20 episodes
THE DON iHeartPodcasts
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- Society & Culture
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2.5 • 69 Ratings
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THE DON is a docu-drama on the life of the producer of TOP GUN, Don Simpson, which uses narration, clips, and fictional re-enactments via “lost tapes'' to take you behind the scenes into Hollywood’s decade of decadence, the 1980s. Before the era of MeToo, there was Don Simpson the poster boy of toxic masculinity, whose outlandish behavior was not only tolerated but encouraged by the film industry who profited greatly off Don’s movies. Don Simpson was, like the character he named after himself in his movie TOP GUN, a maverick. His signature style of filmmaking created one hit after another— AMERICAN GIGOLO, FLASHDANCE, BEVERLY HILLS COP, TOP GUN- they all came from the mind of Don Simpson. Don loved the movies so much that he created a mythological persona known as “The Don” to match his signature movies— loud, ballsy, cheesy— his movies were full of homo-erotic testoterone-driven race car drivers and navy fighter pilots and stripper/welders who wanted to be ballerinas— these were the movies from Don’s absurd fantasy world— this was the world that Don actually lived in— there was no separation between life and art. And that movie persona that he created— “The Don”— grew more and more outrageous and more extreme— until ultimately… it killed him.
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"Dying Like Elvis on the Toilet"
The End. In this episode we chronicle Don's final days. His last gasp attempt at making a comeback with his film, "The Rock". His dependency on a team of doctors that would bill him upwards of $50,000 a month while keeping him hooked on over a dozen uppers and downers. And we look for anyone who might have been able to save Don from himself.
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"Death in the Pool House"
In this episode, we go deep into Don's pill addiction and his time in seclusion with his personal doctor slash filmmaking partner. We look into how and why Don turned away from studio films to make an independent film called "Legend of Kodiak" and how the making of the film led to Don's doctor's tragic death.
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Top Gun on Wheels
Don and Tom's "Days of Blunder"... In this episode, we go into what went so right on Don and Tom’s critically panned and vastly under-rated unofficial sequel to Top Gun, "Days of Thunder"... And we go into what went so terribly, terribly wrong on a production that went so wildly over-budget that Paramount chief Frank Mancuso, in a fitful rage, blew up Don’s 300 million dollar deal like one of his fiery race car crashes... A definitive case of life imitating art.
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Top Guns- Don and Tom- True Religion
Don and Eddie Murphy have another box office hit with Beverly Hills Cop 2-- all in spite of Don's preoccupations with cocaine and call girls and plastic surgeries. After several failed attempts in rehab, Tom Cruise introduces Don to a new religion in the hope that Don can curb his addictions.
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Top Gun- Don and Tom Part 3
In this episode, we go deep into the production of “Top Gun”. We learn of how Don’s insistence on throwing parties for the cast helped to fuel the rivalry between Maverick and Ice Man... The partying also would lead to Don’s stint in rehab- smack in the middle of the most important production of his career... We go into Don’s frustrations over the lack of chemistry between Maverick and Charlie... And his battles with the Navy over script notes, and how a fatal real life plane crash during filming was eerily similar to the crash written into the movie.
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Top Gun--Don and Tom Part 2
In this episode, we look into Don’s paternal relationship with Tom Cruise, how Don nearly sabotaged the Top Gun screenwriters efforts to produce a script good enough for Tom, and how Don’s last ditch effort to put Tom in the air with “The Blue Angels” got Tom to finally say yes.
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Customer Reviews
Disappointed
-I’ve listened to five episodes, trying to really give this podcast a shot, see if the production smooths out over time, but it’s incredibly disappointing.
-The true story itself is so fascinating, I don’t see the point of the fictional narrator and other creative licenses taken with the story. This new hybrid of fact and fiction just isn’t gelling very well.
-Audio balancing is awful, the narrator will be loud and the faux recorded effect on “tapes” will be soft and hard to hear. Volume will also randomly fluctuate.
-Commercials are spliced into the middle of the show, in the middle of a sentence, with no bumpers to transition between the show and ads. They also are blasted super loud and completely remove me from the story.
Horrible
So excited to listen to this and just awful. The narration is terrible. Just so so bad.
Fiction doesn’t mean blatantly wrong.
Was enjoying the story until narrator said that George Reeves was Christopher Reeve’s father. Not even remotely true and unnecessary to lie about.