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DINNER FOR FIVE is no more

post #1 of 14
3/18/06 at 4:30pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Alas, all good things must come to an end. The marriage between IFC and Dinner For Five is officially over. Between IFC's mission statement to do more scripted programming and my complete and utter lack of time, it seems fated that the show is no longer.

There is, however, some good news. The show itself belongs to me and not the network. This means that it may pop up somewhere else. I'm not hinting at anything. There are no plans to do so. I'm just saying it's possible. Peter B is busy producing The Break Up and I'm working hard developing John Carter of Mars. We do speak about the show on a regular basis and are batting around ideas about what, if anything, to do. I must admit that both of us are so busy doing movies right now that pushing the Dinner For Five rock up the hill one more time seems rather daunting. We do love it, though, and would love to see it continue in some manner. Four seasons and I would argue that we never jumped the shark. Not to mention the Emmy nomination. Not a bad way to go out.

I would like to thank all of our viewers so much for watching and supporting this little show and helping to establish it as a small but important footnote in our industry. Not everyone liked the show, but those who did liked it a lot.

As for DinnerForFive.com, that's over as well. For any future updates on the show, you can check in at my MySpace site. The link is http://www.myspace.com/jonfavreau

Thank you, once again. It was a great ride.

Jon
I really enjoyed this show. There were some great stories told by the guests.
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post #2 of 14
3/18/06 at 5:01pm
I loved the episode with Billy Bob Thornton. He made everyone but Peter Berg seem extremely uncomfortable. I enjoyed the show only because it was something different. *Dumps malt liquor onto sidewalk*
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post #3 of 14
3/18/06 at 5:46pm
That Thornton episode was great, especially when he was talking about a film he didn't mention by name (though I know it's called THE BADGE) and the experiences he had with the first-time director.

This is a show I've been devouring the reruns of lately and have truly been enjoying. One of my favorites was with Michael Chiklis in which he talked about the hard time he went through after making the Belushi biopic WIRED.

It's weird how I felt like I knew more about the guests on "Dinner For Five" then I did after seeing someone interviewed in a traditional one-on-one format.
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post #4 of 14
3/18/06 at 7:29pm
I had to drop digital cable, and didn't get to see the later episodes. I hope they're going to come out on DVD; Netflix only has season one.

My favorite had to be the one with Richard Lewis and Dom DeLuise. Favreau actually seemed to stop breathing for a minute he was laughing so hard. I also really liked hearing Carrie Fisher and Ed Begley Jr reminisce about their fucked up days with John Belushi.
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post #5 of 14
3/19/06 at 1:35pm
Thread Starter 
One of my favorite episodes was the one with Peter Berg when he told the story about the location scouting in the jungles of South America for The Rundown. The location manager, one of the producers and Berg were approached at gunpoint in the Amazon and just barely got away from their predicament.

He also told a funny story about how Christopher Walken got so upset once they were actually filming in Hawaii. He said Walken would explode with anger, as the script was being rewritten constantly during production and he was angry because he wanted to actually learn some lines. Berg did a hilarious, expletive-laced Walken impersonation.

Another one of my favorite episodes was where Burt Reynolds appeared with Dom DeLuise, Charles Nelson Reilly and Charles Durning. They were reminiscing about the good ol' days and DeLuise was ever the clown. He was goofing off throughout the episode and it just showcased how "in the moment" he was around these men. Reynolds appeared more than once on the show and told some fantastic stories, including the casting of one of his old friends as one of the mountain men in Deliverance.

Here's a recap of that tale from the IMDb:

Quote:
When director John Boorman was having trouble finding a talented actor who was also toothless for a key role in Deliverance, co-star Burt Reynolds remembered Coward from having worked with him in a Wild West show at the now-closed GHOST TOWN theme park in Maggie Valley, NC. Coward - who was not an actor and was toothless and illiterate - arrived for his audition looking so perfect for the part of a rural mountain man that Boorman first thought Reynolds had prompted him on how to dress.

When director John Boorman explained to Coward that one of the things his character was going to do was to rape a man, Coward replied, "I've done worse."
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post #6 of 14
3/19/06 at 1:52pm
One of my favorites has to be the one with Denis Leary, David Cross, Martha Plimpton, and Famke Janssen in New York City. Cross tells a great joke about how the "twelve jewish bankers in the vault" are pissed that the mega-corporations taking over. Plimpton tells some great stories about working on 'Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle' (which Favreau was also in) and how everyone had to watch dallies together, which was borrowed from Altman. I thought that was a really interesting fact and I've done similar things on smaller projects. I learned a lot about filmmaking--the nuts and bolts of it--from this show.

My other favorite episode has Kevin Smith, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell, and Ben Affleck. Affleck semeed much more natural and charismatic than he is onscreen, and does a great Harvey Weinstein impression. Farrell smokes and drinks and swears thoroughout the entire episode, and when Jennifer Garner accuses him of having a single-track mind when it comes to women, he goes "Babe, I was married for four fucking months, I don't know what you're talking about."
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post #7 of 14
3/19/06 at 2:09pm
I never had digital cable access long enough to watch this show with some regularity. I really did enjoy it though when I saw it.
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post #8 of 14
3/20/06 at 2:53am
Aw, this is TERRIBLE news! This show was always a good time. I guess it was inevitable that it had to come to an end. That being said, it's cheap- surely Favreau's not to busy to do an occasional IFC special episode, as opposed to a whole season.

My fave was the one with Ron Livingston, Sarah Silverman, Kevin Pollack and the great Rod Steiger. They all cracked each other up with dirty jokes, making Steiger very uncomfortable . Then, SIlverman pushes the boundaries intentionally far enough to possibly piss him off for good by asking for everyone's first gay experience, and Steiger is the first one to speak, telling this heartbreaking, short little anecdote about a costar.
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post #9 of 14
3/20/06 at 11:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nigel St. Buggering
I had to drop digital cable, and didn't get to see the later episodes.
Nigel, you're breaking my heart today. I urge you to give Caddyshack another try. It can be a soothing balm in times of trouble.

If you're missing episodes, check out our discussion on the convenience/legality/morality of downloading TV here: http://chud.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89903. It may or may not affect whether you can see those episodes before the DVD comes out.
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post #10 of 14
3/20/06 at 11:12pm
This was as enlightening as some of the better Inside the Actors Studio eps but without the latter-day bloat and sometimes ridiculous fawning that occurs on ItAS.

Great show, the GOOD news inside the bad news is that Favreau leaves the door open for the show to appear again somewhere.
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post #11 of 14
3/20/06 at 11:27pm
Fuck!

I had missed out on it recently, because of moving around and not having the right kind of cable available to me.

I loved this show, not every single one was a hit, but when it hit, it hit hard.

It's cool that it has a chance of coming back some time, but I'd rather it was just an uncensored dvd series, maybe one that you could subscribe to or buy for 10 bucks a pop.

You guys have already mentioned all the great episodes, some of my favorites.

Thank you Jon Favreau.
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post #12 of 14
3/21/06 at 12:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lurker monkey
Nigel, you're breaking my heart today. I urge you to give Caddyshack another try. It can be a soothing balm in times of trouble.
I have Dr. Strangelove and Young Frankenstein for that.
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post #13 of 14
4/8/06 at 2:34pm
I just watched one of these that I recorded with Burt Reynolds, Richard Lewis, Kevin James, and Tony Shalhoub. Reynolds tells some great stories about DELIVERANCE, Robert Mitchum, and a mistake Kris Kristopherson made while working with pro football players during SEMI-TOUGH. IFC is gonna run this episode again today at 4:30. It's a bit longer than most outings, about 45 minutes. Definitely worth checking out.
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post #14 of 14
4/10/06 at 4:25pm
Well glad to see they ar enot forcing things. Still, the only show on TV I know which does as well as Dinner for Five when it comes to talking about movies is Charlie Rose (Sunday Morning Shoot Out is ok). Will be a shame not to have this on anymore. I will deifnately have to pick up the DVD's.

My favorite ep is the one where Adam Goldberg basically outs Vin Diesel when discussing the training for Saving Private Ryan.

Also, I loved hearing Burt Reynolds talk about Charles Durning and his WWII experiences.
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