Speaker 1: Brought to you by the Reinvented twenty twelve Camri. It's ready.
Speaker 1: Are you welcome to stuff you should know from HowStuffWorks
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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. Hi
Speaker 2: with me is Charles W Chuck Bryant.
Speaker 3: Bryant. Charles Bryant, How.
Speaker 2: Is it going? Chuck? It's an odd way to introduce yourself, didn't.
Speaker 3: You think not if you're a super spy?
Speaker 2: Are you a superspy? Actually?
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say James Bond was even a spy secret service?
Speaker 2: Is that a spy? Really? No, he was an assassin
Speaker 2: and yeah, just general plot disruptor.
Speaker 3: I would say he was a blunt instrument of the crown.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you wanted the job done and you couldn't
Speaker 2: if you didn't have time to worry about you know,
Speaker 2: the politics or you know the diplomacy, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: You just sent James Bond.
Speaker 3: Yeah, get JB on the phone double seven. Yeah, he'll
Speaker 3: he'll take care of business. Like Elvis.
Speaker 2: You could call him on his car phone long before
Speaker 2: any car had a phone.
Speaker 3: Yeah all right, Oh yeah, he was always pre dating technology. Yeah.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, there's a James Bond theory
Speaker 2: of entrepreneurial innovation.
Speaker 3: I believe that.
Speaker 2: And from Russia with Love nineteen sixty three. He talked
Speaker 2: I can't remember who he talked to, but he was
Speaker 2: in his car using the phone. Yeah, that was in
Speaker 2: his car, and audiences went nuts for it.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, they were like, oh my god, he's on
Speaker 3: the telephone right in a car.
Speaker 2: But that's what they sounded like in England though.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well sure that the actually Ghana right, So Josh,
Speaker 3: where do we start here? We can't, we can't not
Speaker 3: start with Ian Fleming.
Speaker 2: Ian Fleming, So where we gotta start? Let's do it? No,
Speaker 2: that was there was a colon after that.
Speaker 3: Oh, and I mean Colin was as everyone knows, and
Speaker 3: if you didn't, you need to get out from under
Speaker 3: your rock that you reside in right now. The creator
Speaker 3: of James Bond in novel form.
Speaker 2: He was also originally a journalist and a stockbroker. And
Speaker 2: World War Two starts to come around and he joins
Speaker 2: the Naval Naval Volunteer Royal Navy, Royal Navy, and he
Speaker 2: was actually Chuck did you know, assigned as a spy
Speaker 2: himself in Washington, DC.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sort of a spy, you could call it. He
Speaker 3: was in intelligence and he would occasionally he was an
Speaker 3: administrative guy, but sometimes they would send him out to
Speaker 3: do field work where he would take secret pictures of documents,
Speaker 3: just like in the movies.
Speaker 2: Do you know who was assigned to his spy unit.
Speaker 3: James Bond?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, there was a guy who was the inspiration
Speaker 2: for James Bond. His name was William Stevenson, aka Intrepid.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, one of many inspirations.
Speaker 2: Right. But in an interview in The Times in nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty two, Fleming said, you know, James Bond is this
Speaker 2: romanticized version of a spy. Bill Stevenson is the real thing.
Speaker 3: Right, well, in romantic version of himself.
Speaker 2: To an extenture, another member of that spy ring was
Speaker 2: a guy named Roald Dahl who wrote James and the
Speaker 2: Giant Peach and Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and a bunch of body books.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: He also had the non children's books that were a
Speaker 3: little racier. Yes, not many people know that.
Speaker 2: So, Chuck, let's talk a little bit more about Ian Fleming.
Speaker 3: Give it to us, buddy, Yeah, I mean, like I said,
Speaker 3: he was, he sort of James based James Bond on
Speaker 3: kind of I think who he wanted to be. He
Speaker 3: was a playboy. He was an island hopper, an adventurer,
Speaker 3: an adventurer, a skier. He dove with Jock Custeau and
Speaker 3: you know Snowski from the tops of mountains in Switzerland,
Speaker 3: and had a place in Jamaica where he actually wrote
Speaker 3: all these books.
Speaker 2: Right, he named the place GoldenEye. And every year he
Speaker 2: would go to Jamaica and write a book. And I
Speaker 2: just want to dig him up and throttle him for that,
Speaker 2: because I mean, what a life. Yeah, you know, yeah, Oh,
Speaker 2: it's time for me to go to my estate in
Speaker 2: Jamaica and write a book that's going to just make
Speaker 2: me millions more.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which he did. And he reportedly picked the name
Speaker 3: James Bond because he wanted the most boring name he
Speaker 3: could find for his super secret agent. I think he
Speaker 3: didn't want the name to compete with the actual character,
Speaker 3: Like why bother giving him some fancy name, just shame
Speaker 3: him James Bond and having kick.
Speaker 2: Butt, right, you know what the opposite of that is
Speaker 2: hex saw Jim Duggan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he should have named him that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, then it would have competed with.
Speaker 3: The character Duggan. Hack saw Jim Duggan. I could hear that. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: he wrote See the article says thirteen novels.
Speaker 2: Well, he wrote thirteen books.
Speaker 3: I got fourteen.
Speaker 2: What's the fourteenth?
Speaker 3: Well, I've got twelve novels plus two short story collections
Speaker 3: right for your Eyes only, and Octopusy in the Living
Speaker 3: Daylights was another collection. Right, So it seems like it'd
Speaker 3: be easier to find this out. But I literally saw
Speaker 3: two different sets of information.
Speaker 2: Huh. So are we gonna go with fourteen? Because you
Speaker 2: are quite the sniffer, Let's.
Speaker 3: Go with fourteenth total?
Speaker 2: Okay, twelve novels, all right, But he wrote I think
Speaker 2: he wrote the novels first, maybe or did he write
Speaker 2: the short story books like in between?
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were in between. They were toward the end.
Speaker 2: Okay, But so he was getting fat and lazy in Jamaica.
Speaker 3: Yeah, interestingly though, or maybe it's not that interesting. They
Speaker 3: made the movies way out of order.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did.
Speaker 3: Doctor Now was the first, but that was the sixth novel.
Speaker 2: Right, But did you know that they originally the people
Speaker 2: who made the official Bond movies originally wanted to make
Speaker 2: Thunderball Thunderball was a story that Ian Fleming came up
Speaker 2: with with another guy who who wanted the rights to
Speaker 2: make a movie out of it. Oh really, that fell through,
Speaker 2: but Ian Fleming went ahead and wrote the story anyway
Speaker 2: that they came up with as Thunderball. The guy sued
Speaker 2: his pants off and actually gained custody gained the rights
Speaker 2: to the book Thunderball, which tied it up and made
Speaker 2: them op for Doctor Not to go first instead.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of litigation over the years in
Speaker 3: the Bond franchise.
Speaker 2: Yes, there was.
Speaker 3: I guess when you have a franchise that long and
Speaker 3: that vast, there's going to be people suing people over something.
Speaker 2: Well, plus it's a legendary he's a legendary character, and
Speaker 2: you know he's made a lot of money for a
Speaker 2: lot of people.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. The other interesting thing I thought just before we
Speaker 3: move on, was that Moonraker was written in nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 3: That was a third novel that is insightful And of
Speaker 3: course there wasn't a space shuttle like they changed the
Speaker 3: setting and all that stuff, but it did involve like
Speaker 3: a nuclear weapon, so you know, kind of odd. And
Speaker 3: the Man of the Golden Gun, which was the Roger
Speaker 3: Moore's second film was the final novel and it was
Speaker 3: released after his death. Huh, so it was way out
Speaker 3: of order.
Speaker 2: And in that one he predicted Harve Vashe, which nobody
Speaker 2: saw coming except Ian Fleming. Yeah you know right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's weird. Let's talk about James Bond.
Speaker 3: A little bit, the character James Bond.
Speaker 2: So it turns out James Bond had a Scottish father,
Speaker 2: which it didn't originally.
Speaker 3: Now that came about because of Sean Connedy.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Ian Fleming was not a big fan of Sean
Speaker 2: Connery first, and then Sean Connery is like, check this out,
Speaker 2: and he made one peck go up while the other
Speaker 2: went down a bunch of times, and Ian Fleming just
Speaker 2: like clapped and squealed and that was that. Right. He
Speaker 2: was a big fan, and he said, you know what
Speaker 2: you are, James Bond. And he actually went back and
Speaker 2: changed James Bond's history, yeah, to kind of Matt Sean
Speaker 2: Connery a little bit because he came to see like,
Speaker 2: this guy is Bond, right, Yeah, So he gave James
Speaker 2: Bond a Scottish father, Andrew, and a Swiss mother Monique Delacroix,
Speaker 2: and nice. Yeah, and they both died mountain climbing. Right.
Speaker 3: Yes, when little James was eleven years old, he went
Speaker 3: to the orphanage, and he went to an orphanage. He
Speaker 3: was supposedly born on November eleventh, nineteen twenty, but there
Speaker 3: are different accounts of his birthday and when he was born.
Speaker 3: And clearly when you have a franchise with Daniel Craig
Speaker 3: playing him in two thousand and eight, he can't be
Speaker 3: born in nineteen twenty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because body the exhibition wasn't showing in Miami in
Speaker 2: like nineteen fifty eight or anything.
Speaker 3: So yeah, there's a sliding scale there obviously to make
Speaker 3: it viable. But James, much like his author namesake Ian Fleming,
Speaker 3: not namesake, and James Bond, much like the author Ian Fleming, was,
Speaker 3: went to the Royal Navy in World War Two, rose
Speaker 3: to the rank of commander.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: After the war, that's when he entered the sis known
Speaker 3: as m I six.
Speaker 2: Right, which is the sixth branch of the Military Intelligence Directorate.
Speaker 2: You got that, buddy, right, and his first two assignments chuck, Yeah,
Speaker 2: we're two taps.
Speaker 3: They assassinations right off the bat, so.
Speaker 2: He that's apparently you have to kill two people to
Speaker 2: get a double OW status, which is the license to kill.
Speaker 2: And he got them, like you say, right off the bat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he was the seventh dude to get him.
Speaker 3: So that's where double O seven comes from, right, the
Speaker 3: seventh agent. I shouldn't say dude, because they were were
Speaker 3: their female agents. Yeah, there were female agents. Okay, I'm
Speaker 3: pretty sure.
Speaker 2: Uh. And we should probably take the time here to
Speaker 2: explain I like James Bond. I know that you like
Speaker 2: James Bond movies too.
Speaker 3: Is this the disclaimer we're gonna get killed here?
Speaker 2: We are not members of James Bond fandom. I would say,
Speaker 2: all right, I mean.
Speaker 3: I've seen all the movies, but no, I haven't studied
Speaker 3: the books.
Speaker 2: I've never read any of the books. I don't think
Speaker 2: I've seen all the movies, but I do like them
Speaker 2: in a very recreational manner. So that being said, we
Speaker 2: are not going to get every single thing right here.
Speaker 2: If we are going to walk right past information sure
Speaker 2: that we just don't know exists, so in a very
Speaker 2: friendly manner. If there is anything that you have to
Speaker 2: say that can round this podcast out even further, the
Speaker 2: more we love knowing new things that's so please let
Speaker 2: us know, I guess is what we're saying.
Speaker 3: Right. Oh, they'll let us know. They will, except for
Speaker 3: the three dudes that just turned it off into well,
Speaker 3: they have no business even attempting this there.
Speaker 2: And then they go give us a one star rating
Speaker 2: on iTunes.
Speaker 3: So back to Bond. He as we all know as
Speaker 3: a sharp dresser, and he loves fast cars, he loves
Speaker 3: his more martini shaking that stirred. He loves women.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And do you know if you shake a Martine
Speaker 2: instead of stirring it, you pretty much ruin it.
Speaker 3: I disagree. I shake all my martinis. Dude, how does
Speaker 3: it ruin it?
Speaker 2: It feathers it?
Speaker 3: I think, what does that mean?
Speaker 2: It means it's screwed up. What does that mean?
Speaker 3: I like a good dirty Martini myself.
Speaker 2: Oh you like him dirty?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, gross, I said word.
Speaker 2: I like my Martini's so light. It's basically the savodk rock.
Speaker 3: So you just like the remooth bottle, Just wave near
Speaker 3: the glass pretty much. I like just a little vermooth,
Speaker 3: little olive juice, but no olive.
Speaker 2: No olive juice. I'll put in all. I'll put three
Speaker 2: olives in usually. Really all right, but then I eat
Speaker 2: them so fast that they have no time to taint
Speaker 2: the Martini.
Speaker 3: Well that's why you're not a super spy. So Josh
Speaker 3: James Bond a couple of the other traits we should
Speaker 3: just mention. He is a martial artist. He's a gifted
Speaker 3: man with his fist and feet. Or if you're Roger Moore,
Speaker 3: a Roddy chop yeah, oh yeah, yeah, that was a
Speaker 3: big deal in the seventies. And he carried a famously
Speaker 3: carried a Walter PPK handgun thirty two caliber. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: that's the little guy. Have you ever seen him? Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: they're small.
Speaker 2: And I've played Golden nine, played best game. Yeah, just
Speaker 2: played Golden nine. It is a great game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know they're bringing that back for we
Speaker 3: I've heard Matt Frederick of coolelt Stuff on the Planet
Speaker 3: told us that they are bringing that back because it's
Speaker 3: still sort of the standard for first person shooters like
Speaker 3: fifteen years on. Yeah, it's still a great game. So
Speaker 3: they're bringing it back as is, like completely as it was,
Speaker 3: but with better graphics.
Speaker 2: That's going to be fantastic for the Wii.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty exciting. Back to the real life of the
Speaker 3: fake Life of James Bond.
Speaker 2: That's how we should have titled this podcast.
Speaker 3: The Real Life of the Fake Life. Yeah, how about uh,
Speaker 3: let's talk about some of the enemies.
Speaker 2: Doctor No. He was the first one to appear in the.
Speaker 3: Films, Doctor Julius, now.
Speaker 2: Right, he's an atomic scientist.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was, clearly. Joseph Wiseman played him, and he
Speaker 3: was a great, great villain Goldfinger. You can't talk about
Speaker 3: Bond without talking about Goldfinger. Yeah he was. You don't
Speaker 3: like him, no, no, really, that was a big Goldfinger guy.
Speaker 3: He tried to laser the crotch of James Bond.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right, pretty hardcore. It's like Max Scorpio
Speaker 2: in that Simpsons where oh yeah, up, going to work
Speaker 2: for the super villain, right, yeah, he's like, no, mister Bond,
Speaker 2: I expect you to die and be a very cheap funeral.
Speaker 3: Odd Job was one of my favorite, and he was
Speaker 3: one of Goldman's henchmen in the big Asian guy with
Speaker 3: the bowler hat that he could cut like the head
Speaker 3: off a statue his hat. Huge, Yeah, very big dude. Jaws.
Speaker 3: We grew up with Roger Moore, so you can't not
Speaker 3: talk about Jaws.
Speaker 2: No, he was great too. He was in two of them, right,
Speaker 2: he was in Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me.
Speaker 3: I thought he might have been more than that, but
Speaker 3: he definitely.
Speaker 2: I looked it up.
Speaker 3: He was only in two two Really, I made quite
Speaker 3: an impression.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did.
Speaker 3: He found the girlfriend in moon Breaker, I think, right, falls.
Speaker 2: In love or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the little like nerdy girl.
Speaker 2: And then he pops up again in Happy Gilmore. Was
Speaker 2: he in that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I didn't see that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was Happy Gilmour's boss, like on the construction
Speaker 2: site and ends up becoming a fan.
Speaker 3: And wow, did he have the teeth?
Speaker 2: No, he didn't have the piece for the movie, but
Speaker 2: he was a big guy.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: Lately we've had more recent villains that I don't think
Speaker 3: the new villains compare personally.
Speaker 2: No, they kind of come and go. You know, there's
Speaker 2: like in Casino Royale.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they're okay, but they're all the villain
Speaker 3: was Yeah that that Like, they're all decent, but they're
Speaker 3: not like iconic characters like they used to be. Right like, Yeah, Well,
Speaker 3: Blofeld was the sort of legendary I don't know how
Speaker 3: many movies he was in, but He was played by
Speaker 3: like tell Donald Pleasance. Yeah, Donald Pleasants was my favorite version.
Speaker 2: He was good.
Speaker 3: And Max van Seado played him, I think, and uh,
Speaker 3: never say never again.
Speaker 2: Maybe Max, he's a class act.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was, what did I watch the other day? Oh,
Speaker 3: Shutter Island. He's in that. And I told lean over
Speaker 3: to Emily. I was like, you know, I want to
Speaker 3: see Max van Seadel play like a kindly grandfather in
Speaker 3: a movie. I don't think anytime that dude pops up
Speaker 3: in the movie, you're like, oh, well, he's the evil doer.
Speaker 2: He's the villain, or so you think until Shutter Island
Speaker 2: falls apart at the end.
Speaker 3: Don't ruin it. So yes, that was Blofeld. He was
Speaker 3: the bald guy and he was the head of Specter,
Speaker 3: which was the Special executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.
Speaker 3: That's a great villainoist title there.
Speaker 2: That's not only like a great name, that's your mission statement. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, all wrapped up in the one one of
Speaker 2: my favorites, Max Zorin, played by the great Christopher Walkin.
Speaker 2: He was he was the I know you love that movie,
Speaker 2: one of the best bomb movies ever.
Speaker 3: But that had the worst bond woman ever, Grace Jones. No,
Speaker 3: Tanya Roberts, I don't remember her. She was the bond girl.
Speaker 2: I don't remember.
Speaker 3: She was the lady from the seventies show that was
Speaker 3: like one of the late Charlie's Angels replacements. Tanya Roberts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, who cares. It was the eighties, nobody was
Speaker 2: paying that much attention.
Speaker 3: But it was a good song.
Speaker 2: It was and Christopher Walkin was in it. Grace Jones
Speaker 2: was in it.
Speaker 3: She was pretty scary in that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she was excellent. Talk about a martial artist. But
Speaker 2: Max zorin Is did you know he was the product
Speaker 2: of genetic experiments by Nazis. Walking was well not walking?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't remember that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And one of the unintended side effects was he
Speaker 2: was a complete psychopath.
Speaker 3: I thought you were gonna say one of the side
Speaker 3: effects was his use of punctuation. You were, good man.
Speaker 3: Everybody does walking.
Speaker 2: I can't do it walking.
Speaker 3: Let's hear it.
Speaker 2: My No, it's really just an altered John Travolta, Why
Speaker 2: you so weird, dude? That's great, of course, Chuck, there's
Speaker 2: double six Alec Trevlyn.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what was he? And that was one of the
Speaker 3: Pierce Broson ones, wasn't it.
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think yeah, it's I don't remember those. I
Speaker 2: love Pierce Brosnon, like, oh he was good. The fact that,
Speaker 2: like he wasn't James Bond earlier. He's like, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: you're gonna cast Timothy Dalton, are you well, I'll go
Speaker 2: beat Remington Steel jerks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And then they tried to get him again, right,
Speaker 3: I think so, And he was committed to Remington Steele,
Speaker 3: which was sort of like James Bond for TV.
Speaker 2: Oh so did he do Remington Steel first?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, he did Remington Steele. Well, it goes back
Speaker 3: and forth. There was like Timothy Dalton was offered the
Speaker 3: role before Roger Moore. Did you know that? No, I didn't.
Speaker 3: When he was twenty one years old. Really he was
Speaker 3: gonna replace Sean Connery. Well, and Dalton said I'm too
Speaker 3: young to play James Bond. And then he comes around
Speaker 3: years later just like just like uh, Brosnon did.
Speaker 2: Okay, But I am glad that Pierce Broson went in.
Speaker 2: I just happened to think that those his period of
Speaker 2: movies were unfortunate.
Speaker 3: I thought they were pretty good.
Speaker 2: I didn't like them now I'm really happy with Daniel
Speaker 2: craigs stuff so far.
Speaker 3: Well, you know my statement on that is that was
Speaker 3: the only direction they could take that franchise after the
Speaker 3: Jason Bourne movies. You couldn't have a guy like winking
Speaker 3: at the camera like Roger Moore and like slapstick sounds
Speaker 3: and sound effects. You had to take him into like
Speaker 3: a real bad, bad direction.
Speaker 2: Yes, you mean, like sim Ohaya bad. Yeah, So Double
Speaker 2: six Alec Trevlyn, he is. I think he informs the
Speaker 2: character Alex Krychek from X Files.
Speaker 3: You think so?
Speaker 2: Huh?
Speaker 3: Sure, very nice, Josh.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 3: All right, So those are some of the villains, clearly,
Speaker 3: not all, but we should also talk about some of
Speaker 3: the people that James Bond had working on his side
Speaker 3: at m I six.
Speaker 2: All right, we will call from here on out the
Speaker 2: superfluous characters.
Speaker 3: No, dude, they're great. M Q M was the head
Speaker 3: of m I six and there were several ms. It
Speaker 3: was just a title and m was the one that's
Speaker 3: always frustrated with Bond. Yet he knows that he's the
Speaker 3: blunt instrument of choice. You know, pretty much in every movie,
Speaker 3: r Q.
Speaker 2: You should say he or she for m true Dame
Speaker 2: Judy Dench took over.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Man, she's doing a great job too. Q is
Speaker 3: the head of the Q branch.
Speaker 2: Judy Dench, did you hear that? Chuck just said you
Speaker 2: were doing a great job, So keep it up.
Speaker 3: Keep it up. Danger. Dame Dame, Dame Dame, Yeah, she's
Speaker 3: a dame. Q is the head of the Q branch.
Speaker 3: M I six is research and development branch, and Q,
Speaker 3: as you might know, is the guy who in all
Speaker 3: the films gives James his gadgets. There's always that great
Speaker 3: scene where James goes into the laboratory and starts messing
Speaker 3: around with the gadgets and exasperates Q because he's burning
Speaker 3: something or he's firing a missile inside and he shouldn't be.
Speaker 2: That's Q, right, And he's now been replaced by his
Speaker 2: former assistant R.
Speaker 3: Right now is R John Clees. Yeah, yeah, he's doing
Speaker 3: a good job. But he's the new Q. He just
Speaker 3: used to be R well because Q died right Llewellen, Yes, Chuck,
Speaker 3: that was the actor that played the original Q.
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 3: Or the Roger more Key that I loved?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Who else we got?
Speaker 2: Felix Leer who I like Jack Lord Jeffrey Wright both
Speaker 2: played him agent. And there's another guy named Hayward Wade.
Speaker 3: Was he Cia?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I thought they said they didn't know if he was
Speaker 3: Dea or Cia.
Speaker 2: He was around before the Dea was was he Yeah?
Speaker 2: And then you've got I think Jack Wade is his name.
Speaker 2: And he was actually played by a couple of people,
Speaker 2: including Joe Don Baker. Oh yeah, Pere's Brosnan Ones.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, he had a couple of American counterparts. It's
Speaker 3: a good point and.
Speaker 2: Little known fact. Jo Don Baker was in Oh, I
Speaker 2: can't remember the name of the movie, but it was
Speaker 2: one of the greatest Mister Science Theater three thousands.
Speaker 3: Really yeah, bad movie. And then of course we have
Speaker 3: to mention Moneypenny. He was M's personal assistant and Moneypenny.
Speaker 3: You always knew Moneypenny because James would come in and
Speaker 3: flirt very much with her, and I always got the
Speaker 3: sense that if James were to ever settle down with anyone,
Speaker 3: which he clearly won't, it would have been Moneypenny sure,
Speaker 3: or at least he made her think that. Right. Every
Speaker 3: day was Secretary's day when James Bond was around. He
Speaker 3: was always just so nice to her, bringing her things
Speaker 3: from his travels, shot glasses and stuff.
Speaker 2: Right, spoons, She had an extensive spoon collection, refrigerator, magnets, Chuck, Josh,
Speaker 2: let's talk about the movie show. Yeah, sure, well let's
Speaker 2: talk about James Bond on screen because it wasn't necessarily
Speaker 2: just relegated to the movies.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, good point.
Speaker 2: So James Bond first appears on screen on the small
Speaker 2: screen on a CBS TV series called Climax with an
Speaker 2: exclamation point really yeah wow, And he was first played
Speaker 2: by a guy named Barry Nelson. Barry Nelson you may
Speaker 2: recognize as mister Olman, the manager of the Overlook in
Speaker 2: Kubrick's The Shining who tells Jack Torres the ropes. That's
Speaker 2: the first guy to ever play James Bond.
Speaker 3: Wow? Was he English?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: American?
Speaker 2: Yes, CBS TV series.
Speaker 3: So we've had a Scotsman's quite a few Englishmen, an
Speaker 3: American and an Australian.
Speaker 2: And what what do you mean Australian?
Speaker 3: I mean someone from Australia. That was George Lazamy was Australian?
Speaker 2: Was it? You know what happened to him?
Speaker 3: Well, he wasn't much of an actor.
Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't just that he after the success of
Speaker 2: his Bond movie. I mean he played James Bond and
Speaker 2: it was you know, filmed and produced.
Speaker 3: And released on Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Speaker 2: Right, he was like, Holy Colm, James Bond, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to buy a boat and sail around the world
Speaker 2: for a while. And he came back and his star
Speaker 2: had already faded because he did one thing and that
Speaker 2: was that. Oh really, yeah, he kind of blew it.
Speaker 3: He wasn't much of an actor either.
Speaker 2: It wasn't but it wasn't just that. It was Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was a combination of those two things.
Speaker 3: He was a bad dude though, Like he he got
Speaker 3: the role apparently because he impressed Ian Fleming because he
Speaker 3: had a faux fight scene with a wrestler for his
Speaker 3: audition and he actually punched the guy, like got mad
Speaker 3: and punched him, and Fleming's like, this is hard, dude. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because Fleming wrote the Bond character is much darker.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the novel character for sure, Like.
Speaker 2: Roger Moore took it in a very awful direction, pacific direction.
Speaker 2: You know that was not the least bit like how
Speaker 2: Ian Fleming had written them.
Speaker 3: You're the ultimate Roger Moore apologist. I love he's good
Speaker 3: in The Saint and that's why I got the role,
Speaker 3: I think. Okay, the TV show The.
Speaker 2: Saint, all right, So Chuck, let's get back to the
Speaker 2: beginning again. So we talked about Barry Nelson and on
Speaker 2: the big screen, the first Bond ever was Sean Connery.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, well they did. They did a pilot though
Speaker 3: on TV as well.
Speaker 2: That's the Barry Nelson one.
Speaker 3: Oh, it was called Casino Royale though.
Speaker 2: No, right, it was based on Casino Royal or Gotcha Climax, okay,
Speaker 2: which I think. You know how they used to do,
Speaker 2: like they would have the name of the series, but
Speaker 2: then there'd be like different like like Wonderful World of Disney. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was like the name of the series, but then
Speaker 2: there were different like documentaries or gotcha tunes or whatever.
Speaker 3: Okay, I think it was like that, and that flopped.
Speaker 2: And I didn't know what they were doing with TV
Speaker 2: back in the day.
Speaker 3: They had no idea. So yeah, you're right, Doctor I
Speaker 3: was the first film in nineteen sixty two and there's
Speaker 3: been twenty two in total. No, yes, and we're waiting,
Speaker 3: and that's official Bond films. Because they parodied him and
Speaker 3: other things. What he Allen played him for Heaven's sake.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and in the parody he did of Casino Royale.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: There's also a an unofficial Bond film with an official Bond, right,
Speaker 2: let's hear it, Never Say Never Again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was Connrie's that was also fraught with the lawsuits.
Speaker 2: You know, that was based on the Thunderball lawsuit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they remade Thunderball, right, and they named.
Speaker 2: It Never Say Never Again because Conrie had said after
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy one that he'd never play Bond again because
Speaker 2: he played Bond what for the first like six movies
Speaker 2: something like that, one, two.
Speaker 3: Three, four, five, and then George Lazenby then he came
Speaker 3: back and did Diamonds or Forever.
Speaker 2: And then after that came Roger Moore. Yes, and then
Speaker 2: Roger Moore had a pretty good run. So Sean Connery
Speaker 2: stops playing Bond. George Lazenby comes along, does it once leaves,
Speaker 2: Sean Connery has to come back another time. After Sean Connery,
Speaker 2: they get Roger Moore. In the midst of Roger Moore's run,
Speaker 2: Sean Connery makes another Bond film, That's The Kid. Twelve
Speaker 2: years after the last one he'd made.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, and yeah, Ken Beasinger was the bonche and
Speaker 3: that one she was.
Speaker 2: And they called it never Say Never Again because he'd
Speaker 2: said that he would never play Bond again.
Speaker 3: Never Trebek, That's what he said, right, Timothy Dalton, I
Speaker 3: guess we might as well venture into his years.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I saw those when they first came out, like
Speaker 2: in the theaters, and I didn't think anything of them.
Speaker 2: I don't know if they were over my head or whatever,
Speaker 2: but I didn't like them.
Speaker 3: They were pretty good living daylights and licensed to kill.
Speaker 3: They were both.
Speaker 2: Are they good? Really?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean they were. It was definitely a more
Speaker 3: novelistic Bond, like he was darker and a little more
Speaker 3: bad dude, and that, I mean it might have had
Speaker 3: something to do with it was coming off the heels
Speaker 3: of Roger Moore in his vaudeville act that he brought
Speaker 3: to Bond and Dalton had a two picture run and
Speaker 3: then was replaced by who everyone thought should have been
Speaker 3: Bond before Dalton, Pierce Brosnan for one, two, three, four films, right,
Speaker 3: and then they went the inevitable direction with a blonde
Speaker 3: Bond with Daniel Craig. Is that inevitable, you think, well,
Speaker 3: I meant the inevitable way of making him a tough dude.
Speaker 3: But yeah, his blindness was not inevitable. You know.
Speaker 2: You make fun of Roger Moore, but he had a
Speaker 2: seven picture stint as James Bond.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and that was our childhood, trust me, dude.
Speaker 3: At the time, I loved it. But then when I
Speaker 3: got older, I revisited all of the Sean Conneries, and
Speaker 3: then I saw the butt kickingness of Timothy Dalton and
Speaker 3: now Daniel Craig, And now I'm kind of like Roger
Speaker 3: World was kind of a joke to me. No, you
Speaker 3: still stand by it, I do, all right.
Speaker 2: I like Roger Moore.
Speaker 3: Sam Neil was considered at one point.
Speaker 2: I could see him as James Bond.
Speaker 3: He would have been mad.
Speaker 2: He was great and dead calm.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a good movie.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know that this even qualifies as
Speaker 2: a podcast.
Speaker 3: People can be like you guys are just kind of
Speaker 3: chit chatting, schuck.
Speaker 2: There's also theories, tons of them. Best one, actually, the
Speaker 2: only one I could find really is the code name Theories.
Speaker 2: Have you heard this? I have not cracked. I got
Speaker 2: a lot of publicity for it by. It's a fan
Speaker 2: theory that basically says, James Bond is a it's a
Speaker 2: name that goes along with double O seven, and there's
Speaker 2: each actor was playing an actual different person who had
Speaker 2: assumed this undercover name James Bond. Really, which explains the
Speaker 2: changes in personality. Yeah, it explains why Sean Connery was
Speaker 2: so suave and Roger Moore was so goofy. Sure, it
Speaker 2: explains why Daniel Craig and Timothy Dalton were so violent.
Speaker 2: It explains a lot of stuff. Actually explains George Lazenby's
Speaker 2: departure because his wife, the only time James Bond has
Speaker 2: ever been married, died in that one honor her Majesty's
Speaker 2: Secret Service.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he had a wife most people don't know, and
Speaker 3: she was.
Speaker 2: Killed by Blofeld. Right, so he leaves after that. That
Speaker 2: explains that, right, absolutely. There's actually holes in that theory.
Speaker 3: Do you know them?
Speaker 2: I know a couple like, for example, George Lazenbee recognized
Speaker 2: gadgets that were debuted during Sean Connery's tenure. He was
Speaker 2: a new person. He would it would be new to him.
Speaker 3: He'd be like, what's his start gun?
Speaker 2: Right, exactly right. And I think The Spy who Loved
Speaker 2: Me Roger Moore is recognized from his college days at
Speaker 2: Cambridge as James Bond, which would mean that he was
Speaker 2: using the name before then. But it's still a pretty
Speaker 2: cool theory. If you want any cool theory shot down,
Speaker 2: I recommend you go to Commander Bond dot net, am
Speaker 2: I six dot co dot uk or James Bondwiki dot
Speaker 2: com as are some good sites.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna retrack my Roger Moore bashing a little bit.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: I actually liked like four out of seven of his films.
Speaker 2: Okay, see, so you're right.
Speaker 3: I forget sometimes I forget about the awesomeness of Live
Speaker 3: and Let Die and Man with a Golden Gun for
Speaker 3: Your Eyes Only. Those were all pretty good. It was
Speaker 3: like octopusy Moonraker was really silly, does not age well
Speaker 3: at all. And if you do a kill, I just
Speaker 3: can't get behind him.
Speaker 2: You do a kill is awesome. What about The Spy
Speaker 2: who Loved Me? That's the one with the Greater Water lotus?
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, great, great movie.
Speaker 2: And I have one last fact. Are you ready?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: The legendary Bond producer co producer Albert cubby broccoli. Yeah,
Speaker 2: his family invented broccoli. They crossed cauliflower with rabe and
Speaker 2: invented broccoli. And he actually left the family farm to
Speaker 2: go to Hollywood to pursue his fortune when he was.
Speaker 3: Like eighteen, are you making this? I am not. He
Speaker 3: invented broccoli.
Speaker 2: His family did his like parents, grandparents.
Speaker 3: That's a pretty good fact.
Speaker 2: Broccoley.
Speaker 3: Very cool. Good for him. They're in trouble now though,
Speaker 3: because MGM is in trouble.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they're saying like it's just a blip on
Speaker 2: the radar. If you listen to any anybuddy who's attached
Speaker 2: to the Bond twenty three.
Speaker 3: Oh, it'll happen at some point.
Speaker 2: But they're like this, it's fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's being delayed big time though, because MGM's and
Speaker 3: over their heads financially.
Speaker 2: If you know anything about MGM, if you're an insider
Speaker 2: at MGM, we want to hear from you. Let us
Speaker 2: know what's going on with Bond.
Speaker 3: That's funny, we should. We got to talk about Bond girls.
Speaker 3: That's one of the hallmarks of Bond films, and usually
Speaker 3: there's two Bond girls at least there's like a hot
Speaker 3: villain and like a hot an aid that helps him
Speaker 3: out in some way. Sometimes she turns out to be
Speaker 3: a villain. But there's usually two Bond girls and he's
Speaker 3: equally attracted to both.
Speaker 2: Like Grace Jones.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's attracted to her for some reason. They are
Speaker 3: fem fatales. Like I said, Bond cannot help but fall
Speaker 3: for them, even though they it might mean he has
Speaker 3: to eventually kill them after he makes sweet love to them. Right,
Speaker 3: And I'm gonna go ahead and ask you what your
Speaker 3: favorite Bond girl is.
Speaker 2: I just recently realized that Carrie Lowell was a Bond
Speaker 2: girl and I used to have the biggest crush on
Speaker 2: her when I would watch Wild Record No Law and
Speaker 2: Order reruns on A. Yeah, they used to show like
Speaker 2: Law and Order for like eight hour blocks on A
Speaker 2: and E, and I'd be like, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: class today, I'm just gonna watch Law and Order. And
Speaker 2: she was on a lot of them. Yeah, she she
Speaker 2: would be my favorite Bond girl.
Speaker 3: I'm going with Ursula Andres. Yeah, she was hot dude
Speaker 3: back in the day. She played honey Rider. And that's
Speaker 3: another hallmark of the Bond women is they usually had
Speaker 3: really awful names that hinted it sexual innu window, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, plenty o Tool, Honey Rider, pussy Galore, actually Solitaire,
Speaker 3: Jane Seymour. She was pretty good in Living Let Die
Speaker 3: like that. She was actually a really good actor, Okay.
Speaker 3: Moonraker of course had a Holly gooodhead and a view
Speaker 3: to a kill. I had Tanya Rhart's as Stacy Sutton.
Speaker 3: They didn't even give her a cool name.
Speaker 2: So, Chuck, what's the best Bond theme song? Well, let
Speaker 2: me take a wild guess.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say Live and Let Die is probably my favorite.
Speaker 2: Because I would have put the thousand dollars on that.
Speaker 3: Or what's her name? Carly Simon spy who loved me?
Speaker 3: Nobody does it better? Love that song?
Speaker 2: Best fond theme song if it's not You Kill, Okay,
Speaker 2: if it's not that, it is Nancy Sinatra singing You
Speaker 2: Only Live Twice?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was awesome. Yes it was Shirley Bassie. Just
Speaker 3: another little factoid.
Speaker 2: She did.
Speaker 3: No, she did more than that. She did a gold Finger,
Speaker 3: she did Diamonds or Forever, she did Moon Raker, Moon
Speaker 3: Raker's that's three total. I was also a big fan
Speaker 3: of she and a Easton's For Your eyes Only, Yes,
Speaker 3: she did and read a Coolidge all time high from Octopussy.
Speaker 2: Didn't Tom Jones do Thunderball or something?
Speaker 3: He did?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: He did Thunderball. And since we're talking about the songs
Speaker 3: that have really gotten lame in recent years, like the
Speaker 3: Chris Cornellen and Garbage, you probably didn't even remember they
Speaker 3: did songs.
Speaker 2: Garbage did the one for World is Not Enough?
Speaker 3: Oh okay, Pierce Brosnan, Yeah, and Sheryl Crowe did one,
Speaker 3: did she really?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And Madonna did one and and now it's gotten to
Speaker 3: the point where they're just like, like the last one,
Speaker 3: they put Jack White with Alicia Keys.
Speaker 2: Up next is Miley Cyrus. Oh God, say it ain't
Speaker 2: so Bond twenty three?
Speaker 3: Uh, what else do we have here?
Speaker 2: This is the podcast that won't die. No, I do
Speaker 2: have this Like James Bond, it just goes on.
Speaker 3: I do have a couple more facts. Okay, Well, first
Speaker 3: of all, before you move on, if we're going to
Speaker 3: talk about the songs, we need to talk about the
Speaker 3: opening sequences, the title sequences. When you're a young Baptist
Speaker 3: boy and there are naked, silhouetted women jumping on trampolines, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's very titillating and arousing and arousing for a young
Speaker 3: boy named Chuck.
Speaker 2: I'm titillated and aroused.
Speaker 3: And then the opening sequence of the films typically is
Speaker 3: some awesome action scene, and then the title sequence comes up.
Speaker 3: There'll be like a seven minute action scene.
Speaker 2: Right. They call it a cold opening, Buddy.
Speaker 3: A cold opening.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: That's very nice. And I just got a couple of
Speaker 3: more facts for you, Josh, and then I'll let you
Speaker 3: put this to bed all right with what would you
Speaker 3: say is the highest grossing Bond film of all time
Speaker 3: adjusted gross adjusted gross?
Speaker 2: I would say Casino Royale No.
Speaker 3: Top two all time Thunderball and gold Finger. You're a
Speaker 3: liar adjusted gross, you know.
Speaker 2: Casino Royale worldwide netted like almost six hundred million dollars
Speaker 2: so far.
Speaker 3: A bunch of money. Thunderball and Goldfinger did more, did
Speaker 3: they really?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Thunderball and nineteen sixty five dude, gross to one hundred
Speaker 3: and forty one million dollars?
Speaker 2: What and is that worldwide or US?
Speaker 3: That's worldwide? And that is close to what Licensed to
Speaker 3: Kill gross in nineteen eighty nine, that grows like one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty something. And Thunderball you know, thirty years
Speaker 3: more grossed one hundred and forty.
Speaker 2: One million, right, But what I'm saying is Casino Royale
Speaker 2: gross six hundred million.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, yeah, that's not an adjusted gross though you.
Speaker 2: Can't compare, you're figuring inflation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what it's called an adjusted gross. And that's
Speaker 3: about it. I mean, we could say the cars he
Speaker 3: used real quickly, the Aston Martin obviously, my favorite is
Speaker 3: the Lotus, The Lotus, the Alpha Romeo, and then that
Speaker 3: new Audi. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Do you like the Audi?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it looks awesome, Okay, but I do miss the
Speaker 3: Lotus and the fact that it could also be a submarine. Right.
Speaker 2: And lastly, Chuck, I would like to say to all
Speaker 2: the kids of our generation, if you ever noticed the
Speaker 2: similarity between Inspector Gadget and James Bond, you were dead on.
Speaker 3: Yeah you think so?
Speaker 2: Yeah? All right, So that's about it. If you want
Speaker 2: to know more about James Bond, Like I said, there
Speaker 2: are three, at least three really good websites for all
Speaker 2: things Bond fans, you can check out our website by
Speaker 2: taping James Bond brings up a bunch of stuff in
Speaker 2: the handy search bar and now, if you can believe it,
Speaker 2: it is time for listener mail.
Speaker 3: Yes, Josh, I'm gonna call this samurai stuff from Thomas Guys.
Speaker 3: I'm a total samurai geek. I practiced Japanese sword based
Speaker 3: martial arts kindo and ayido. I've read all this material
Speaker 3: about samurai and your podcast was a very good introduction,
Speaker 3: and I thank you for it. However, I am kind
Speaker 3: of surprised you did not mention the greatest Samurai of
Speaker 3: all time, Miyamoto Musashi. This guy was the epitome of
Speaker 3: everything samurai were supposed to be. A dedicated soyvant, a poet,
Speaker 3: a painter, a calligrapher, philosopher, a general, and an all
Speaker 3: round butt kicking killer. Not only did he write the
Speaker 3: Book of Five Rings, he also killed sixty men in
Speaker 3: single combat before age forty, not to mention all the
Speaker 3: guys he killed in warfare. At one point in your
Speaker 3: podcast you talked about the wooden katana called kung in Japanese. Yes,
Speaker 3: it was a practice sword, Josh, but it was also
Speaker 3: a weapon in its own right. Because Japan is such
Speaker 3: a wet climate, swords were sometimes destroyed by rust. Bucan
Speaker 3: were cheap and easy to replace, and Musashi was famous
Speaker 3: for winning some of his greatest battles with the wooden sword.
Speaker 3: Ow I know, can you imagine.
Speaker 2: Dude ow Go being smacked to death?
Speaker 3: Well, he says instead of cutting someone's heads off, he
Speaker 3: would brain them, which I guess means like you crack
Speaker 3: their skull, yeah, until their brains come out. Also, he
Speaker 3: was a big fan of using two swords at one time,
Speaker 3: sometimes two katana, sometimes the short and the long. Whatever
Speaker 3: it took to do the job. You guys, Rocket love
Speaker 3: your show. I'm grateful for the Samurai show from Thomas.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you Thomas for the extra information. As I said,
Speaker 2: we are always interested in knowing everything we possibly can
Speaker 2: about a subject. So if you have anything to tell
Speaker 2: us about James Bond that we missed, that we got wrong,
Speaker 2: that we need to know, we want to hear it,
Speaker 2: wrap it up and send it in any don't forget
Speaker 2: to spank it on a bottom and maybe serve it
Speaker 2: a dry martini shaken not stirred. Address it too. Stuff
Speaker 2: podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com.
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