What were your reactions when you first learned about this event in history?

It was new to me, um, as I think it will be new to most people.

But the reasons behind it and the after effects and the kind of the way it shaped where we are in the media, I think ... are still being felt.

I mean, this was a story about kind of what journalism meant in the 1970s to people, and what getting your story out and telling your story really could, you could do.

Can you each give me a story of shooting in the winter in Winnipeg and how you felt about it? [laughs]

The, the greatest illustration of it was at some point somebody told us, they said, "Okay, guys, we did it.

It's the coldest place on the planet today.

It's colder here than it is at the North Pole." Uh, and you could tell when, when the Winnipeggers were like-

This was not a story that I was familiar with until the podcast came out.

Nor was I.

And I grew up in the 70s in the Midwest.

I mean, this took place in Indianapolis in 1977.

I grew up in St. Louis, just one state over.

And it was not on my radar, as it were, but it was a big deal.

And it was kind of one of the first times in... our kind of news culture where something was happening live and it was something that could potentially have very very terrible a very terrible outcome and it was being broadcast live even though it was broadcast on the radio and that kind of was the presaged all of the the 24-hour news cycles and all the other things that started happening relatively soon after that

almost

Your thoughts on the game of baseball?

Well, I'll tell you something.

My dear friends, the Sklar brothers, who you guys may know and may have talked to, from Cheap Seats fame and Parkway North fame, I don't know if we're going to really get granular about St. Louis.

Go Vikings.

They sent me a clip from TikTok or something.

I don't have any of that stuff, so I had to go online to even access it.

But it was a play from, I think, 1984, 85 of Ozzie Smith's Getting to a ball deep in the hole, full extension, diving out, catching the ball from his knees, popping up, throwing across the diamond to Jack Clark and making the put out.

My question to you is what do people outside of St. Louis and say about St. Louis? What are we known for? What is our brand and how do we enhance that so we can continue to be better?

Am I correct in saying that?

Yeah, I mean, Giovanni and I have both worked in this industry quite a few years, and I've never done a scene like that.

Normally, you would record my side of the phone call, and then you would move all the cameras over to his apartment and record his side.

Three weeks later.

Or three weeks later, and you go, how did he say that? And what was he doing? And I don't remember.

I wasn't even there on the day.

This is Fred Heckman speaking.

As was the actual event,

Did you go to a playoff game? I went

to the game they lost.

Oh.

I think I've been to three or four Knicks games during that playoff run, and I believe they lost every one of them.

So I don't know if I'm the team's kryptonite, but what have you.

There was 17,000 other people in that stadium as well, including some of the ones that were there when they won.

I was, in fact, there.

And then Joe was on, what, a day or two ago, John, and said, you have this ridiculous memory that allows you to just dominate things like Jeopardy.

Or do you just lock in on one?

I, I actually do have another project that'll come out in September on MGM+.

That's, uh, uh, another streaming platform.

It's called American Hostage, and it's a true crime story about a situation that took place in Indianapolis in the '70s, where a disgruntled guy took, uh, his bank manager hostage for 60-some odd days.

And, and he called into the radio, the news, the newsman on the radio, played by me, and, uh, and, uh, vented his grievances, rather profanely in fact, over live radio for the, for the two and a half days that he had the guy hostage.

So, uh, it's a, it's a gripping, fantastic, bizarre, s- uh, limited series, one and done.

Um, but it'll be out in September.

When did you two hit it off? Was it through every- s- with Joe, everything seems to go through Paul Rudd at some point, but you've known Joe for what, 30-plus years?

And then Joe was on, what, a day or two ago, John, and said, you have this ridiculous memory that allows you to just dominate things like Jeopardy.

I tell you, I was very pleased with my performance on the show.

There is one hiccup.

Listen, I'll give you the big backstory about Jeopardy.

And the knowledge is one major part of it, obviously.

And just having that ridiculous memory for arcane things about the sports we all love.

That's one thing.

joe says you crushed it obviously you guys are in similar circle when did you two hit it off was it through every with joe everything seems to go through paul rudd at some point but you've known joe for what 30 plus years

More importantly, uh, but as you're filming Friends and Neighbors, what, what's next down the road? Are there any projects you can tell, like, how do you balance it? Are you doing a movie here and there or do you just lock in on one?

Well, I, I, I actually do have another project that'll come out in September on MGM+.

That's, uh, a- another streaming platform.

It's called American Hostage, and it's a true crime story about a situation that took place in Indianapolis in the '70s, where a disgruntled guy took, uh, his bank manager hostage for 60 some odd days and, and he called into the radio, the news, the newsman on the radio played by me, and, uh, and, uh, vented his grievances, rather profanely, in fact, over live radio for the, for the two and a half days that he had the guy hostage.

So, uh, it's a, it's a gripping, fantastic, bizarre, s- uh, limited series, one and done.

Um, but it'll be out in September.

I'm gonna go to Toronto, the Toronto Film Festival to, to launch that and promote that early September.

But you've known Joe for what? 30-plus years?

What's the, what was the experience like?

It's great.

Uh, every time we work together it's great.

It's why we keep doing it.

It's probably our s- fourth or fifth time we've done something together.

I mean, I'm speaking for myself obviously.

My father might have a different impression of it, but, uh-

Do you like R.E.M.?

Visit carters.com to shop the latest styles or find a Carter's store near you.

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Jon, I believe you popped up in the 10, David's second movie? Is that correct?

That's

me.

For sure.

For sure.

And I think it comes back, especially for Coop, to family.

And when that, you know, a big part of the beginning of the show of kind of where we started was that his family is upended, right? And there's this massive upheaval in his life.

And so when that's compounded with what happens in his job and his professional life, then he's truly without kind of a compass, moral or otherwise.

I mean, it's

I read the book back

in the 90s when I was a kid, and I thought...

The same way I thought about American Gods.

I was like, man, this would be such a cool movie that they will never make because it's impossible to do.

And now in the world we live where you can make a six-hour movie and call it a limited series, you can do that.

And, you know, it's a...

How we have grown as storytellers and the tools at our disposal at this point, and the tools for getting it in front of people.

And I've never sustained through, you know... five years or something so this this just feels like it feels like home really you know with with the budget and the talents for a movie but it's stretched out over a lovely nice bouncy period of time and you get to grips with it

True, you're very serious in Mad Men.

I mean, yes.

So when Lauren asked me to host the show, I was like, oh my God, that's the only thing I've ever wanted to do since I was, since ever, was be on Saturday Night Live.

So I was very excited.

And then as we discussed, you guys, very welcoming, here we are, everyone's in costume, it's very funny.

you know, read through that week is a packet of 50.

I think you were right next to me.

They better have given you that for free.

[laughs]

This is very weird.

And I picked it up.

I was like, "Hello? Hello? Uh, is this Jon?" I go, "Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Hi.

It's Robert Carlock.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

That was a, that was a [laughs] early, early tricky thing for people to...

So but A&E, tell me about that.

I was like, "I- it sounds great.

I-- we're not on it," but I...

Um, but, uh, th- two things about the sort of relatively slow growth of Mad Men was that, yes, as soon as the, the, the world at large saw it, people were very excited about it, and especially excited to talk about it and, and really kind of...

Uh, it was at the...

Where was your head at and, like, in terms of where your career was right before it and reconciling the fame and accomplishment that came-

Having done this show now two seasons, does it make you question all of your neighbors around you? Are you starting to think that maybe your neighbors in real life just aren't the way they seem?

Nothing nefarious.

I think that, you know, nobody really knows what goes on behind closed doors.

I think we've got quite a few examples of that in popular culture and if not in our personal lives.

But I like my neighbors.

I'm very friendly with all of them.

I'm also very respectful.

What is a bigger flex, being movie and TV star Jon Hamm or viral meme star Jon Hamm? And did you know what a meme was before you were a meme?

[cheering]

Tricky, tricky, uh, manifestations of behavior there.

I'm not, uh, I'm not so sure how you mentally do the flip-flops that are required to make that make sense in your head, but, uh, uh, having just met Sierra, I think she's a great gal, and she will certainly end up on her feet, uh, with all of this nonsense happening.

Yeah

... 'cause it wasn't, that wasn't the original song.

We didn't, that's, that was, somebody did that on the internet.

And, uh, I guess the guy that made that song is some, like, Scandinavian DJ who's now had a, a bit of a second, uh, career out of it.

Yeah.

And so that's what happens sometimes when you get on stage or when you get on set and the lights are on and things are ready, and the whatever's going.

I remember one of the first movies I ever did was called We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson and, uh, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, a bunch of, cast of thousands.

It was great.

Vietnam War movie.

Really, really cool.

And we had this one, this one setup, uh, that was the whole day.

Yeah.

Yeah

...

Matthew Weiner, the creator, and Scott Hornbacher, their producer.

They were coming out, and they were s- "Just act like you got the job.

Act like you got the job." I was like, "Then just give me the job."

Um, this is-

So, so the idea, uh, the idea of Hoppers is that you can jump into the mind of an animal, in this, in this case, uh, beavers and whatnot.

They're saving nature.

Yeah.

I, I went to a really excellent high school, the aforementioned John Burroughs High School in St. Louis, Missouri, and we had, like, crazy...

You know, we were encouraged to try everything, so it was, like, arts and sports and, and academics, and everybody was sort of encouraged to achieve and do well, and, and that sort of was the ethos of the whole joint.

So, you know, you didn't have to be good at it, but you had to try, and-

Hmm.

Uh, and, and as in most high school productions, there were, you know, 35 roles, and they split up roles, and you would, you would do half a song.

And, um, with the exception of m- me, who played Judas, and the, uh, the kid who played Jesus.

So, um, yeah, you know, it was, it was fun and exciting, and it was, you know, it was something to do, and it, it just, it was encouraged, so-

When it comes to honors, do you have an award, a category that you think people are going to gasp audibly at when you are a part of announcing?

That is a good question.

I mean, here's the thing about this season.

It was so...

It was so haphazard.

I mean, I think if anybody had bet that the Seahawks and the Patriots at the beginning of the season, they probably would be in for a big payout.

It felt in many ways like a changing of the guard.

As a man who's had a brush or two in the advertising world, do you have a theme of a Super Bowl commercial that you mark as some of your favorites?

It's an incredible show.

Well, first of all, thank you.

I tell you what happened.

When the show dropped in the beginning of April, I had just come out.

We had a week's worth of press to come out to do the first week in April in New York City.

It just happened to coincide with not only my wife's birthday, but also the week I was hosting Saturday Night Live.

I started hosting SNL on Monday, premieres on Tuesday, the same day as my wife's birthday.

But movie-wise, a lot of times you play, like, Agents or authority figures when you talk about that, we've mentioned the town bad times at El Royale, which is underrated Top Gun Richard Jewell But when you've talked about baby driver you kind of play like a CD kind of scummy criminals I kind of nice to break free and movies of like, you know having to you know have a badge on and be You know kind of seedy and nasty

That's it.

And we s- and he goes, "Perfect, that's it.

That's done," and I think he and Mulaney had written the sketch together, so I can't remember who wrote it with him.

But, um, but then we did that, like...

And again, it was...

That was at, like, yeah, 10:45, so, you know, we're all up in Lorne's office like, "So, uh, uh, John's gonna do, uh, is it James Mason? Okay, John's gonna...

That's gonna change from Dean Martin to Ja- so get out all the cards." None of the lines changed.

It is.

Cora.

Actually, we didn't, we didn't have to put her down.

She ended up dying in her sleep, but at c- a certain point, we had to, you know, kind of wrap her up and take her away to get cremated and all the other stuff.

So, we had a, a, an end-of-life kind of veterinarian that had been with her and given her all this, like, acupuncture and stuff over the course of her, of her later part of her life.

While this woman is taking my dog, who passed away peacefully in the night-

Yeah.

And then I knew I was gonna... uh, I was happy that I was getting all the opportunities to do so many great sketches.

And as everybody knows, like, you know, table is five hours long, and it was a long table, it was jam packed with awesome stuff, and it was hard to pick the show.

Yeah.

I think I still had a Missouri driver's license.

which was a way to get around kind of paying the California DMV, however much money, blah, blah, blah.

It's a pain.

And Preston and I shared this car that was, it was a convertible VW.

But the fact that it was a convertible was in name only, because you would put the roof up and the roof was just shredded.

And the driver's seat was held up by a piece of wood that wedged in like that.

What most sticks out to you from the actual experience of filming there? It's just sensory