WEBVTT - Cemetery at Midnight 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:06.040 I remember it being very surreal and asking myself several 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:08.840 times in the course of the meeting, is this really happening? 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:09.120 Now? 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:11.520 There are a couple of things that we should point 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.520 out here. Thirty years is a long time. Three decades 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:16.840 is a long time, and so I think we have 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.320 most of the details of what happened and what was said, 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.319 or at least the area it was said, maybe either 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:25.800 a little bit out of order because I didn't write 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.120 anything down that day I went back to work, but 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.080 I do know that we did ask for some identification, 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:35.040 and what was so weird about the meeting? We asked 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:38.280 for identification and we get told if the deal comes together, 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:41.640 then you'll get it. And I remember thinking that's just 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.240 so crazy. How can we make a deal with somebody 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.279 that won't tell us who they are? But it just 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.640 made no sense. And we went back and forth on 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.360 that enough that I think you and I probably had 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.760 one of those knowing glances exchanged where we thought, Okay, 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.840 let's just go with it. The guy's not going to 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.200 tell us right now. I said something else, by the way, 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.280 early on in the meeting that I thought was odd, 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:07.400 and maybe it was JC, but somebody said that they 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.680 had done some preliminary background checks on it, which was 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.760 so strange, but they implied that they were preliminary and 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:15.959 that the real thing would happen if we agreed to 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.920 make a deal. They were really going to look into us, 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.720 which also is deeply uncomfortable, saying a guy that won't 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:26.360 tell you his name is going to do a serious 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.360 background check on you. Listen at that point, but you're 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.600 probably thinking, what about the Harrington story. I'm thinking about 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:34.800 if you do a background checker, you got to call 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:36.960 everybody I went to college with. That's not going to 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.040 be a good look for me. And in fact, I 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:41.360 remember the guy that was called the Captain even act 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:43.640 of like, yeah, you probably won't pass that. He was 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:47.360 just so diffident, he was just so snarky. We were 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.040 told by this Captain character, don't ask us any more 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.720 about dates or places. That's not what this meeting is about. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.720 And that happened. And we also brought up the idea 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:00.920 because again, if you're going to say you've got a 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.760 lot of things right, we're thinking about jfk Ann Roswell. 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:08.080 So we query them about that relationship between these two things. 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:10.920 And as I was thinking about this last week prepping 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.120 for this brand, I remembered very clearly that this guy 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.560 cut us off and he said two words, not today. 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.240 Let me give you some pro arguments for taking a 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.040 deal with these guys. At the time, we thought access 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.680 obviously could give us more authenticity for the show. We 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.560 were idealistic. Potentially we thought, wow, if this actually is 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.279 on the level, we might actually help facilitate real disclosure, 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.720 which was positive. And also given that, as we talked 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.920 about in a previous episode, we started the whole cover 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.760 of fiction thing. The idea that somebody would want to 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:46.640 come to us with a desire to use cover of 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:50.480 fiction wasn't as unreasonable as you might think. But I 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:54.400 think the main argument pro was we'll finally get to 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:56.840 know what's really going on, We'll get the truth. That 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:58.040 was seemed to be the promise. 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.200 I think the negatives were primarily that it felt like 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.320 we would be losing control of the narrative. At what 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.800 I mean by that is we had a show, we 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.079 had a vision for the show. We had the network 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.519 on board, the studio on board, we had stories broken, 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.639 scripts written, and these guys being put in charge they 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.840 had certainly the captain made it quite clear that if 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.160 we were in business with him, he was going to 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.600 tell us what was going to happen. He was going 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.320 to be the showrunner in some sense of the word. 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.440 And I think that was terrifying, that sense that loss 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.960 of control. I think another thing that we talked about 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.080 and we had to take seriously was, Okay, these guys 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:44.080 are saying this is the truth. They're saying they're the heroes, right, 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:46.800 and we're going to be on their side and disclose 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.600 to the people. Again, they were giving us the pitch 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.040 of us being low and guard and dark skies, let's 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.240 get the truth out to the people. So that was enticing, 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.640 But we also did consider, but what if all of 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.320 this is a syop? What if all of this is lie? 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.320 What if all of this is disinformation? And so that 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.600 idea that we could be end up taking a deal, 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.840 lose control of the show, and only to be being 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:13.720 used as part of a disinformation campaign was pretty disgusting. 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:35.320 I'm Bryce Sable. Have you ever wondered if there's a 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.239 secret connection between Hollywood and UFOs? And I'm Brent Friedman. 0:04:39.320 --> 0:05:47.440 You are listening to sound, light and frequency. 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.279 All right. What we're going to be talking about today 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.599 is the second beat, if you will, of what happened 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:30.400 after JC crashed the Dark Sky's premiere party. And I 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.160 know that some people think, but you don't have to 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.200 refresh our memories on that. We got it. We've listened 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.920 to your previous episodes. But the thing is so many 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.520 new people are coming to this podcast that a little 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.080 bit of refreshment has to happen just to set the stage. 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.000 So here's the least I feel like you need to 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.360 know about this. We're talking about the events that happened 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.800 during the NBC series Dark Skies that we created. And 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.600 in our very first episode of this podcast, we told 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.480 you the story about a guy named JC who crashed 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.800 our premiere party, told us he'd seen the series, said 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:05.600 he was from the Office of Naval Intelligence and that 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.640 we did things pretty well and they wanted to make 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.640 a deal with us. That's your backstory. Do I need 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:12.080 any more? 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:12.320 Is that? 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:15.200 Okay, there's a little thing called the formula thrown in there, 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:17.760 but that's not relevant right now. Yeah, it is relevant 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.360 in that people would say, Okay, let's see the formula, 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.599 which we are getting to. We even have a date 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.040 for it. We're going to be putting it out there 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:29.400 on the literal thirtieth anniversary episode of this September seventeenth, 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.360 the twenty twenty six you will see the formula and 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.360 hear our panel talk about it. But the other thing 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.800 we're going to promise you is we are going to 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.360 tell you what the deal was, what we thought about it, 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.440 and what action we took about it. So all right, 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:46.800 I guess what you could say is what seemed like 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:51.920 a bizarre one night encounter suddenly became this organized, deliberate, 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.840 and harder to dismiss storyline. Brett, I don't know how 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.840 else to say it, because we basically saw JC go 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.000 off into the shadows at that dark Sky's party, and 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:07.440 we went to the office two days later, which was 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.120 our warehouse in North Hollywood. And I don't even remember 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.760 if we've told this before, Stop me if I had, 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.720 But this production facility was actually a warehouse in North 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.320 Hollywood that had been a place dedicated to making porn movies. 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:22.600 Did we ever say that. 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.760 We haven't said that, but yes, and I remember that 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.880 we discovered that when there was a really interesting little 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.400 treasure trove of stuff in the office bathroom. 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:34.840 You used, Okay, all right, this at least starts with 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.760 a little bit of humor and degradation. So I was 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:43.000 an executive producer of the show, and offices were given 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.720 and I got this nice, big office, and I was 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.120 pretty happy with it, and had worked there several weeks. 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:51.640 We did know that it had been used for making 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.240 porn movies, but there was really no reason to know 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:57.800 that other than somebody had told us when they rented 0:07:57.840 --> 0:07:59.920 it to us. And on the way to the bath 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.480 through them there were a number of what would you 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:07.120 call it, just cabinets, cabinets, that's the word cabinet up above. 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.440 So in fact, nobody had ever looked in them because 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.480 they were so high up. And I didn't have a 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.440 ladder or anything, and I had other things to do, 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:16.960 as did you. And I remember one day one of 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.360 our assistants had a ladder and I said, bring that 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.320 in here, let's see whatever. And we opened it up 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:26.720 and Brent there were hundreds of the most graphic porn 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.440 magazines I've ever seen, not with titles like Playboy and 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.840 things like that. Now, those are nice. These were pretty 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.960 radical porn magazines. And I said to the assistant, oh man, 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.120 you got to get these out of here, right, So 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.559 make these disappear as I believed the mandate that he 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.880 was given. And later that afternoon, somebody came and said, 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:48.880 oh my god, have you seen what's out by the 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:53.000 garbage cans? And apparently our assistant had left them, just 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.600 left them out there, and when people said what are these, 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.600 he said, They're from Bryce's office office. Yeah, so that 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:01.800 was the office that a lot of this stuff went 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:03.560 down in, which gives it a little bit of a 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:07.560 humorous angle. But the point is we went to that office, 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.439 our production facility the monday after this Dark Sky's party 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:15.560 where this JC character had shown up, and I know 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.240 that we had received the formula that was written on 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.000 the back of a bank envelope, and that's the thing 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:23.600 we'll be talking about in future episodes, or at least 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:25.920 showing people. And we went in with it and we 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:30.160 showed it to certain people anyway, So this was strange. However, 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.200 we had to keep moving on with our lives, right, 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.559 there's a show to produce. We had obviously just debuted. 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.800 All eyes were honest, the network, the studio, everybody's looking 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.360 at ratings and discussing whether we were had the right thing, 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.079 and we were shooting in our next episode Up was 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.400 about Roswell and JFK in the aftermath of the assassination, 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.280 where literally our main character John Longard goes to Dallas, 0:09:56.400 --> 0:10:01.360 Texas and talks to Jesse Marcel Roswell. Yeah wow, I know. 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.520 Crazy, so against all of that, basically business as usual 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.160 on a primetime TV series. I was getting messages from 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.840 my assistant Adam saying JC called. 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:12.319 Now. 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.480 He had given us his card at the party and 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.720 if you remember, it said simply J dot C dot 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:19.960 with a three to one zero number. 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:21.280 We did not call him. 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.360 We had other things to do. I don't think we'd 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.040 made a decision one way or another what we wanted 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.679 to do, but we certainly weren't taking action upon it. 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:34.040 But he was quite aggressive after the party in following 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.840 up several times, and at some point, probably by the 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.120 third or fourth time, I got a message that JC 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:43.000 was calling from Adam. I went and took the call, 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.880 and he made some sort of quip about your hard 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.200 man to get on the phone or something along those lines, 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:51.640 but was still pretty friendly and said, Hey, we want 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:53.840 to follow up, and I hope you guys had some 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:55.439 time to think about it, and we'd love to have 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:58.360 another meeting, and I am being asked to bring a 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.000 superior to this next meet so we can get into 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.199 a little bit more details and see if we can 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.120 close this thing up. And I thought, okay, but we're busy, 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:07.880 and he said, okay, so we're going to be there 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.520 tomorrow at three o'clock and we'll see you. 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:11.880 Then I was like hold on. 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.480 All of a sudden, it was like click, and next 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.079 thing I knew he was coming to the office. And 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.640 I remember with a little dread, having to come and 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.079 tell you, Oh, I just made a meeting with JC 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.400 and his superior to talk further about the deal, and. 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:27.839 How are you here to tell you? And I think 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.520 we both felt the same way. The pressure of doing 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.000 a television series, especially in the days right after your premiere, 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:37.280 is ungodly. What people have to understand is not only 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:39.160 do you have a show on the air, you have 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.080 shows that are still being written. You have shows that 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.120 are going into pre production. You have a show in production, 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:47.920 you have a first cut of something that needs to 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.800 be looked at. You have a show that needs to 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.400 air in ten days or something. So you just have 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.040 so many things going on. I can't tell you that 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:58.960 I wasn't interested. I'm not going to say I didn't 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:01.360 want to meet with the guy. I was curious. First 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:03.880 of all, the most real thing about him coming to 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.440 our party is he had actually seen our pilot, So yeah, 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:09.560 you kind of wanted to know more, just as a 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.440 human being who's got curiosity, and me being a guy 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.599 that came out of journalism, I was like, yeah, I 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:19.800 want to take this guy's assessment. So listen, you and 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.920 I were and are both veteran writers who've gone to 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.280 our share of pitches, and we've been exposed to egos 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.240 like you can't believe in strange Hollywood personalities. All of 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.520 that is certainly true, but this was a meeting unlike 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.040 anything I've had. 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:36.920 I know, we were trying to figure out how do 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.440 you prepare for this? And ultimately, I think all we 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.960 came up with was, look, let's make an agreement between 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:45.760 the two of us. We're not going to commit to 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.000 anything in the room. We're going to hear them out. 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.360 We're not going to say yes or no to the deal. 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:52.360 Whatever happens, We're just going to hear them out. 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:52.880 And that was it. 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:54.600 And I think that was, aside from a lot of 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:56.800 angst and probably not a good night's sleep for on 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.439 either of our parts. That was about all the preparation 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.240 we could really do for that meeting. So let's set 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:05.079 the stage physically for this thing. So aside from the 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:09.200 colorful detail of cabinets full of porn magazines, next to 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.160 that office was a conference room. And this conference room, 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:13.880 like a lot of them, it was down a hallway, 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.720 but it was adjacent to my office and frankly just 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:18.880 around the corner from yours. You and I were very 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:21.760 close together, and it had a big, clear window, and 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.160 so we knew two things. We knew that everyone would 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.200 be able to see that we were meeting with somebody, 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.720 so if something really untoward was happening, people would see 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:31.520 it totally. 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:36.160 Yes, yeah. But we also knew that we had security 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.120 at the production offices, and so we were able to 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.880 tell our security guys, Hey, some people say they're coming 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:44.800 in this afternoon. We'd like you to pay extra special 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.920 attention and stand menacingly outside the conference room if at 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.000 all possible. So they did, and these guys showed up 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.880 promptly on time. JC and I guess we have to 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.920 discuss what the other guy looked like. I'll let you 0:13:58.960 --> 0:13:59.719 take a crack at. 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.800 That so as a refresher, or if you're new to sound, 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:07.280 light and frequency. JC himself was we are saying around thirty. 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.120 He looked slightly handsome. He looked like a cross between 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.640 a frat boy and a young military man, and very 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.000 pleasant in his demeanor. The same cannot be said for 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:18.920 the person that we will now refer to as the captain. 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.440 The captain came in all badass. He had the demeanor 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.520 of a drill sergeant, and we were the grunts and 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:30.640 he came in. He was much more physically imposing than JC. 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:33.720 He had on if I remember a Navy bomber jacket 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.520 with all sorts of insignias and patches and things, but 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.160 I think just casual pants. He wasn't in full uniform, 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:42.160 I guess is what I'm saying. 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.200 I had jeans on, because one detail I remember is 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.040 he wore boots, and I had forgotten this detail. But 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.200 they weren't boots that were scuffed up with cowdong or anything. 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.000 They seemed to be lightly dusted with sand or something. 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.160 I just remember. They weren't cleanly polished. They were sandy. 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.960 Yeah, had the real feel of an off duty He 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.760 came in and there wasn't any real chit chat. It 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.600 was we got right down to business. And the one 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.600 thing I want to frame this with is the whole meeting, 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.400 from my point of view, had a good cop bad 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.200 cop quality to it. Clearly, JC, who was the one 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.800 that first made contact with us, was the good cop, 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:22.880 and he was the one who was always trying to 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.040 lighten the situation throughout this meeting or get it back 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:30.480 on track, whereas the Captain clearly embraced the bad cop 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:32.640 role in many ways which will lay out. 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.880 People have asked, who were these guys? What were their names? 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.600 Did you see their idea or whatever? We did ask 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.000 for their names this time. I think we were both 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:44.360 taken aback at the party and probably not thinking with 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.720 all our critical faculties, but we had a little time 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.080 and forewarning about this one. The one detail I wanted 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:51.640 to just add to that is I don't know that 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:53.880 we actually in the meeting called them the captain. I 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:56.520 think was introduced as the captain and we never called 0:15:56.560 --> 0:16:00.400 them by anything. But I do remember thinking very strongly 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.600 that he reminded me of the Navy seal. He looked 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.000 like what you'd expect whereas JC was slight, not a 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:09.480 whimp or anything like that, but a normal guy. 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.280 If I had to assess them, I'd say that JC 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:18.320 gave off intelligence officer vibes and the captain was clearly 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:19.280 a military man. 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.640 Yeah, keep those two things in mind, folks, because what 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:24.640 we're about to tell you is what went on in 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.280 this meeting that in my remembrance about an hour and 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:29.920 a half. Does that sound about right to you? Yes, 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.080 And it went by rather quickly. I remember it being 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:37.760 very surreal and asking myself several times in the course 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.000 of the meeting, is this really happening? Now, there are 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.600 a couple of things that we should point out here. 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.400 Thirty years is a long time. Three decades is a 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.520 long time, and so I think we have most of 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.480 the details of what happened and what was said, or 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.080 at least the area it was said. Maybe either a 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.840 little bit out of order because I didn't write anything 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:58.880 down that day I went back to work, but I 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.200 do know that we'd did ask for some identification, and 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:05.359 this was what was so weird about the meeting. We 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.160 asked for identification, and we get told if the deal 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.679 comes together, then you'll get it. And I remember thinking 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.360 that's just so crazy. How can we make a deal 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:16.600 with somebody that won't tell us who they are. It 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.119 just made no sense. And we went back and forth 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:22.760 on that enough that I think you and I probably 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.359 had one of those knowing glances exchanged where we thought, Okay, 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.439 let's just go with it. The guy's not going to 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:31.800 tell us right now. He said something else, by the way, 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.879 early on in the meeting that I thought was odd, 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.000 and maybe it was JC, but somebody said that they 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.240 had done some preliminary background checks on it, which was 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.359 so strange. But they implied that they were preliminary and 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:46.560 that the real thing would happen if we agreed to 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:49.479 make a deal. They were really going to look into us, 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:54.280 which also is deeply uncomfortable, saying a guy that won't 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:56.960 tell you his name is going to do a serious 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.679 background check on you. Listen at that point, probably thinking 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.760 what about the Harrington story. I'm thinking about if you 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:05.919 do a background checker, you've got to call everybody I 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:07.760 went to college with. That's not going to be a 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.119 good look for me. And in fact, I remember the 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:12.680 guy that was called the Captain even acted like, yeah, 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.160 you probably won't pass that. He was just so diffident. 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:17.159 He was just so snarky. 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.760 He did give off this energy of why do I 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.359 have to be here? I felt like JC and he 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:26.960 were told go back and have a meeting with these 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:29.920 guys and figure out if they're for if there were 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.280 going to do this or not. And the Captain probably 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.040 rolled his eyes and said you could just tell he 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:37.680 did not respect Hollywood. He didn't want to be there, 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.200 and he had very little confidence in us. 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.480 It seemed to be whereas JAC seemed like he was there, 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:47.040 but he was clearly outranked. So as we get into this, 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.040 there were questions that were asked, etc. But they weren't 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.359 answered by j C first ever. It was either the 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.399 captain either said something or he dismissed it, and then 0:18:56.520 --> 0:19:00.720 JAC said something, but let's throw something of subst's out there, 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.000 I believe. In the late eighties, there was a TV 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.440 documentary called UFO Cover Up Live, and that's the one 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:11.280 people famously remembered because there were some shadow interviews from 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:13.880 people supposedly on the cover up and they were talking 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:18.800 about having an extraterrestrial biological entity and custody that famously 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:23.880 liked strawberry ice cream okay, which a very specific thing. Okay, 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:27.400 And there's a whole background on UFO cover Up Live 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:28.960 that we don't have time to go into. Let's just 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.280 say that we knew that had happened because it was 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.760 about five six years prior to this meeting we're having 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.600 at Dark Skies. But one of the things that UFO 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:41.440 cover Up did is it introduced the concept of the Aviary, 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.240 which was a faction of the Air Force. Correct not 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.960 too subtle aviary birds flying around. But where it got 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:53.120 weird for us and why we invoked that is these 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:55.520 guys said that they were part of the aquarium. 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:01.000 Yes, and the implication was obviously Aquarium, Navy, AVI Air Force. 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:05.719 The implication that they put forward to us was that 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:09.479 the Aquarium were the good guys. They were the people 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:13.159 trying to working for disclosure, coming out, making deals with 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.919 people in Hollywood to slow drip the truth through the 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.960 media and condition people give them a soft landing, all 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:24.439 of those euphemisms. Whereas the Air Force wanted the cover up, 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:28.639 was definitely actively working to keep things covered up, and 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.720 we didn't get into the specifics of why. I think 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.000 in the intervening years, there's talk that there's more of 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:39.320 a religious viewpoint of the phenomenon and aliens and everything 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.000 in the Air Force, and so they wanted to keep 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.159 it secret. Whatever the case may be, it was clear 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.800 that JC and the Captain were presenting themselves as the 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:51.680 good guys in this battle, and they wanted to recruit 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:58.840 us to be part of the good team. 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.240 In fairness, I have to tell you, over the years, 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.720 where I've told partial tidbits of this story or at 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:08.520 least ask people, I do remember multiple people when I 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.000 said aquarium they kind of laughed like that was funny 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:15.760