The Doors

Performance vs. impersonation

The conversation centers on how Kilmer becomes Morrison without feeling like a mere mimic, which the hosts see as rare in biopics.

Biopic artifice

They repeatedly discuss how biopics condense life into blunt exposition and invented scenes.

Rock mythmaking and decline

The film is framed as a cautionary tale about rock stardom, excess, and the corruption of legend.

Nostalgia for the 1960s

The movie is discussed as part of a broader early-90s revival of late-60s rock culture.

Oliver Stone maximalism

The movie is seen as an early point where Stone's style becomes more unhinged and confrontational.

Production note

Val Kilmer reportedly learned 50 songs and performed 15 of them in the film.

Production note

Kilmer spent his own money on an audition video to get the role.

Production note

The concert vocals were recorded by stripping Morrison's vocals off master tapes and having Kilmer sing live against them.

Production note

Stone said 'The End' took five days and 24 takes to shoot.

Production note

The movie cost about $32 million and grossed about $34.4 million.

Production note

Roger Ebert gave the film one-and-a-quarter? Actually Bill says one out of four stars, describing it as unpleasant and self-pitying.

Production note

The reporter character is described as a composite, not a single real person.

Production note

Michael Madsen's role was initially meant for Billy Idol before a motorcycle accident intervened.

Production note

The film shot in the Mojave Desert and reportedly got fined for filming there.

Production note

Bill says there was an alleged memo telling crew not to make eye contact with Val Kilmer.

Apocalypse Now

Used as an example of how the Doors resurfaced in the late 1970s through 'The End.'

Queen

Used to contrast a later, more successful music biopic and legacy effect.

JFK

Mentioned as another 1991 Oliver Stone film and a further point in his stylistic evolution.

Natural Born Killers

Cited as the point where Stone's style goes fully off the rails.

The Beatles

Used in comparisons about band legacy, reissues, and the surviving members' interest in their own history.

Led Zeppelin

Mentioned alongside other canonical rock acts as part of the classic-rock canon.

Rolling Stones

Referenced both as canon and as a comparison for Ed Sullivan-era censorship tactics.

Ed Sullivan Show

Mentioned as a key scene and cultural flashpoint for the band's transgression.

Wayne's World 2

Used as a later parody of the film's Native American/shaman material.

The Office

Chuck jokes that 'Jim and Pam' made him think of the TV couple while watching this movie.

The Dead

Used to explain how the Doors lacked a broader fan subculture compared with the Grateful Dead.

Grateful Dead

A comparison point for fandom subculture and live-music culture.

Barney's Beanery

Named as the West Hollywood bar used for a filmed scene.

Cinemax

Mentioned as one place the movie is available to watch.

Scream

Used only in an ad read about Angry Orchard's Halloween pack.

Expository biopic dialogue

The hosts repeatedly joke about how biopics make characters state what everyone means in plain language.

'Jim and Pam' / Office overlap

Chuck jokes about the names Jim and Pam reminding him of The Office while watching the film.

Johnny Drama / Kevin Dillon

Bill keeps noting that Kevin Dillon reads like 'Johnny Drama' in early-90s retro mode.

Stone's goatee

Chris laughs at Oliver Stone's thick, possibly fake goatee in his cameo as a USC film professor.

The desert as a hallucination zone

They riff on the idea that rock-movie drug scenes always end up in deserts.

'What you gonna do for act three?'

The plane scene with Michael Madsen becomes a joke about absurdly literary banter among drugged-out rockers.

Bill Simmons

“That is Jim Morrison.”

Chuck Klosterman

“We took drugs to expand our minds”

Bill Simmons

“What you gonna do for act three?”

Chuck Klosterman

“Jimbo Morrison, the drunk.”

Bill Simmons

“He's like, I'm Jim. Name, occupation.”