The Point Radio: Lisa Loeb Flies High Again

This weekend, HELICOPTER MOM opens in select theaters with music (and an appearance) from singer/song writer, Lisa Loeb. Lisa talks about this and her many new projects, plus recalls what it as like hearing her music on the radio for the first time. Meanwhile, one of NBC’s biggest successes this season has been their prime time crossovers. This week CHICAGO PD, CHICAGO FIRE and LAW & ORDER:SVU together for one epic story and the show runners give us an exclusive sneak peek.

We’re back in a few days with a voice to match a familiar face. Actor Burn Gorman talk about this season of TURN:WASHINGTON’S SPIES, his love for TORCHWOOD and more. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey it's Mike Raub. NBC has another big prime time crossover event coming up this week. And we've got the executive producers and show runners here to explain just what you'll see on Chicago Fire, PD and Law and Order SVU.

Plus Lisa Loeb is back with a new movie, a new soundtrack and some cool stories about what got her here in the first place. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio.

Get The Point Radio. One of the big successes of the television season for NBC has been the crossover event usually involving the Chicago Fire and Chicago PD series as well as Main State Law and Order SVU. SVU Executive Producer Warren Light sat down with me to talk about the latest event.

A pretty ambitious project this time but one that really clicked. This is actually in the sense of the third one. We've had glancing blows at these before. We wanted to make it more of an integrated crossover. You know there's always the challenge of two separate shows and I think Matt and I both

like the idea of this is that Wednesday night is a two hour event and even to the point where now we're starting in Chicago at nine and going to SVU at ten. But it's all of a piece. So we wanted to make sure we had a story that could legitimately sustain over three episodes and also that made sense geographically so that you didn't have the crime starting with

Chicago Fire then going to New York at nine o'clock then going back to Chicago at ten. That's a little bit of a hopscotch for a criminal. So we, those were things we were thinking of and then here at SVU we've been kicking an idea around for a long time about a serial rapist murderer who in the mode of a Ted Bundy kind of guy, incredibly charming, incredibly manipulative, able to get away with these

crimes for a very, very long time across multiple jurisdictions and when the idea of a crossover came up, Dick suggested I donate that idea to the crossover. It was going to be a two parter for us. And then it became instead I think a good template. It became, we knew we had enough for two episodes whether they were two SVU episodes or as it

turned out this cross. Chicago Fire and PD showrunner Matt Olmsted agrees with Warren and this time for things to work the creative forces had to get together in one spot. In terms of logistics I think that we both learned from the first one which we felt was successful that it'd be good to kind of get in the same room and so we both, Warren and

I, kind of clear our schedules and I came up to New York and we sat in the room for two days which was really beneficial. I could give a little more background on certain characters as could he and we just had a concentrated two days to really break this and when I left we really had a handle on it as opposed to you know separate coasts and you put a mess in a bottle and you send it down the river

and wait for one to come back. The two shows are written 3000 miles apart so I really was grateful to Matt for coming to New York because it's a lot easier in the room and it does, it's like I'm here for two days let's do this, it really works I think. The underlying vibes of all the shows involve the handling of the criminals especially on

Chicago PD with lead character Hank Voigt. Just the polar opposite of Mariska Hargitay's character on SVU. That's a very astute observation and the shows are different in that regard and it did, Chicago PD, the DNA of it really did start from Voigt as you point out and he came from Chicago Fire obviously where he was a dirty cop and so we couldn't all of a sudden just whitewash

that character and he shows up on a new show with Dudley Do-Right. So it became trying to reconcile his past with where he wants to go but also it became about looking into the Chicago of it all and not going by no means having a crew of dirty cops or rogue cops but there's a slight wish fulfillment into the Chicago of it all where there's just certain corners that are cut, certain things that are overlooked in service

of justice so to speak. So it's a little bit more, less by the book and so when the two shows come together sometimes collide definitely there are different philosophies. And one of the things I love about these crossovers is the interaction between Voigt and Benson and from our point of view they're strings are cut from the same cloth in that they want

justice more than anything and they respect the other. They know they can't game the other and there's I think a certain fondness and also a certain protectiveness one for the other especially Voigt towards Benson I think that it's reciprocated from her to him. And one of the things and she knows how to wrangle him because one of the things that

comes up in this crossover is the case has a personal connection to her and she lets it known to Voigt that you can't do me one favor, you can't screw this up in case it ever goes to trial and he accepts that. Maybe not normally what he would do but he accepts that because she's important to him, the case is important to him and he will defer as a colleague to her because she has

the most hooks into this case. So absolutely something that we play in terms of different personalities, the different methodology to show. NBC's prime time crossover event begins on Tuesday with Chicago Fire at 8 o'clock eastern time and continues with an episode of Chicago PD at a special time 9 on Wednesday and then

Law & Order SVU at 10 in the east. All on NBC or if you miss them catch up on NBC on demand. It is the very latest in pop culture starting right now. It's barely spring and in fact there's still snow flurries in New York City but DC is already planning ahead to the next holiday season with the announcement of a couple of new hardcover

collections. One of which will be the Batman Dark Knight Returns Deluxe Edition containing all Frank Miller's Dark Knight stories and a 512 page volume that will retail for just about 50 bucks. And then there's a 75th anniversary Green Lantern Edition featuring stories from the

40s through the 60s into the 80s as well. That will retail for about $40 and be about 400 pages. Both editions will be available to retailers in September. Former ER star Eric LaSalle is joining the cast of Under the Dome this summer on CBS. This season he directed an episode as well.

He'll do that too as well as be part of the cast when the show premieres on the network coming up in June. The 2015 Eisner Award nominations are out and at the top of the list again. Fan of graphics with the most solo nominations 15 in all. DC and Vertigo came in with 14 and Marvel had 12 nominations although each of those

publishers do share some of the titles with other publishers as it all comes down. Among those honored include for best continuing series Astro City, Banded, Hawkeye, Saga, Southern Vastors and The Walking Dead and for best news series The Fate Out, Lumberjanes, Ms. Marvel, Rocket, Raccoon and The Wicked and The Divine as well. Nominations out now with the awards being given out in September at the Baltimore Comic

Con. No big surprise that Netflix has renewed Daredevil for a second season. However Steven tonight will not be associated with the series due to a conflict in his schedule. Douglas Petrie from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Marco Ramirez from Orange is the New Black will head up the production team with most of the original cast planned to come back

for a second season. Speaking of renewals the mega buzz hit lip-sync battle is being renewed by Spike TV. It is the most watched original series ever with an average 3 million viewers. Twenty new episodes will debut on the network in 2016. It wins some but you do lose some meanwhile USA has pulled the plug on Sirens after two

seasons. The show was produced by Dennis Leary and Bob Fisher. For singer songwriter and actress Lisa Loeb her love affair with music began pretty early in life. Music started for me in my life when I was born or maybe in the womb.

Music has always been a really big part of my life but I started playing music when I was a little kid. I started playing piano, took piano lessons when I was in the low single digits and then as I got a little bit older and went through high school I decided to switch to start playing guitar and I started probably when I was like 13 I started playing guitar and writing songs

for guitar and lyrics and that's just when it all started. I started playing in front of other people at school assemblies and when I went away to acting school in London I would play in the dorm and people would ask me for recordings of my songs so it just felt like something was happening there. I felt like I was able to communicate and connect with people in that way and it was

really exciting creatively and also as a performer it was exciting for people to want to listen. Jump ahead to 1994 a movie called Reality Bites and a song called Stay. Lisa recalls the first time she heard it on the radio. Oh my gosh it was amazing. You know, Stay came in 1994 which was a few years after I graduated from college and I

had a band off through college and we had been played on like NPR type of stations or college radio stations with some of our original songs but to hear Stay on pop radio it was incredible. I don't remember if it was in Houston or in New York City like around Z100 because I was living in New York City at the time even though I grew up in Dallas.

I heard it on the radio and that with the compression it's just this whole other huge world and also contextually it's hilarious because they were playing Mariah Carey and then me and then another huge pop band and so it was funny being somebody who was a singer songwriter who you know had a really nice following in New York and was playing clubs like CBGB's but there was a whole other world that we played on the radio with these huge

pop stars with that huge compression. It was very exciting. Stay was unique for a number of reasons. It was pretty soon in the top 10 due to the movie and of course the video that was on MTV but it was also the first time in music history even to this day where a recording

artist had a song on the charts but not a recording contract to go along with it. Oh it's completely unusual. I was sort of on the way you know like I said I had graduated college. My friend and I had been playing it South by Southwest for years and some other music festivals that were what you do when you're an up and coming musician.

I knew a lot of executive or like you know young A&R people who were very interested but then I had this amazing opportunity that Ethan Hawke who's a friend of mine and also my neighbor at the time he wanted to pass along the song Stay to the director of the movie Reality Guys to Ben Stiller because he thought it would fit really well in the movie and Ethan's the kind of guy who's very interested in all aspects of what he's

doing. He's really an artist and he thought it would be a great idea so he gave it to Ben Stiller and through a series of events they decided to put the song into the movie and use it in its entirety at the end of the movie over the end title sequence which was amazing and later Ethan was allowed to make a video for the song which was really cool.

It was a great concept. It was a one take video. No edits at all. So it was like so many great things were connected to it. You know here I was somebody who seemed to be coming out of nowhere although I knew I

was coming out of somewhere. An actor who everybody knows directing the video and then even if it weren't for Ethan who directed it he had such a great concept just as a video director doing this one take that all these stories just all came together to tell the story and people really ended up connecting to the song.

So here we are today with Lisa's newest project a movie just hitting theaters called Helicopter Mom. The movie Helicopter Mom is a film that comes out this week. It's directed by Salome Bresner and stars Nia Bartolos and you might know her from My Big Fat Greek Wedding which she was the star of and I believe she wrote it as well.

It's about a helicopter mom which is a mom who hovers over her children. She has a son who's played by Jason Dolly who's a star of a Disney show Good About Charlie and this is his first sort of adult role where he plays like a grown up teenage kid and his mom really wants to get him to go into college and some shenanigans ensue and you have to see it but it takes place mostly around a high school and it's about the parents and

about the kid and I was lucky I got to play a teacher in the movie. I've done acting throughout my life and so I got to play a small role as a teacher who's one of the grounding forces in the movie but there's a mom that Nia plays who's very over the top and almost sometimes more like the kid. And then I also got to write the title theme for it which is such a great, I love writing

music for movies. There's a lot going on with Lisa's career right now but you can pretty much track it all in one place. Yeah you can find out about my eyewear line, my kids foundation that can send kids to summer camp, new music, touring, all that stuff through lisalobe.com or on any of my Lisa Lobe Twitter

it's L-O-E-B I meant Twitter and Facebook and all the regular places you can communicate with me directly and also check out the new song from helicopter mom called 321 let go it's only available through lisalobe.com. That's a song you can grab right now at lisalobe.com it's from the movie helicopter mom available in theaters right now.

It does it for the podcast but we're back in a few days and this time we'll give you a voice to go along with a pretty familiar face. From the dark night to forever to turn. Bernie gorman talks about character acting and how he gets all the really cool roles. You'll find that more coming up on websites like ComicMix.com, michaeldavasworld.com,

get the point radio dot com and in the itunes podcast directory where you can always subscribe to us. You can follow us too on twitter, facebook and instagram under the point radio. See you back here in a few days. Get the point radio dot com.

See you next time.