MAVERICK: DON'S GREATEST HITS AND THE ADDICTIONS THAT KILLED HIM

THE DON SEASON 2: “Maverick, Top Gun, Don’s Greatest Hits, And The Addictions That Killed Him” Episode One chronicles Don's arrival in Los Angeles, his job interview at Paramount, how his first film, Saturday Night Fever became a cultural phenomenon, his time working with the  "Killer Dillers" in Paramount's executive suite, and his premonition that the auteur filmmakers of the 70s were on their way out.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Om Podcasten

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.