A Late Night Talk Show With Primal Appeal

March 1, 2021 9:17 PM

What happens if you cross Planet of the Apes (the originals) with the comic sensibilities of Space Ghost Coast to Coast and the style of The Tonight Show in its heyday? You get Hanging With Doctor Z.

Created by Dana Gould, Robert Cohen, and Pete Aaronson, the web based talk show uses the SGCTC formula with a more 70s flavored theming to create a surreal talk show built around Dr. Zaius as an ersatz Johnny Carson. Along with house band Rusty Steel and the Steel Wheels, the good doctor looks to liven up late night.

The first three episodes are available on YouTube.

posted by NoxAeternum (33 comments total)

Mrs Acroyear and I stumbled across this great new series just prior to it's launch a few weeks ago. Having lots of fun going back through YT watching all of Z's appearances at film panels, festivals, charity fund raisers and other events over the past few years. Had me hooked with the SDJ / Peter Lawford Salt & Pepper one sheet story!
posted by acroyear at 10:00 PM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

Beautiful! I love you, Dr. Zaius!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:22 PM on March 1, 2021 [6 favorites]

Bobcat has seemed to have mellowed out a bit. This is certainly something.
posted by Windopaene at 11:31 PM on March 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

Needs more Brak.
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 4:07 AM on March 2, 2021 [6 favorites]

I can understand why Dr. Zaius took the late night talk show gig, but I preferred his performance in Mark Twain Tonight.
posted by dannyboybell at 5:58 AM on March 2, 2021 [6 favorites]

Oh now I needed this. His Outro for Planet of the Apes on TCM was hilarious.

"I'm bidding on a very, very rare photograph of Burt Lancaster NOT talking about Burt Lancaster."
posted by beowulf573 at 7:49 AM on March 2, 2021 [6 favorites]

Huh... this is what I was missing in my life.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:12 AM on March 2, 2021 [4 favorites]

This is so many levels of awesome and amazing. Any guesses on where he got the costume?
posted by davidmsc at 9:51 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

OMG beowulf573 - THANK YOU.
posted by davidmsc at 9:59 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

This seems fun but I'm honestly disappointed it's not staring a different Dr. Z. Who would honestly make a great talk show host.
posted by GuyZero at 10:12 AM on March 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

I just started getting Publishers Clearing House mailers again -- I wonder if they offer a subscription to Frumpy Beat?
posted by gimonca at 10:20 AM on March 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

Bobcat has seemed to have mellowed out a bit. This is certainly something.

A good friend of mine is a professional standup (albeit not so famous I can really namedrop) and has opened for some decently famous names. He has mentioned to me that almost all of the comedians whose act involves a high-tension, noisy presentation (Goldthwait, Gilbert Gottfried, the late Sam Kinison) are or were so low-key as to be nearly unrecognizable in person, which may be why they separate the personas so much. Unfortunately, he has never worked with Steven Wright, whom I would love to learn is a coked-up party animal.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:51 AM on March 2, 2021 [4 favorites]

Be sure to read the credits:

LESLIE UGGAMS AS
LESLIE NEILSEN
posted by JHarris at 11:05 AM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

"…taking a scrimshaw class with Joey Heatherton." Every so often something wonderful comes along that restores my faith in humanity.
posted by jabah at 11:18 AM on March 2, 2021 [5 favorites]

Any guesses on where he got the costume?

Dana Gould is a huge giant Planet of the Apes fan (and even wrote a cool graphic novel based on the original Rod Serling screenplay). I know from his podcast The Dana Gould Hour that he has plenty of connections in the SFX world. All that said--he probably bought it at an auction for nerdo stuff.
posted by Kafkaesque at 12:07 PM on March 2, 2021 [5 favorites]

Dr. Z provides his own wardrobe!

And Steven Wright is pretty much Steven Wright.

Thanks for watching! More to come!
posted by DanaGould at 12:38 PM on March 2, 2021 [36 favorites]

^^ Huh. Now MeFi's own.

"…taking a scrimshaw class with Joey Heatherton." Every so often something wonderful comes along that restores my faith in humanity.

It does sound like a fantastic euphemism.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:40 PM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Wow that's pretty cool. Dana Gould is a legend.
posted by Think_Long at 12:57 PM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Like SGC2C if the host was a cross between Lokar and Tom Snyder.
posted by StarkRoads at 1:10 PM on March 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

Did Rusty Steel start out as one of Happy Kyne's Mirth Makers?
posted by adamg at 2:04 PM on March 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

Satire aside, Dr. Z is a genuinely entertaining old school talk show host! I did not expect that!
posted by treepour at 2:16 PM on March 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

It does sound like a fantastic euphemism.

Well, scrimshaw does involve cbyvfuvat obarf.
posted by achrise at 3:06 PM on March 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

I was just thinking a few weeks ago "Dana Gould hasn't produced a comedy special in awhile. I wonder what he is working on?" Now I know.
posted by wittgenstein at 3:31 PM on March 2, 2021

I guess I should stop hoping for more Stan Against Evil, then. :(
posted by lkc at 4:22 PM on March 2, 2021

Dana Gould as Dr. Zaius did a great reference to Shatner's "Rocket Man" on Festpocalypse a few weeks ago.
posted by stevil at 4:55 PM on March 2, 2021

From one of those oral histories

Dana Gould (comedian; writer-producer on The Simpsons, 2001–2008): I had wanted to do “Planet of the Apes: The Musical” as a sketch on The Ben Stiller Show, if only as an excuse to wear the makeup. The Ben Stiller Show never got around to it, but when I later saw it on The Simpsons and heard the line, “I hate every chimp I see / from chimpan-A to chimpan-Z,” I thought, Yeah, probably better that they did it.

posted by otherchaz at 5:04 PM on March 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

I can understand why Dr. Zaius took the late night talk show gig, but I preferred his performance in Mark Twain Tonight yt .

I like it too, but I’d point out that is slightly mislabeled: seems to me it should technically be Dana Gould as Maurice Evans as Dr Zaius as Hal Holbrook as Samuel Clemens as Mark Twain.

There can’t be many performances with this many nested Russian doll layers.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:12 AM on March 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

I guess I should stop hoping for more Stan Against Evil, then. :(

Yeah, unfortunately Dana confirmed IFC pulled the plug a while ago.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 6:19 AM on March 3, 2021

I was initially skeptical of the premise, but I loved all 3 of the episodes. Dana Gould is keeping the bits long enough to cover all the talk-show tropes really well, but short enough to not get tedious.
posted by mikelieman at 7:36 AM on March 3, 2021 [4 favorites]

I spotted Andy Paley in the credits as Musical Director, which made perfect sense and also made me very happy.
posted by mykescipark at 6:23 PM on March 3, 2021

New episode out, guest is Paget Brewster!
posted by JHarris at 4:45 PM on March 8, 2021

Episode 4's guest is Patton Oswalt!
posted by JHarris at 1:37 AM on March 16, 2021

We've been using Hanging With Doctor Z as between-movie filler at MST Club, and it's been a delight. It really does feel like they've captured all the best things of old Space Ghost Coast to Coast, without the feeling, like SGC2C had later on, that the people making it loathed their own popularity.
posted by JHarris at 12:32 PM on March 29, 2021