The Point Radio: Reality Smackdown On WRESTLING WITH DEATH
On Monday, we welcome John C. McGinley who talks about the road from SCRUBS to GROUND FLOOR, plus Megan Boone from THE BLACKLIST previews the big episode that will air after the Super Bowl. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.
Transcript
The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Raub. Morticians by day, wrestling superstars at night. Wait till you meet the Latham family. And their day to day challenges in wrestling with death.
Plus there's a new season of Helix on Sci-Fi. Big changes on the way. We got the info from the guys in front and behind the camera. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point.
The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. When it comes to unscripted TV, this might be the most unusual offering ever. Meet LaFonts and Sandra Latham, owners of a respected funeral business in Arkansas. And then meet LaFonts and Sandra Latham,
owners of the Mid-South Wrestling promotion who head into the ring every week for slam in action in front of hundreds of rabid fans. Together they form Wrestling with Death, a new series on WGN America. According to LaFonts, first the funeral business came into play. Well the way that we got involved with the funeral business,
which was first, was back in 1983. Friend of mine that worked part time at another, a mortuary service, well he decided to go into another profession. So I thought, you know, I've always been curious about this. So I'm fixing to go apply for that part time job.
I had a business of my own going wholesale businesses. I went and applied, got the job, and I really liked it. Next thing you know, I was working full time. So then I decided, hey, you know, it's something I need to get in myself. So we opened up our first funeral home in 1983.
And that's how the funeral business started. Sandra says that wrestling was just in the local DNA. Actually, I was in a funeral home one day and the legendary Moondog spot had walked in. And I knew who he was. Like you said, if you grew up in the Mid-South, you grew up watching this wrestling.
There were three networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC. And it was on NBC every Saturday morning. So every kid grew up watching wrestling. And when he walked in, I immediately knew who he was and he had an appointment with LaFont.
They went in his office, came out, and he said, we're going to start promoting wrestling. And I said, are you serious? You've got to be kidding me. And he said, no, because we just bought property to build a new mortuary service. So we started promoting wrestling and it was, there's not a lot to do in our hometown.
People, the community supported it and it's grown and it's been there for over 20, I'm going to say 24 years. So it's been a good thing, actually. And we've met a lot of these, you know, and have had Dirty Dutch Vantell, Bill Dundee, Jerry Lawler, you know, we've had all of those guys that you may be familiar with, but just
really with Mid-South wrestling. But that's how we got started was promoting it. And before we knew it, we were involved in it. And we each got our wrestling lessons and started working out and then our family supported it.
The ones that didn't wrestle and the show's just grown. Just on its own, running a small wrestling promotion has got to have a lot of challenges. Well, I think probably the biggest challenge that we have, we're on much of a smaller scale than the WWE way smaller. And probably the biggest challenge would be financially.
But, you know, due to the mortuary service and other business we had, we have the money to finance this and keep it going. We're the longest known independent show in five state area. They'll jump up and if they last six months, they've just done great because they're just not enough of revenue that comes in.
But we've been able to keep our story in there. Spending time through make some good money out of it. I'm not saying it's all bad, but I'm saying it's like every other business and our challenge is in a small area, well, then, you know, you have to be able to financially support some of your sales.
LaFawn, Sandra, and pretty much the whole family are also involved as characters in the ring, both villains and heroes. We're both wrestlers. I started out Valene for Big Daddy LaFawn and ended up getting involved. Moon Dog had done a spot with a girl from Tennessee and I didn't know about it.
I was actually just sitting there as a spectator and the crowd responded to it in such a way. He said, you've got to come and train and just to have one match. Well, I did train, grew up with brothers, so I was pretty much a tomboy. After training, and the match that I had, it was such a success that he was like, do you think this is something you can do?
So I started actually being a wrestler and getting my wrestling license and we started running the show and was there and it was a Friday, Saturday, and sometimes on Sunday. It ended up being a job, kind of, but we both do wrestle and we both work out. I had left the ring for a while for a battle with breast cancer and now that I'm back, I'm going to make some Big Daddy LaFawns advertise that I was coming back without my
permission. So you'll see a clip in wrestling with death where I really didn't appreciate that. So I kind of took my first impressions out on him in that segment. So I hope it'll be something that everyone will want to watch after the premiere and each week.
So how often do the two businesses conflict with each other? We have approval and control. Our son-in-law is our field home manager. He's been working with me for like 27 years probably and he knows exactly the way that I do it myself and that's the way he does it.
So I don't have to go in behind him and correct a lot of things, change things, because he does it just like I want it done. So it's like the past eight, nine days we've been out on the road, the field business goes right on. They're doing field today, matter of fact, as we speak, but it goes right on.
And then I have guys at the license, if something happens. I can't be there on Friday night. Well then of course one of them is my son, O'Geary again. And then another one of our actresses, all of us, and Frankie Tucker. They take the show and just go right on.
But they all strive to do it the way I want it done so there's no conflict. Well the show is unique as this. I was curious as to if there was any message they hope to convey to the viewers. Sanders already got that figured out. I hope that they see that it's helpful, that it's a family show and it's about real life
happening as even on the mortuary side, you know, death occurs in every family. And I think some are more want to know. Some don't want to know, but some because it makes them uncomfortable in thinking of that. But some are curious.
They have never had to experience a death or make arrangements for their loved ones. So I think that will raise some curiosity and they'll get to experience real life families that we serve and what they're going through. And it's a tribute to that family and to that their loved one. And then on the other side of our family, I think they'll see how we have our dysfunctions
as well as anyone else does and how we all work together. We make that work because that can be trying at times also. And then on the wrestling side, how we break away from the mortuary business, break away to just kind of let your hair down and come to the wrestling and the ones of us that don't wrestle, they support the show.
So we're all there kind of doing supporting each other and serving our community in every way that we possibly can. And just giving back what's being given to us. We try to give back. So I hope that families see this as something wholesome and they'll want to watch it the
next week. You can't see what's going to wait to see what's going to happen next week. Our son-in-law, you know, when they marry our daughters, LaFont kind of puts them through a boot camp and makes them prove themselves that they're worthy to be in our family and worthy to have our daughters.
And so it's very interesting. Wrestling with Death, new episodes every Tuesday on WGN America. And you can catch up right now at WGNAmerica.com. Dead or winter, but nothing warms you up faster than a good dose of pop culture. It's news and in print looks a little shocking, but it is true.
And also keep in mind there will be a postscript to this. Marvel has announced the end of both the Avengers and New Avengers titles in April, the same month, of course, the next big Avengers movie comes out. Death issues will be Avengers 44 and New Avengers number 33. Those lead right into the beginning of Secret Wars, which starts in May for Marvel.
And more than likely we will hear about a reboot of these titles sooner than later. Joe Dirt is back and this time he's bringing some big names with him. The cult classic is being revived for a sequel on crackle called Joe Dirt 2, Beautiful Loser. Along with David Spade, Christopher Walken and Dennis Miller will also be part of the cast.
There's sometime this summer on crackle who by the way also has a couple of new features as well. The new series Dead Rising Watchtower will premiere on March 27th and the throwaways begin at the end of this month on the 30th. Jerry Seinfeld's comedian in cars getting coffee by the way has also been renewed for
a sixth season on crackle. Talk TV is managing to feed nighttime TV a little bit with a couple of interesting new notes. ABC has picked up a new reality series based on a segment from the Ellen DeGeneres show. It's a hidden camera prank bit called Repeat After Me.
It'll be part of the Tuesday nights live coming up in February. And from Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, the Lip Sync Battle is moving into its own series on Spike TV coming up in April. The countdown to The Return of Community is in full gear and marked down March 17th is the debut date for the series to return for the new season, this time on Yahoo's screen.
Yahoo will premiere two episodes on March 17th and a new episode every Tuesday after that. The cast is pretty pumped about the whole thing. In fact, they made a little video about it. You can catch that video right now at our website, GetThePointRadio.com.
Despite the fact they're not big to leave yet, the folks at CBS like to continue to tease us about the proposed Supergirl series, this time releasing a statement saying that we're going to be blown away by the costume. Again, the series of course would have to be done for pilot season, which means that we should get a cast announcement sometime over the next few weeks.
Reed Poth, the people behind New York Comic Con and C2E2 have added another event under their umbrella. They'll be taking over the Emerald City Comic Con this year. The next one of those is scheduled by the way in March. It's actually on March 27th with 80,000 fans expected to attend.
The end of January marks the end of the contract between Netflix and the BBC, so there's a good chance we'll lose a lot of programming from Netflix. For example, Dr. Who, Luther, Blackadder, Faulty Towers and a lot more. Could be a change in that at the last minute, but right now you can more than likely say goodbye to those titles at the end of the month.
Helix is back on the Sci-Fi network for a new run of episodes. As we started to see at the end of last season, there's some big changes on the way. And even more coming up is explained by showrunner, Steven Maeda. The main part of it was that we wanted to be able to actually see immortality, which is a very difficult thing to see when you stay in the present.
And so that kind of spawned the whole idea of this Walker dueling timeline. And this season we decided to play with structure as well and kind of use, we're going to see Walker in the future, we're going to see Walker in the present. We may even be doing some flashback. So we really wanted to play with time and play with immortality in a visual way.
And the leader played by actor Neil Napier is one character that's evolved a lot. Yeah, well, season one and season two, I kind of went through pretty different preparation. Season one was, there's really like a pretty serious application of my imagination because I have no kind of frame of reference what it is to be a vector and to be sick with Narvik. So there was a lot of play and imagination in that.
And what was important to me was to keep my thumb on the man underneath the monster, if you will, to really make sure that Peter retained his humanity throughout what was going on. And as we came out of the end of season one, we see Peter's cured. I don't know how much residual effects from his ordeal in season one carry through to
season two. I mean, I know, but I'm not telling you. But spiritually, emotionally, mentally, there's a lot of baggage that carries over from season one into season two. And I used a lot into the preparation, looking back to the journey that Peter had been on
up to this point. Like good guy or bad guy? I would say conflicted guy rather than good guy or bad guy. I always think of Peter as a guy who's trying to do the best he can and live up to certain expectations he has for himself based on his relationship with his family of origin,
the relationship with his brother Alan that we see, we get to see a little bit in season one. And season two, we're going to explore more of the relationship between Peter and Alan. And I think he goes to some pretty interesting places and will really help to inform why Peter is conflicted and seems to be playing a couple of sides at once.
But yeah, I think we're going to get a lot of that in season two. Another character undergoing change is Dr. Alan Faragut played by Billy Campbell. So where do we find him this season? He's in a really dark place. He's in a dark place.
And he's got a quest on his brain and he needs to get this thing done. And it's taken him to not only is he in a dark place metaphorically, he's in a dark place physically. He's on a dark, twisted island. And that's where his obsession has taken him.
It's beginning to look like on Helix, a lot of the characters have some pretty big secrets, some of which have been revealed this season. Does that include Billy's character? He's not a terribly complex man, but there are things that are revealed that mostly have happened between the first and second seasons that really put a different spin on who the
audience is liable to think he is. And then, of course, there's things that happen in the second season itself that lead you to wonder if you know everything there is to know about it. So I would say, yeah, he knew things. He was kind of a new person.
Dueling timelines are a major part of this season's storytelling. Steven explains how that works. What we want to do with this show is really do a little bit of reinvention with it every season. And so that was always our plan from the get-go.
So we did a little jump ahead at the end of last season going from the destruction of our Kublai systems to Paris. And so we're jumping ahead in time again to this very remote area in the civic ocean, kind of off 20 hours away from Seattle. And it felt to us like a very different place to have the show, but also a place where we
could still play trapped, play claustrophobic. And so we were jumping ahead. We were probably about a year and a half ahead of the destruction of Arctic biosystems from last season. And as a result, what that does for us, which is really nice, is it allows us to start the
characters in some very different places than where we left off, even jumping ahead a little bit in the last season. And then we get to kind of fact fill and tell you the story of how they got there. episodes of Helix every Friday on Sci-Fi. And you can always catch up easily at Sci-Fi.com.
That does it for the podcast. We're back next week and joining us will be John McGinley from Scrubs to Ground Floor. He'll talk about what makes all that pretty funny. Plus, Megan Boone from Blacklist is here to talk about the show's return right after the Super Bowl.
Catch all that and more on great websites like ComicFix.com, michaeldavisworld.com, and getthepointradio.com, and of course in the iTunes podcast directory. Keep up with us on Instagram, on Facebook, and on Twitter at The Point Radio. And we'll see you back here in a few days.
