had one drink at the hotel bar. “We don’t tell Farley. Because of course we don’t. We see him every godf*cking day,” Spade said.

The next day, Spade went to his room, and Farley was already gone. When Spade got to set, however, Farley started staring at him, “biting his lip, which meant they we’re about to have a fight. That was his tell.”

“And he looks at me,” Spade said, “and he asks, ‘How was your night? How was Rob Lowe?’”

Somehow, Farley had heard that Spade and Rob Lowe were hanging out the night before, and he got angry that he wasn’t invited. “How’s Rob Lowe?” Farley asked again. “How’s your precious f*cking Rob Lowe?”

“I don’t know,” Spade said to him.
“How was drinks last night,” Farley countered.
“Oh, is that what we’re getting at?” Spade asked. “It was fine. It was all right.”
“So, you call f*cking Rob Lowe, so you can have a little date with him, but you don’t call me?” Farley asked.
“The last word off the wire was that you were sick,” Spade said.
“So you called Rob Lowe?”

This went on for a while, and when the returned to set, Farley was still furious with Spade, glaring at him while smoking. At some point, Spade was outside, freezing, and sitting on the ground eating a tuna fish sandwich. Farley was standing over him, smoking a cigarette. “How’s Rob Lowe?” Farley repeated.

When Spade didn’t take the bait — “he can’t stand that it’s not going anywhere” — Farley came over, and stood on Spade’s hand, on his tuna sandwich “with his big f*cing boots, with all his thousands of pounds.” Then Spade threw a Diet Coke on Farley, and Farley in turn pushed Spade down a small set of stairs. When Spade got to the bottom, “I stand up and say, ‘Are we in a fight?’ And the [director says on the walkie-talkie], ‘Action!’ and [Farley and I] just stare at each other, and we turn and we walk in.”

When they get back on set, Spade couldn’t bring himself to say his line, so he just walked off the set in a huff, and both he and Farley retreated to their respective trailers. Spade insisted that the set would be shut down for days, because “I’m not talking to this asshole forever.” Meanwhile, Farley went out and literally tackled a crew member who was about his size because he had so much anger. “He was so mad, he just went up and tackled him.”

The fight, of course, didn’t last forever. Amends were eventually made, and Farley and Spade of course remained friends. “Look, we had a blast,” Spade said. “All my memories of Tommy Boy were fun. It was stressful. It was hard. You wish you could enjoy how much the movie will be remembered at the time. But Tommy Boy, I hear about more than any other movie … We had greats seats for Farley, so I love it. I’m just glad to be a part of something.”

And we are collectively glad for Tommy Boy. It’s just a shame about that tuna sandwich.

Source: Literally! with Rob Lowe

Much was made in the buildup to UFC 252 from Stipe Miocic about Daniel Cormier’s errant extended fingers, which in their rematch, caused him to suffer a torn retina. And rightly so, after the eye injury played a part in keeping Miocic out of the Octagon for a year and suffered long-term vision issues.

In their third and likely final showdown, an eye poke yet again played a significant factor in the final result. After Cormier accidentally caught Miocic briefly in the first round, it was third-round eye gouge that rendered Cormier unable to see out of his left eye.

Immediately after suffering the eye injury, Cormier complained to referee Marc Goddard, who told him to calm down, it was just a punch. In between rounds, Goddard saw the poke on replay and apologized to Cormier, but the damage was done. The injury opened him up to repeated heavy right-hand shots from Miocic and eventually helped the champion retain. It certainly wasn’t the only reason Miocic came out on top, as Cormier abandoned his ground game after the first round and fell victim to Miocic’s strategy of locking Cormier up and maintaining clinch control, continuing to score points from his feet.

After the fight, Miocic discussed what happened during the fight and how he continued to apologize to Cormier even during the bout.

“I felt bad, it wasn’t intentional. I told him like 45 times I’m sorry during the fight,” Miocic said. “He did it to me multiple times, whatever. He said it wasn’t on purpose, mine wasn’t on purpose. I honestly didn’t realize I poked him in the eye until I saw the replay and was like, ‘Oh, I totally poked him in the eye.’ That was my bad.”

Goddard also took to Twitter to apologize for the error.

“I practice what I preach & as a man I stand tall & head on,” Goddard wrote on Twitter (H/T MMA Mania). “If you accept plaudits then you must with mistakes too, that’s proof that you are listening, honest & implore improvement. Rough with the smooth, acceptance & ownership. Immediately after the fight when seeing the replay I apologised to Daniel Cormier & his team & I do so publicly & unreservedly for missing what I shouldn’t have – but I cannot call what I do not see. I don’t have replays & multiple angles, it’s a one shot take in real time.”

“I cannot convey just how much I have both lived & loved this sport for the past 20 years,” he concluded. “I truly appreciate all who understand.”

Sunday morning ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported that Cormier had suffered a torn cornea and he will have to wait before they can determine if he needs surgery.

https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1295013159527424001

As for Cormier’s long-term fight prospects, he told Joe Rogan, “That’ll be it for me,” after his title fight Saturday night. At 41 years old, the ending certainly isn’t what Cormier wanted. But it might just have to be what he has to settle for.

During the current worldwide pandemic, movie studios are no longer providing box-office figures because theaters have been shut down around the nation and the world. Because we are less interested in the actual figures themselves and more interested in what people are watching over the weekends, each week we will dive into Most Streamed and Bestseller Lists on Fandango, iTunes, Netflix, and Hulu to pinpoint the weekend’s most watched films.

Believe it or not, next week, movie theaters in much of the country will reopen (although, interestingly, not in New York City or Los Angeles, the two biggest markets in the country). Russell Crowe’s Unhinged will compete with mostly reissues (my theaters are showing Inception, The LEGO Movie, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Departed, The Wedding Singer, The Notebook, and Beetlejuice). It’s unclear how interested anyone will be in returning to theaters for those movies, although I suspect we will see a significant uptick the following weekend for The New Mutants and then the floodgates — such as they are — will fully open on September 3rd with Tenet. We will all have to get used to coronavirus restrictions in theaters, which aren’t so bad for those who like half empty theaters (or 70 percent empty theaters in this case). Movie theaters have reopened in Europe and China without incident, but America has never met a challenge we could not botch, so we’ll see how it goes. I might put on a Hazmat suit and venture out to see Unhinged myself, just so that I can see what it looks like inside a pandemic-era theater.

In the meantime, tickets sales are slowly beginning to climb over in China, as Warner Bros’ 4K 3D restoration of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone, took in $4.54 million on Friday, which is a new single-day record since the pandemic began. It’s heading for a $13-$14 million weekend, which is not going to set any records, but it’s not bad, either, for a re-issue during a worldwide pandemic. Baby steps.

It’s more exciting than the VOD charts here in America, anyway, where David Ayer’s poorly reviewed Tax Collector (with Shia LaBeouf) leads all films on both Fandango’s VOD chart and the iTunes rental charts. We don’t have exact figures on how many viewers rented it over the weekend, but I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that it’s not a huge achievement, considering that it only had to beat Pete Davidson’s King of Staten Island on Fandango (which has been out for 8 weeks), and the number two film on iTunes is Homefront, a 2013 James Franco and Jason Statham movie. I have no idea why it has resurfaced, but we have seen some strange films rise to the top of the VOD charts during the course of the pandemic.

In fact, the 1989 John Hughes film, Uncle Buck, is currently in the top 20 on iTunes and Fandango. I’m not entirely sure how that happened, but I am attributing to the Soul Asylum quote: “Nothing attracts a crowd, like a crowd.” In other words, a few people randomly rented Uncle Buck and it entered the iTunes top 100, and other people saw it there and were reminded of how much they loved the movie, so they rented it, too, and it just snowballed until it found its way in the top 20 on a very slow weekend. Someone should probably let these people know that Uncle Buck is currently available on HBO Max.

As for the rest of the VOD charts? It’s the usual array of films we’ve become accustomed to seeing at the top of the charts over the last several weeks and months: Trolls World Tour, King of Staten Island, The Secret: Dare to Dream, The Outpost, and Deep Blue Sea 3. One new entry is The Secret Garden, based on the beloved Frances Hodgson Burnett novel. It’s around #34 on iTunes, but #5 on Fandango. Reviews are mixed (67 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but a woeful 49 percent audience score).

There haven’t been any more new additions to the other streamers since their last big entries — Hulu (Palm Springs), HBOMax (American Pickle) and Disney+ (Black is King) — but I’d wager a small sum of money on the fact that The Greatest Showman is doing very well on Disney+, having been made available on the streamer this weekend. Meanwhile, if you have HBO Max, note that the Harry Potter movies will be leaving that service on August 25th.

Finally, Netflix features the only major new release this weekend, Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Project Power, which is number one on the streaming network. It has decent reviews (62 percent on RT), although audiences are only giving it a 57 percent score, which is not good for an audience score. It feels like the kind of movie that would have opened in theaters in the middle of August. At least now it’s free (with a paid Netflix subscription). At number two is The Lost Husband, a romcom starring Leslie Bibb and Josh Duhamel, which audiences (77 percent) are liking more than critics (60 percent). Old kid flicks, Mr. Peabody and Sherman and Dennis the Menace are at three and five, respectively, while last weekend’s number one film, the Netflix original, Work It, falls to number four.

Don’t expect much next weekend, either, on VOD or the streamers. There’s another Tesla movie, Tesla, starring Ethan Hawke; RZA directs Cut Throat City; and Kevin Wilmmott (co-writer of BlacKkKlansman) directs The 24th, which is about the 24th United States Infantry Regiment and the Houston Riot of 1917.

Source: Fandango, iTunes, Netflix, Deadline

With most eyes set on the upcoming election this fall, Cardi B took to Twitter to show her support for a fellow Bronx native and a well-known member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The rapper actually encouraged the representativeto make a presidential of her own in the future. In response to a video Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez posted to her Twitter page which highlights the financial burden of healthcare as “Bodak Yellow” played in the background, Cardi B said, “She better run for president when she turns 35.”

In response, Ocasio-Cortez didn’t deny the idea of a future presidential run, but rather, she referenced Cardi’s recent “WAP” single saying, “Women Against Patriarchy (WAP) 2020.”

Cardi B’s cosign comes after the rapper revealed last weekend during an interview on The Breakfast Club that she spoke to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden about his current run for office. Despite confirming that Biden “understands the people’s pain,” Cardi delivered advice to him and reminded him that people “don’t want no false promises,” adding, “We don’t want no fake sh*t to get people voting. This is what we want. Please make it happen.”

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez turns 31 this October, so by the time the 2024 elections come around she would be at least qualified to run, but whether she chooses to remains to be seen.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s really hard to argue with the experience of sipping Talisker scotch. The seaside distillery on the Isle of Skye is everything you dream a Scottish whisky distillery would be. When you visit, you taste the seafoam and brine on the air, you dine on copious oysters while overlooking the bay and the distillery, and you drink a lot of what I would argue just might be the best single malt in Scotland.

The beauty of Talisker — in my professional opinion — is the accessibility paired with strong flavor notes. This isn’t a peat monster from Islay, but it’s also not some right-down-the middle blend. Talisker distills and ages distinct, fascinating whisky expressions that help folks fall in love with single malts. Their whiskies are self-contained “Ah-ha!” moments, bottled by the sea.

Last week, adventurer, conservationist, and TV host Forrest Galante and I got the chance to taste five core bottles from the Talisker line. These scotch whiskies got us buzzed, opened the doors to a fascinating conversation, and definitely did not let us down in the flavor department. Check out my tasting notes from the Expression Session below.

Talisker 10

ABV: 45.8%
Average Price: $75

The Whisky:

This is a pretty straightforward endeavor. This juice is aged for ten years and then it’s bottled. This expression serves as the perfect entry point to the brand with its easy nature and high drinkability.

Tasting Notes:

Notes of tart fruit greet you with a hint of that malted barley. The sip holds onto the berries as a billow of smoke lurks in the background with a bit more malt. The sip clocks a note of spice on the short-yet-warming end.

Bottom Line:

This is my go-to for highballs. I generally mix it with a very minerally and fizzy water like San Pellegrino or Gerolsteiner.

Talisker Storm

ABV: 45.8%
Average Price: $82

The Whisky:

This whisky has an interesting aging process. The whisky is aged in a combination of used barrels and re-charred barrels. Basically, the take old barrels, strip the charring, and then re-char the barrels to their standards. The process adds a new layer of depth by rejuvenating the staves.

Tasting Notes:

This sip amps up the peat a tad while bringing in the brine next to a clear maltiness. The smoke at play here is more akin seaside campfire while the brininess is reminiscent of oyster liquor. There’s a hint of the berry leftover from the Talisker 10 with a touch more peppery spice on the medium-length end.

Bottom Line:

Bring this bottle the next time you go camping at the beach. Also, serve it with oysters. In fact, I like to drop an oyster into a shot glass of this and shoot both at the same time.

Talisker Distiller’s Edition

ABV: 45.8%
Average Price: $96

The Whisky:

This expression is a double matured Talisker 10. The double maturing, in this case, refers to using old Amoroso sherry casks. The deeply seasoned wood adds some serious brightness and deeper color to the dram.

Tasting Notes:

The peat and pepper are met with a plummy nose. There’s a velvet texture to this one that’s very pleasing to the palate as the jammy berry sweetness dominates the peat with a small kick of malt on the end.

Bottom Line:

This is a solid sipper (especially for those wanted to ease in with something a little sweeter) that I also like to use in cocktails married with sweet and herbaceous vermouth.

Game of Thrones House of Greyjoy — Talisker Select Reserve

ABV: 45.8%
Average Price: $60

The Whisky:

This bottle celebrates the final season of Game of Thrones and House Greyjoy. The kicker, as Forrest Galante pointed out, “It has a freakin’ Kraken on the box!” I might be paraphrasing, we were three big drams in by that point.

Tasting Notes:

This is all brine and smoke. There’s a sense of what your clothes smell like after sitting in the rain on a beach next to a smoky campfire all night while eating shellfish. The sweetness comes from the malts with a nice pop of peppery spice way in the background of this sip.

Bottom Line:

This is a good pairing whisky for a barbecue and/or seafood feast, especially as the base of a highball. It’s also a cool gift because of the aforementioned Kraken and the GOT connection.

Talisker 18

ABV: 45.8%
Average Price: $250

The Whisky:

This is where the Talisker 10 ends up when it ages for eight more years in the Talisker storehouse. This bottle serves as a great lesson in how aging truly can transform juice so vividly over time.

Tasting Notes:

The berry sweetness is muted as the smoke takes center stage. This isn’t a billow of smoke blown in your face. It’s more of a crackling whiff of smoke when you open up a fireplace to load in more wood. The sweetness edges towards a rich toffee as the spice leans into a sweet/mild chili pepper, while the smoke curls and swirls through your senses on the subtle and lasting finish.

Bottom Line:

The perfect sipper to have on hand to celebrate something (like the end of the workweek). I drink it with one rock to help open up those flavors.

Check out the full tasting below!

Stipe Miocic (20-3) earned a unanimous decision victory to retain the heavyweight championship against Daniel Cormier (22-3) at UFC 252 from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Cormier came into his UFC 241 fight just under a year ago “ok” with the prospect of hanging up his gloves after defending the heavyweight title. A former light heavyweight and then-heavyweight champion, Cormier fully expected another win. Maybe not a knockout like the first fight, but he certainly didn’t anticipate how the fight would play out: Cormier would wear down as the fight went to the championship rounds and it was Miocic who targeted the champ’s body and forced a ref stoppage.

Months of verbal back-and-forth followed and Cormier was relentless in his need to “get that (loss) right.” He was confident that, given the opportunity, he could finish Miocic again. Booking the trilogy was complicated, as Miocic recovered from eye surgery stemming from a torn retina in his rematch with Cormier, then his gym was then closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But Saturday night, while that saga was put to an end, it also signified the end of the 41-year-old Cormier’s career.

The former Olympian has struggled with back issues, unable to wrestle in his last camp leading up to Cormier-Miocic II. He previously said he wanted to retire before he turned 40, but has continued kicking that timeline down the road to go out on his own terms. He said after his fight that he only wants to fight for titles, and with the next title fight likely going to Francis Ngannou, he called it quits.

As for the fight itself, Miocic found the jab in the first, changing levels between the midsection and Cormier’s head. Cormier took Miocic to the ground early in the round, but the champ immediately was able to get back to his feet. Back on their feet, the opponents traded shots and Cormier accidentally caught Miocic with a poke to the eye. After a quick stoppage, Miocic continued to chip away at Cormier’s body. At the end of the round, Cormier began to find his right hand, faking a takedown and exploding up with hooks to the head.

Midway through the second, Cormier continued to pepper Miocic after faking a takedown and unloading on a heavy combination. Miocic continued to mix things up, jabbing at Cormier and working the body. At the end of the round, Miocic caught Cormier with two right hooks, dropped him and peppered him with shots before the end of the round.

To open the third, Miocic continued to pour it on. Cormier locked up Miocic in the clinch and the champ walked him back to the cage, but Cormier appeared to have recovered just enough to get back in the fight. Toward the end of the round, Miocic caught Cormier with an eye poke that swelled his eye almost completely shut.

In the fouth, Cormier landed a handful of significant rights, while Miocic continued to lock him up and push him against the cage. Cormier and the champ traded big rights before heading to the fifth round.

Cormier and Miocic traded shots jab-for-jab to open the final round. Miocic and Cormier traded heavy combinations, throwing everything they have with just two minutes to go in the round. Miocic gained dominant position against the cage, opting to hold Cormier before peppering him with a body-head combo. Cormier stuffed a takedown attempt, but Miocic found his way to the cage yet again, holding Cormier and earning the label as the greatest heavyweight of all-time.

While Epic is using Fortnite to start an open wide fight with Apple and Google over payment methods, the company’s biggest game keeps getting expansion bundles. The latest is a DC-themed bundle that adds one of the Batman universe’s biggest villains to the game.

Days after Epic got Fortnite removed from the Google Play and Apple app store after implementing its own payment methods inside the game, Epic announced Saturday that The Joker will be added to the game along with other villains in the Batman universe as part of the Last Laugh bundle. The pack, which is expected to drop on November 17, includes a number of Joker-themed items including an outfit, two Joker-themed pickaxes, a Laugh Riot Back Bling and a Joker emote called “Pick A Card.”

Poison Ivy and a new Midas Rex avatar are also part of the pack, which Epic says will cost $29.99 and officially comes with 11 in-game items and 1,000 V bucks. Fortnite has leaned into the DC universe heavily in recent days, adding Harley Quinn items back to its digital shop while the DC Universe gears up FanDome, the universe-specific equivalent of Comic-Con.

Fortnite also announced some new Batman gear for the game, if you need it.

And as we already know, it will cost a bit less to get into the V buck ecosystem these days.

The Good Place is over, and we now know how at least a group of Hollywood television writers envision the afterlife should play out for the rest of us humans. But in another universe, the show could have ended very differently. Vulture had a sitdown with The Good Place showrunner Mike Schur which covered a number of different topics, including how the writers put together the pieces necessary to stick the landing after four very philosophical seasons.

One fun thing that (spoilers incoming) came up was that Schur and the staff had known for a while the line they wanted the show to end with — Michael saying “keep it sleazy,” something he always wanted to say since he heard Eleanor say it in the show’s first season. But getting the rest of the details worked out didn’t happen until much later in the show’s timeline.

The writers always knew that the main cast of the show was going to experience the true afterlife for a while and then move on. But what happened to Michael, however, was something they debated and actually changed a bit. As Schur explained, the “keep it sleazy” moment that ended the show was something they reworked a number of times.

In the original conception, it was slightly different. I think he was buying a cup of coffee and the barista misspelled his name on the coffee cup, and that made him really happy. The barista misinterpreted that as making fun of him, there was a brief argument, and then the barista apologized and Michael said, “Don’t worry about it. Mistakes happen. It’s part of being human.” And then on his way out, he said, “Hey, take it sleazy,” and the barista laughed.

Schur said when writing the ending the staff had known for “at least a year” what Michael was going to say, but the context he got to say it in changed quite a bit. It was certainly an ending that resonated with fans, though, and Schur described it as a “ridiculous and silly and lighthearted” way to finish things off. There’s a lot of good stuff in the interview, but picturing the writer’s room riffing on ways to have Ted Danson say “keep it sleazy” is certainly a highlight.