The Rundown: Welcome To Henry Winkler Fish Picture Season, The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE – Look at him!

This was a busy week for Henry Winkler, which is really just a wonderful thing to get to type in 2022. The third season of Barry wrapped up on Sunday with a stressful episode that changed the series forever — both plotwise and tone-wise, because, like, it’s going to be hard to slip back into goofs after all that — and saw his character, Gene Cousineau, get some closure on something that had been lingering since season one. Later in the week, he got in a Twitter feud with former NFL running back and current aspiring politician Herschel Walker, which is another incredible thing to type out, and one of those things that really makes me wish I had a time machine so I could go back to, say, 1984 and attempt to explain it to every single person I encounter there.

And those are both fine, if that’s the type of Winkler-related business you want to focus on this week. I won’t stop you. But I also won’t have much time to discuss it with you. You’ll have to find someone else to yammer about that with. No, my energy is focused elsewhere. Specifically, my energy is focused on this.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. Henry Winkler is on his annual fishing trip and he is posting the pictures on Twitter. Again. He does this every summer and it thrills me more than you can possibly imagine. I texted everyone I know when the first picture popped up. I demanded to write about it in the opening section of this column even though I’ve written about it before, kind of a lot. It is Henry Winkler Fish Picture Season. It might be my favorite time of the whole year. Just look at his face.

LOOK AT HIS FACE.

It is so beautiful. My favorite part about this year’s fishing trip is that it is the first one after I got to ask him about them in an interview that was allegedly about this season of Barry. I just went and looked at it again now to post it in here and realized what a lunatic I look like. I feel okay about it.

I have followed you on Twitter for years now. I consider you to be one of my favorite people on that website. You’re a lovely man, and you’re better at Twitter than most people I know. It seems like almost every summer you go on a fishing trip and you post these pictures of yourself with the fish.

Yes.

It is one of my favorite things that happens on Twitter, because, you know Twitter, it’s like a stream of “everyone’s miserable, everyone’s angry, everyone’s upset”… and then blammo, there’s Henry Winkler holding a fish. It makes me so happy.

Thank you.

I owe all of you an apology. I lied to you in the last paragraph I typed, the one before the blockquote, where I said that my favorite part of all of this was that I just got to ask him about it a few weeks ago. That wasn’t true. It never could have been true. Not when this tweet exists.

Henry Winkler is an American treasure and has been for something approaching 50 years. Please do not forget this. Please do not let anyone else forget this. Ever.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — LET PADDINGTON SOLVE A MURDER

Two important things happened this week. Actually, no. A lot of important things happened this week. These two things aren’t even really all that important in the grand scheme of things. I was just looking for a good way to start this paragraph and move quickly into a discussion about some movies I like. Which, I think we all can agree, has not happened. I’m still typing. It’s ridiculous. And, sure, I could delete all of this and give it another try, but who knows how that would go? It could be worse than this. I can’t risk it. Let’s just go to the next paragraph and pretend this didn’t happen.

The sequel to Knives Out — the one that is coming to Netflix and will take place in Greece and will feature Daniel Craig investigating an all-new all-star cast — has a title. Rian Johnson announced it this week on Twitter. Here, look:

Glass Onion. That’s… cool. It’s a cool name for a movie. It also sounds like the name of a band that opened for Phish at some concert in 1998 that your friend’s older brother went to and came home from caked in mud. But still, cool. I dig it. I’m in.

Then, later the same day, the third movie in the Paddington franchise got a title. It’s going to be called Paddington in Peru and I am very excited about it because Paddington is a sweet boy who I love very much. I’m barely joking about this. Paddington 2 is a legitimately good movie. I will tell anyone this. I have told most people about it. Hugh Grant is a delightful villain. Paddington melts the hearts of 1000 hardened criminals. I cry at the end every time. Yes, I’ve seen it multiple times. How I spend my afternoons is none of your business.

Anyway, these two things being announced on the same day gave me an idea. Hear me out. We let Paddington solve a murder. Make that Paddington 4. Or cross it over with Knives Out and let him solve a murder with Daniel Craig. Both franchises are trotting around the globe now anyway, apparently. Let them solve a murder together in Hawaii. Let Jason Momoa play the murderer. Put Jake Gyllenhaal and his crazy eyes in there, too. Give Jean Smart a chainsaw. Do all of my favorite things once and let me see it for free in Carnegie Hall.

I do not ask for much.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — Let’s remember one of the greats

Philip Baker Hall passed away this week, which stinks. He had a long career and was great in so many things and it sucks whenever we lose someone who had such a cool run doing cool stuff. The silver lining here, as with most deaths, is that it makes you remember a life, and for me that meant watching his performance as Bookman the Library Cop on Seinfeld about eight times in a row. I’ve embedded it up there. Watch it again now yourself. It’s so good.

It’s all so good, too, from beginning to end. It’s one of my favorite television scenes ever. Filming shows in front of a live studio audience has fallen out of favor in the last decade or so, but this is one example where it really added to the action. Look at Jerry trying to hold it together. Look at them having to pause for the audience to laugh. Look at how that heightens everything another degree or two. It’s cool.

My favorite part of the scene has always been the little pivot-turn-point move he does before delivering some snappy line. I love all of these so much.

That last one is my favorite, though. I’ll still text my friends every now and then to call them “joy-boy.” I don’t even know what that means, exactly. I can kind of guess. It’s great either way. And it’s great that we’re talking about him and this scene again. It’s a nice legacy to have under your belt, even if it had been the only thing he ever did, which it wasn’t. Joy-boy. I’m going to take that one with me to the grave. I might take it to the Pearly Gates. I could be the first person ever to get sent to hell for calling Saint Peter a joy-boy. If I do, I mean…

Worth it.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Rhea Seehorn rules

Rhea Seehorn is so good. I don’t know how anyone could watch Better Call Saul and come away thinking otherwise. She deserves so much more credit than she gets, part of which is my fault, because I’m out here writing thousands of words about Lalo Salamanca and not about her. It’s not okay. I need to remedy this. I will before the season ends. I swear.

Until then, at least Variety is picking up the slack. There’s a long profile over there this week and it is littered with A+ Rhea Seehorn stuff, from her work directing an episode of the show to how her performance holds things together to quotes like this from her one-time co-star Whitney Cummings…

“There’s a lore of Rhea Seehorn,” Cummings says. “If you’re an actress, where it’s like if you’re testing for a TV show, if Rhea’s going in, just don’t go. There’s no point. Like, she’s the one to beat.”

… and this one from Saul showrunner Peter Gould.

“I think every writer and producer in Hollywood should be writing Rhea Seehorn projects and trying to get her,” Gould says. “I think everyone who worked on this show is trying to think about how she can be part of whatever their next project is.”

The takeaways here are as follows:

• Rhea Seehorn rules
• I needed to say that again
• There should be like a heist movie where she and Sam Richardson steal the Mona Lisa

I’m glad we had this chat.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — Tom Cruise is a maniac, yes, again

There are not many things in this world I like more than stories about Tom Cruise being a weirdo intense goofball. I could read them constantly. All day. Someone please collect them in a book. Let Tom narrate the audiobook himself. I’ll listen to it at the beach and be the happiest person alive.

This was a great week for that because there were two great new weirdo intense goofball stories about him. The first came from Joseph Kahn, the director responsible for, among other things, the music videos for “Toxic” by Britney Spears and “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift and “Triumph” by Wu-Tang Clan, which is maybe the most awesome résumé anyone has ever had in any field of work. Anyway, look at this.

DIGITAL TOM

THERE IS NO DIGITAL TOM

I CAN’T STOP SAYING IT

I’M GOING TO MOVE ON BUT PLEASE KNOW I AM STILL SAYING THIS OUT LOUD AT MY COMPUTER

WE HAVE TO GET TO THE STORY MILES TELLER TOLD TO SETH MEYERS

Let’s go to the transcription on this to drive it home. What you need to know going in is that Teller got sick on the set of Top Gun: Maverick. Fever, itchiness, the whole deal. He went to a doctor for bloodwork. That’s all the setup we need. Here we go.

“My bloodwork comes back, and I have flame-retardant, pesticides, and jet fuel in my blood,” Teller said.

“I go to set the next day, and Tom’s like, ‘So, how did it go, Miles what did they find?’” Teller recalled to Meyers. “I was like, ‘Well, Tom, it turns out I have jet fuel in my blood.’ And without even skipping a beat, Tom just goes, ‘Yeah, I was born with it, kid.’”

It’s perfect. I’m serious about that book. And the audiobook. Tom Cruise is a weird little man and I do not want to know too too much about him because there are some corners of that funhouse I do not need to examine, but these… these are good. Digital Tom. Come on.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Anne Marie:

Something just occurred to me recently … Why has Wile E. Coyote never stopped mid-misadventure and said, “Holy shit, I can’t be killed! I AM A GOD!” and then just partied the rest of his eternal life?

Realizing that he’s just as indestructible as the Road Runner has both delighted me and completely shaken me. I mean, I thought Wile E. was the underdog!

This is really just a fantastic email, for a handful of reasons. First, because it is correct, and a little foundation-shaking. What we thought was a struggle between predator and prey was actually, all along, an endless battle between two immortal deities. There’s a lot to consider here. This dance could conceivably go on forever.

Which brings me to the second reason this email is good: it resulted in me watching a slew of these cartoons again this week. They’re on HBO Max. I’ve said this before but I truly do not think there’s even been a more pure delivery system for comedy than this and, like, Tom & Jerry. You can draw a straight line from those cartoons to Jackass, too. This is important. There should be museums dedicated to this.

Which brings me to the third reason this is a good email: it gives me another excuse to post my favorite Wile E. Coyote GIFs. Yes, again. Look at my guy.

Watch it this weekend. Watch it all weekend. Come over to my place with a pizza or some donuts and watch it with me. We can make it a whole thing.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Louisiana!

A Popeyes in southern Louisiana has a feathered fan that it can’t seem to shake, to the delight of many customers.

A stoutly rooster has seemingly taken up residence at the Popeyes on East Gause Boulevard in Slidell, becoming a community “icon” of sorts, according to the police department.

Hmm.

Yup. I love this guy.

The rooster, affectionately known as Rocco, has gained a family and internet fame since he arrived after Hurricane Ida last year, police spokesman Daniel Seuzeneau told McClatchy News.

“There was a lot of effort into trying to find the rightful owner, but no one ever came forward,” Seuzeneau said. “Now the chicken lives and is maintained by employees at Popeyes and some Slidell citizens.”

A couple of things are worth noting here:

• This is a brave chicken
• It is my opinion based on absolutely nothing that he is doing surveillance and is planning something

Let’s read on.

“He’ll go around to the front door, look around,” Shepherd told the news station. “He’ll go around to the window, the drive-thru window and just look.”

Okay, yes, this is definitely a John Wick situation. John Chick. I’m sorry. But it’s true. This will not end well for the employees of this Popeyes, and for whichever one Rocco goes to next. He is out for blood to avenge his fallen brothers and sisters. Mark my words. Rocco is just waiting. For now. The time is coming, though. Everyone will be sorry soon.