Eyes Wide Open: The Consequences of Finding Out, with Tom Junod
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out, presented by eBay Live. I am Pablo Torre, and today you're going to find out what this sound is. The phone rang, and I went and pick up, and there's this voice. Hey, this is Tom Cruise. Is my wife there? And I said, you know, yeah, Tom, she's right here in my bed. Right after this ad.
I am wearing what I now realize is a cardigan that's not intentionally an homage to the cardigan. Yeah. And therefore to you. Yeah. But it hasn't pointed out to me. Cardigan on the Lou thing or cardigan on the Fred thing? I dare say there is resonance in both of those characters.
What surprising call did Tom Junod receive from Tom Cruise?
I would say so. I feel like you got to explain, Tom, you know, who Fred is, because you're on a first name basis. Okay, so Fred is Fred Rogers. Fred is also known as Mr. Rogers. He was the children's television host from early 70s on to just before he died in 2003. Yeah. And he was the emblem not only of sort of incredibly nerdy children's television, He even sort of like pioneered a certain kind of nerdy style consisting of, dot, dot, dot, cardigans. Yeah. I walk into this office here in our Metal Ark Media studios and I go into the closet and I take out this cardigan and I... It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine? could you be mine? It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood, a neighborly day for a beauty, would you be mine?
Could you be mine? I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you. I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you so let's make the most of this beautiful day since we're together we might as well say would you be mine could you be mine won't you be my neighbor won't you please won't you please please won't you be my neighbor For those who are not familiar, you not only wrote this iconic profile of Mr. Rogers for Esquire, it also, years later, became a film. And I watched that in theaters, not even knowing you, only to realize that when I met you, I had watched the cinematic adaptation of you. And what level of cringe... does one feel when they're watching a hollywood actor depict you across from tom hanks mr rogers so when i first read that script the guys who wrote it um called me and said we really love the script and we really would like for you to give it a chance which is sort of a warning right away and i asked him i said well so why do i have to give it a chance
And they said, because pretty much everything that involves you and Mr. Rogers is accurate. and the family stuff we all made up. So I read it and I asked him afterwards to change the name because there was so many things that happened in the script and in the movie that just didn't happen in life. It was you, Tom Junot, that was the name of the character? Tom Junot was the name of the character. Oh, that's great. Or not, I guess. Yeah, so there's a scene in there where me and my father get into a fist fight at my sister's wedding. Oh, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You don't know the whole story. Your mom really was not the same. Don't talk about my mom! What are you doing? Come on. Get off me! Come on. My sister eloped.
So there was no wedding. So there was no fight at a wedding. And so, yeah, so I asked them to change the name and they did so. And I sort of, you know, sort of disconnected from the movie a little bit from there. I just like, basically, you know, it's Lloyd Vogel now. And so you can do whatever you want with this. And so I just got to jump in here to say that what I wanted to do with the real life Lloyd Vogel, Tom Juneau, comes from a place of believing that truth is often stranger and more narratively satisfying than fiction. It's an enormous reason why I have envied the writing, really the life of Tom, for a really long time. In his career as a writer, which followed his career as a handbag salesman, which is a whole other story, Tom has reported some of my favorite magazine pieces ever, including about sports, about everything from Muhammad Ali's funeral service to a hidden Penn State football scandal to all sorts of features about Hollywood.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:50
2
What surprising call did Tom Junod receive from Tom Cruise?
0:50–11:36
3
How did Tom Junod's relationship with Mr. Rogers shape his writing?
11:36–12:48
4
What feelings did Tom experience watching the Mr. Rogers film adaptation?
12:48–28:30
5
How did Tom's father's secret life impact his understanding of masculinity?
28:30–30:32
6
What was the significance of the briefcase in Tom's family story?
30:32–47:27
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