Lifetime Movie: Jackie’s Back! x Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?
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Which made-for-TV movie on the Lifetime Network is the best of all time? The co-hosts of The Deep Dive take sides, with Jessica St. Clair choosing Jackie’s Back! (1999) and June Diane Raphael picking the 2016 remake of Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? But, how do you compare a shockingly star-studded mockumentary with a sexy vampire thriller? That’s Aminatou Sow’s challenge this week! She does her best to weigh the pros and cons of each pick and also puts June and Jess’s love of Lifetime movies to the test in a lightning round where they have to suss out real movie plots from made-up ones – all in order to decide which Lifetime original movie is the best ever.
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Transcript
SPEAKERS
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jessica St. Clair, Speaker 2, June Diane, Speaker 1, June Diane Raphael, Aminatou Sow, June diane
Aminatou Sow 00:00
Hi, I’m Aminatou Sow, and I’m a writer who loves pop culture. So welcome to Pop Culture Debate Club from Lemonada and the BBC. We bring on some of the funniest, smartest folks in the biz to go head to head over TV, music and movies that we love. And because I’m the judge. I get to choose the winner. Today we’ll be talking about a pop culture touchstone, Lifetime original movies. This year marks the 40th anniversary ofLifetime Networks. When it debuted in 1984 the network mostly aired syndicated talk shows aimed towards a female audience, the first ever Lifetime original movie aired in 1990 and it was called Memories Of A Murder. The plot of memories of a murder is this, a woman hits her head, gets amnesia and forgets that a psychopath is trying to murder her family. But the formula for memories of a murder became the blueprint for the future of lifetime. The Network became synonymous with original films that dealt with two major themes, teens in trouble and mothers in danger, sometimes at the same time. Due to the popularity of their original movies, the network launched the sister channel in 1998 to meet the demand among viewers for all day Lifetime movie marathons, also for what it’s worth, lifetime champion hiring women to make their movies before that was fashionable. From 1994 to 2016 three quarters of Lifetime’s original films were directed or written by a woman. The network continues to release lazy, Sunday afternoon, binge worthy programming that features camp beat to complex female characters. So now that we have a bit of a primer about the iconic network, let’s meet our panelists. Joining me today are the hosts of the Lemonada Podcast, The Deep Dive, Jessica St Clair and June Diane Raphael.
Aminatou Sow 03:33
Hi, thank you both for being here. I have to tell you that I really hate podcast recordings where I’m a huge fan of people, because I feel like I do a horrible job but, you know, therapy is working for me, and I’m really leaning into earnestness. I really like both of you, and I love your work, and you make me laugh a lot. So thanks for being here today.
June Diane 03:54
Thank you.
Jessica St. Clair 03:55
Thank you for having us. That’s very sweet, and I’m very excited for this
Aminatou Sow 04:00
Before we get started, I’m just wondering, how long have you been friends?
Jessica St. Clair 04:03
Oh, my God, since we were wearing, you know, cardigans from its Express, you know, back in the early aughts.
June Diane 04:12
Oh, my God, that’s so true. Since we were shopping at the limited.
Jessica St. Clair 04:15
The limited too, what I find so funny and I want to get I’ll say more about our friendship.
June Diane 04:20
But I do think Jess and I were both dressing in, like business casual for a long time. Like we were dressing in New York while we were kind of performing at the UCB Theater and doing comedy there we were dressing for temp drops yeah like we were be, we would be in, like Ann Taylor Loft separates, but like doing and like saying terrible things, I remember Mike with this commercial agent I begged to have. She goes I’ve seen you in the same cowl neck sweater from Banana Republic. The last eight times I’ve seen you. Do you have another sweater? And the answer was no, I don’t.
Aminatou Sow 04:54
First of all, how dare you. You know also, it was that time they told us that we need. Clothes that would go from day to night. Remember that that was such a it was that time. It was such a preoccupation.
Jessica St. Clair 05:06
Barbie told us that day to night, Barbie, what a bunch of lies, oh, I was always prepared for that eventuality that never had. I don’t think I’ve ever needed that.
June Diane 05:18
No, you know I’ve never been in that moment where it’s like, okay, switch out the under thing, and then go and just put a different shoe on.
Aminatou Sow 05:27
But they told us we’d had to be ready. And then we were wearing limited two at the club. You know, it was.
June Diane 05:33
Strange, and like, I remember when I came out to LA and then, you know, we took case Casey Wilson, I took a road trip to Palm Springs, and of course, we stopped at the outlets, and she got a theory blazer.
Jessica St. Clair 05:48
I got the same one.
June Diane 05:50
I was like, This is it for auditions to have a theory blazer means you’ve arrived. We were dressing for the jobs we didn’t want.
Aminatou Sow 06:03
I know that that’s gonna job in marketing, you know that no one wanted us. That’s gonna haunt me. Okay, well, since we have the jobs that we do love, tell me what your podcast, The Deep Dive is about.
June Diane 06:16
You know it’s so it’s about a lot of things. It is. You could listen to it and think these women are slowly unraveling, you know, there’s but a lot of what we talk about is just adult womanhood and and surviving it with with your dear friends and community, and lifting our friends up, and all of the labor that goes on, and what it is to be, you know, parents and daughters and sisters and and friends, and what is to be women, I think also, we’re always we’re always striving, and I wouldn’t say to do it better, because we’ve, we’ve decided to do the least, especially this summer, we are Doing nothing. That’s our goal. Is to do nothing. But we are always looking for more joy. Where can we get more joy out of the little things in life? That’s a good explanation. And so we have this academy called The Deep Dive Academy, where we are, you know, headmistresses of quite a number of women and men, and we they have assignments every week, you know, and this is not an accredited institution. Pending accreditation. We have we forgot to file the paperwork, but like this week’s assignment was to do the least and show photographic evidence of that, and we got so many.
Speaker 1 06:16
I’m one of your students, and you have no idea i I’m in I’m in the program, I’m in the program and I’m an A plus student, so thanks for that.
June Diane 07:43
Thank you, and I’ll put you on the Dean’s list. Thank you for learning. Thank you for being with us.
Aminatou Sow 07:48
Well, speaking of joy and things that bring us joy, our topic today is Lifetime movies. I try to do the math of how many Lifetime movies I think I’ve seen, and I had to stop because it’s uncomfortable to think that a serious percentage of my life has been so dedicated to watching Lifetime movies. Doesn’t feel but how many Lifetime movies do you estimate that you’ve both seen?
June Diane 08:12
Okay, so there’s the lifetime and Hallmark, if I could throw that in, like holiday fare, of course, and that I will, like when I used to go home, when you know I would go home to my parents house for Christmas, hasn’t been for years now, but like when I used to do that, my middle sister and I would consume every lifetime movie we could get our hands on.
Jessica St. Clair 08:36
And that’s when there were marathons. You couldn’t get it on demand. That was when you knew Saturday, Sunday was going to be back to back, and it was always Melissa Joan Hart over and over again in different scenarios.
June Diane 08:46
And Mario Lopez.
Jessica St. Clair 08:47
And Mario Lopez and they were always shooting in the same town. So you’d be like, well, there’s the gazebo, but dressed up differently shot from a different there’s their skating rink, because they all go to the same town apparently.
Aminatou Sow 08:59
No, it’s the same set. It’s the same set in the same town. The best genius.
June Diane 09:04
Tell you this. I don’t know if you know this, I have been, well, I was offered a Lifetime movie not to brag.
Aminatou Sow 09:11
God damn it, June, please brag.
June Diane 09:15
I didn’t.
Jessica St. Clair 09:16
You never told me that.
June diane 09:17
It was, oh God. And it was a great premise. You know, there was so much.
Jessica St. Clair 09:22
What was the premise? Do you know?
Aminatou Sow 09:23
What was the premise?
June diane 09:26
It was something about, like a a small town. It was a Christmas movie, and it was like small town. You know, you were a business lady returning to hometown. No, it’s like a bookstore owner.
Aminatou Sow 09:37
Stronger, than the Marines. I can’t believe you resisted that that’s insane.
June Diane 09:42
I wrote them a letter saying, like, just so you know, I’m not, it’s not exactly right, right now, wow. But don’t forget about me, and it’s an honor to have been considered, but, anyway. But, like, but here’s just like, industry lore. Sure lifetime pays and they put you up at that four seasons.
Aminatou Sow 10:06
I believe it. Look at how many people are repeat customers of like, you know what I’m saying? Like that is, yes.
Jessica St. Clair 10:15
The money is not necessarily on the screen, but they are paying.
Aminatou Sow 10:19
Okay, Jess, what film did you choose to discuss today?
Jessica St. Clair 10:22
I went, okay, so you know, we all know lifetime for their murder movies, which I unfortunately can’t take it. And actually, when you offered for us to come on so graciously to the show, I said, if it’s a murder movie, I can’t do it. I have to say no. Now I was offered to be a zombie scientist on The Walking Dead too, and I had to turn it down.
Aminatou Sow 10:45
So we’re just gonna go over all the parts we turned down today.
Jessica St. Clair 10:48
Yeah, because I was too afraid to be with zombies.
Aminatou Sow 10:52
That’s fair. I don’t think I could do that.
Jessica St. Clair 10:54
Even though they’re actors behaving as zombies. So I want you to understand that I am so afraid of murder movies now I chose something that I think is a gem that people it’s undiscovered because you haven’t seen it since the, you know, 1999 it was called Jackie’s back, starring the great Jennifer Lewis, and it was, it’s a mockumentary, but there ain’t no improv happening in this. But the star studded cast is so outrageous, literally, every famous person, comedian you know, Bette Midler, Whoopi Goldberg, Liza Minnelli, Dolly Parton, Kathy Griffin, Penny Marshall, Sean Hayes, the list of Melissa Etheridge, Whoopi Goldberg, funnier than she’s ever been in her entire life.
June diane 11:43
A Lifetime movie.
Aminatou Sow 11:44
We don’t know your pick yet, but I don’t know how to tell you, you are starting a serious handicap. This cast is legendary.
Jessica St. Clair 11:51
I really didn’t know, wait a second. Jackie’s back, wait, Tim Curry is in this Loretta divide. Wait a second, everybody.
Aminatou Sow 11:59
I actually am, like, really upset. I first of all, I didn’t know this movie existed.
Jessica St. Clair 12:04
Had you seen this before?
Aminatou Sow 12:06
I have never seen it before. I watched it to prep for this, and my jaw was on the floor the whole I, like, couldn’t because, first of all, I was like, mockumentary. That’s so weird. And then people kept appearing on the screen, like, I didn’t even read what it was about. And they just kept appearing on the screen one by one, and I just kept having to look like, is this a Lifetime movie? And it is indeed a Lifetime movie.
Jessica St. Clair 12:29
Okay, this is what’s interesting. Though. I feel like this is before lifetime, before the brand that’s right, formed.
Aminatou Sow 12:35
Yeah, they were still throwing stuff at the wall to figure out, you know what, what the lifetime of my lifetime would be. Are we Jackie spouse?
Jessica St. Clair 12:44
But I have to tell you, and no disrespect, because these are comedic legends. Some people are delivering the most bananas performances you’ve ever seen in your life. There everybody in the movie was obviously told to take a gigantic swing. And I would say 90% are misses, but it’s like watching now the great Jennifer Lewis, like, you can’t take your eyes off her, so I don’t care what she’s saying or doing, you’re gonna be transfixed. But it’s wild to see that they got all these people, and some of them like it looks like they’re filming Whoopi Goldberg in her trailer, like some of them are being filmed in such close. It’s like, found footage, yeah, okay. It’s like, did they have what was this? Yeah, did they have contracts? Or was it sort of like both?
Aminatou Sow 13:29
They were like, we’ll take you wherever you’re at, like, we’ll send someone to you, and we’ll do it now, like.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus 13:34
100% and it toggles a line of comedy and drama that makes no sense, but it is. It’s a movie that you like saw in a fever dream, and then you revisit it and you’re like, wow, this is even crazier than I remember it to be. So that’s so that’s my choice. Jackie’s Back.
Aminatou Sow 13:50
That’s a very strong pick. Okay, June, what’s your pick today?
June Diane 13:54
My pick is mother may asleep with danger. The new one.
Aminatou Sow 13:58
The new one. So, not the 1996 one.
June Diane Raphael 14:02
No, and in fact, I’ve never seen that one. So there were some pieces of the puzzle I had to put together and suggest it’s sort of, it’s a lesbian vampire movie. There’s a backdrop of a college production of Macbeth.
Aminatou Sow 14:18
I know highbrow.
June Diane Raphael 14:19
Where the play sort of becomes the thing at one point. So there’s, there’s a number of things happening, but please know that the director of that play is one. James Franco. Now I recommend watching this movie, if only to watch which made me laugh so hard I was dying, if only to watch the interactions between James Franco, who sit for most of the movie. He’s sitting in an auditorium, like just watching auditions, watching rehearsals.
June Diane 14:51
And I actually thought for a second, oh, they shot him out in one day, like there’s no way, like they just got him. He sits in the seat, and then they’re gonna splice him to the movie.
June Diane Raphael 15:00
I don’t think that was true, but the best part of the movie is James Franco, who is so clearly stoned. Would you agree with that?
Aminatou Sow 15:11
I mean, I think that’s a generous interpretation of what’s going on, right?
Speaker 2 15:15
Yeah, he never has to get up. His eyes are glassed over doing his lines. He plays the theater director, but the I laugh so hard because there’s a woman who plays the assistant director. She is an extra. There’s no she doesn’t have a line. She doesn’t have a but the two of them, he’s constantly and this is where I do, I do find him fascinating as an actor. He’ll make a choice, which I’m like, That surprised me. I didn’t he has a relationship with her, and she is dressed in Ann Taylor Loft, but he’s interacting with her and doing looks to her. And I was dying because she for on her part, she’s probably like, wow, I’m really the scene with James Franco, and in multiple scenes, and he’s also giving me quite a bit, and yet I can’t speak. Oh, my God.
Jessica St. Clair 16:05
Well, it’s like, also they kept going over the gyms, like, can you stop making her such the focus of a scene, or we’re gonna have to bump her one of the main as far as I’m concerned, she’s in the main character. She should sue. She should honestly sue for residuals.
Aminatou Sow 16:18
She should.
June Diane 16:20
But this is, there’s no other way to put it. This is a pornography who’s effing who in this movie, all of the gals, the younger women, are fucking each other.
Jessica St. Clair 16:30
They all vampires?
June Diane 16:30
They’re all, yeah, vast majority are vampires. Vast majority. And so the our main, our main woman, is in love with another woman who’s a vampire. And, you know, she, at a certain point, wants to get, wants to become a night Walker herself, which she she does end up becoming, you know, is she happy with her choice? Or it’s hard to say.
Aminatou Sow 16:56
I mean, I really maintain that after we finish recording today, you should take some alone time to watch each other’s pics, because I think that you will be you will have to take the rest of the day off, like you will literally have to take the if you’ve never seen either of these. And as someone who had to watch them back to back, like I was like, this is the kind of content that is hard to consume at the same time it was.
Jessica St. Clair 17:19
Did you? Could you draw any lines between the two?
Aminatou Sow 17:22
I mean 100% a lot. But I do think, without, like, tipping my hand, I think that what is like remarkable is how, like Jess choice is very, it’s like the lifetime that could have been and your choice is the lifetime that we have, you know, like, it’s very stark, wow, like, it’s hard to believe that. Like, they share the same network DNA, but that’s why I want you both to watch them afterwards.
June Diane 17:50
Oh, I would love that. You know what you’re so, right? It’s like I’m contending with what is, and Jess is living in a fantasy world over there.
Aminatou Sow 18:00
Well, let’s take a quick break and we’ll ponder that.
Aminatou Sow 21:18
Okay, so very quickly, I’m just wondering if you could tell me what your ideal setup for watching these movies is, because for me, there’s got to be a caftan involved. There’s got to be some sort of skincare, you know, like, I got to be multitasking, you know, like either massaging the face or doing a thing. There’s definitely, like, a big bowl of like, popcorn somewhere. I can always like, I need to be in the mood for these movies. And I’m wondering what your mood is.
Jessica St. Clair 21:48
Do you wanna hear crazy? What I do? And it’s gonna be the opposite of June. I can tell you that right now. I take them on walks when I know this sounds dangerous and I know this sounds crazy. But I sometimes, because I hate working out so much, I will take them on a walk with me outside.
June Diane 22:07
You’re saying them the movie?
Jessica St. Clair 22:09
The movies a Lifetime movie, a lifetime, Christmas movie.
Aminatou Sow 22:14
Thank you for catching that.
Jessica St. Clair 22:15
I finished Jackie’s back while walking outside. Are you just listening to them? Like, a pop Oh, I’m watching it. Dan, like my husband, before I went out, she was like, please pick your head up. I don’t support this.
June Diane 22:26
Jess, that’s dangerous.
Jessica St. Clair 22:28
I know, but they but there’s such a lovely like, again, you don’t have to pay that much attention to them. Do you understand? Like, you can follow the plot even if you have to look up and not get hit by a car. So that’s a crazy way to watch.
Aminatou Sow 22:40
Oh my gosh. Okay. What about you, June?
June Diane 22:45
I mean, I am not gonna lie. One of my favorite ways to consume a Lifetime movie is, like, pretty stone.
Aminatou Sow 22:52
I mean, that’s implied. You know, I’m like, who’s raw, dogging life, watching a lifetime? Guess me, I’m out in the sun. Are you okay? Like, do you want […]?
June Diane 23:04
I just like nice walk along. So with my husband Paul, the one of our favorite things to do is, truly, to get very stoned and, like, watch a Lifetime movie, watch, like, a bad movie. Like that is like, truly one of my favorite things. But I like to be in bed. I feel safe there. I like to have a dog nearby. You know, this is the interesting thing about the lifetime scary movies, to me, they are not scary.
Aminatou Sow 23:31
You don’t get scared when a man murders his teenage babysitter, because I’m terrified always.
Jessica St. Clair 23:36
Well, sometimes they’re pulled from the headlines, though sometimes.
Aminatou Sow 23:39
A lot of times they are, it’s very SVU. What’s happening in there.
June Diane 23:44
But my favorite thing about SVU, sorry, Jess, is that SVU, I know they have their air dates are like, you know, the headlines happen, and then their air dates happen, like, whatever, months later. So I get that there’s a lag from the headlines. But what makes me laugh so hard is that it’s also clear that the SVU writing staff is like 500 years old, and because most of their like, what they’re scared of in the show is the internet.
Aminatou Sow 24:11
Well, yeah, it’s the internet. It’s black people, it’s a rapper, it’s immigrants.
June Diane 24:17
They are so clearly revealing themselves as a writer.
Aminatou Sow 24:24
But don’t you think sometimes that they that they do the crime so then they can make the episode because then, because I’ll read the headline sometime, and I’m like, Wow. I was like, Dick Wolf did this. Like, I was like, he did this.
June Diane 24:35
Whoa.
Aminatou Sow 24:36
Okay, now that I’ve gotten a little bit of background on the Lifetime movies you brought today. I’m gonna challenge you to a lightning round. So I’m gonna give the title of a movie and a brief plot description. You just have to tell me if you think it’s a real Lifetime movie, or if I made it up.
June Diane 24:52
And I might know some of these.
Aminatou Sow 24:53
I mean, you obviously know all of them as the problem. So let’s see, right? Okay, Jess, this one’s for you. Amish Affair. The story is Hannah knows her secret relationship with Erin, a charismatic Amish leader, has them both living in sin, so she decides to end it. However, when Erin’s wife suspiciously dies, she finds herself framed for murder and fighting to prove her innocence, real movie, fake movie.
Jessica St. Clair 25:16
True.
Aminatou Sow 25:16
Yeah, definitely released on Lifetime, very closely to when we’re taping. And thank you to my friend Caroline Moss for making me watch it. It was great. Okay, June, this one’s for you. Deadly Dating Game. Radio DJ Shannon uses her talk show to discuss her love life, and is all in when her producer, Haley suggests they do a promotion where listeners can nominate friends to go on dates with Shannon. But when Shannon learns her radio show date was killed right before they were supposed to go on their second date, she becomes suspicious of her ex, Gavin.
June Diane 25:51
I’m sorry, Gavin, really, there’s always a Gavin, I think, real.
Aminatou Sow 25:55
Real, released in 2021.
June Diane 25:58
That was real?
Aminatou Sow 25:59
Yes, real. This is the new Lifetime.
June Diane 26:01
It’s the name Gavin for me. Yeah, okay.
Jessica St. Clair 26:05
The only reason I thought it was fake is like they could have workshopped that title a couple more times. That’s all Radio Dating Game to me was not like hitting their like, you know what? I mean, mother made a sleep with danger. Okay, go ahead.
Aminatou Sow 26:16
Okay. Jess, this one’s for you, okay, Ouija, or won’t they? Newly single and ready to mingle, Sasha consults a Ouija board to predict who her next true love will be, only to fall in love with the spirit who resides in the board.
Jessica St. Clair 26:27
True.
Aminatou Sow 26:29
Fake.
Jessica St. Clair 26:30
Oh, fuck, they love to fall in love with like nutcrackers or dead people or ghosts or civil war ghosts, damn it.
Aminatou Sow 26:38
Thank you to our producer, Ramel, who really, that’s what’s happening. Okay, June, A Very Nutty Christmas. Kate holiday has more cookie orders than she has time to fill this holiday season. But when she gets a surprise of her life, when chip a handsome soldier who may or may not be the Nutcracker prince from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker appears in her living room.
June Diane 27:00
Seen this. This is real. Yeah, this is real.
Jessica St. Clair 27:07
I was just referring to she has.
Aminatou Sow 27:10
Can’t get a Melissa Joan Hart movie over you.
June Diane 27:13
She sleeps with a real life Nutcracker. It’s the most insane thing we’ve ever so dark.
Aminatou Sow 27:18
That’s the darkest American thing that I can think of that is so dark mantle, okay, Jess um Christmas a la Mode, since her father passed away, Emily has been running her family’s dairy farm, but this Christmas, the farm has fallen on hard times. So Emily comes up with an ingenious plan to hold an online holiday ice cream flavor contest that goes viral.
Jessica St. Clair 27:19
Fake.
Aminatou Sow 27:20
Real.
Jessica St. Clair 27:20
What?
Aminatou Sow 27:25
Christmas a la Mode. June, this one’s for you. Daddy’s Little Squirrel after the tragic walnut allergy related death of his daughter, a grief stricken father finds comfort while volunteering at a squirrel sanctuary.
June Diane 28:03
Fake.
Aminatou Sow 28:05
Okay, fake, what was it that did it for you, no Gavins?
June Diane 28:08
no Gavins. And also, like, we’re usually not following men. That’s a good way true, like we’re, this is a woman’s network. You know? It’s made for women.
Aminatou Sow 28:19
Daddy’s little squirrel. You’re like a male, centered story, absolutely not Jess, Hall Pass Nightmare after a brief tryst with a bad boy musician Dante while on a work trip turned girl strap Carrie suspects he might be stalking her, real or fake?
Jessica St. Clair 28:37
Fake.
Aminatou Sow 28:37
Real.
Jessica St. Clair 28:38
Oh, damn it. I only did it because I’m doing so much better. I know I was like, I want to watch that movie. Even though it’s stalking. I still want to. I don’t mind if people are being stalked because they’re so into them, they’re so hot for them.
Aminatou Sow 28:52
That’s right, that’s just pursuit.
Jessica St. Clair 28:55
A lot of like Pride and Prejudice like that could be a stalker. Like a lot of things could be framed.
Aminatou Sow 28:59
Pride and Prejudice is absolutely a stalker.
Jessica St. Clair 29:03
Jane Eyre could be a Lifetime movie, but by women like a sick stalker, women up in addicts, you know what I mean, burning houses down. Okay, go ahead.
Aminatou Sow 29:11
Okay, June, this last one is for you, Wildflower, an abused partially deaf girl is helped back into society by two resourceful children.
June Diane Raphael 29:21
So knowing that like this is what’s hard, knowing where we started with Jackie’s back like, knowing the swings that lifetime has taken, I don’t believe they’ll follow male narratives. But this, I’m like, we usually not following children either. We like our women to be, you know, young teens or adults, but so this doesn’t feel on brand. I’m gonna say I’m but also I’m like it’s just crazy enough that it.
Jessica St. Clair 29:52
Does seem creepy enough.
Aminatou Sow 29:54
Real or fake?
June Diane Raphael 29:55
I’m gonna say real.
Aminatou Sow 29:56
Real it came out in 1991 directed by Diane Keaton, starred, get this, starring Reese Witherspoon and Patricia, our […]
Jessica St. Clair 30:08
Oh, my God, this is, though, yeah, it was like, high I guess these movies, they hadn’t said what they were yet. These were still TV movies though I am going to have to watch that one.
Aminatou Sow 30:19
I mean, I think you should just cancel the rest of your day. I like, I feel like there’s, there’s homework for the joy club. You know what I’m saying? Like there’s okay, let’s take a quick break before we make our final case
Julia Louis-Dreyfus 30:44
We’re back, and before we declare a winner, I just want to say that I am having a blast and that you are both delightful. So thanks for joining us. You as are you. You know, game recognizes game. What can I say? And shame recognizes shame.
Jessica St. Clair 32:30
Trash watching recognizes trash.
Aminatou Sow 32:34
That’s right. Also, it’s not trash watching. It’s soothing the soul. You know, it’s the lifetime lens to see the world, and that’s, okay, you will now both have 30 ish to a minute uninterrupted seconds to deliver your parting words about your picks today and why I should choose it as the superior Lifetime original movie, June, you get to go first.
June Diane Raphael 32:59
So I just want to say that you’re here to pick the superior Lifetime original movie, and Mother May I Sleep with Danger is is absolutely a Lifetime movie. Jackie’s back, although it sounds fascinating, and honestly like very awesome, is not what I call and what I know and what I identify as a Lifetime movie. So for that reason alone, I do believe it should be disqualified if you want to watch a movie where there’s lots of, you know, pretty tame sex, and there’s, you know, James Franco doing something very strange on screen, Tori Spelling with too much hair, you know, for her face, way too much hair. Mother May Sleep with Danger is your movie, and it is far superior, unfortunately, to Jackie’s back, because it embodies the lifetime brands and company and culture and family, you know, and community and lifetime was really took off because they tapped into women’s fears, of vampires, of, you know, all manner of men, all manner of thing. And so I just think we can’t talk about a Lifetime movie and not honor the main tenants of what it is to be a Lifetime movie. So you know, one of the, of course, I will concede, one of the challenging things about mother may sleep with dangers. There’s so many different vampires. They’re all brunettes, white ladies with brown hair. And it’s very hard to tell one from the other, especially in the last fight sequence, I couldn’t tell one from the other. It is a life it is a modern Lifetime movie. To me, it doesn’t get better than that.
Aminatou Sow 34:47
Okay, thank you for that. Jess your turn.
Jessica St. Clair 34:50
Okay, you took way more time than 30 seconds. So, just so you know, like you’re not just like Travis Kelsey running down the clock, like, I’ll take my time. Here’s the deal. You wouldn’t have Mother May I Sleep with Danger unless you’d had things like Jackie’s Back to get this network started. And I look back to our foremothers. I look back to where it all began. These were the tent poles. And I’m sorry you can if you show me a movie where you’ve got Whoopie, you’ve got bet Liza, David Hyde Pierce, Dolly Parton, Kathy Griffin, Penny Marshall, Jackie Collins, is in this film, and if you want to see them, sometimes improvise. It really separates the weed from the shaft. Okay, you see, listen, no disrespect to Bette Midler, but you compare her to Dolly Parton when it comes to delivering a line, I don’t want to compare them. You’re going to be shocked. It’s like the museum and television of Television and Radio going back and seeing where some of these comedy legends started. Okay, if you want to see that, if you want to see this lasting, you know, tribute to to comedy, and also to, you know, Broadway, then you come, I mean, Bruce von, do you want to see him in his prime? So I don’t know. It’s like, show me that cast. What you’re bringing me is a stoned James Franco, and then a bunch of brunettes who are eating each other out like that. To me is like, I don’t know how you compare that. That’s just what I’ll say.
Aminatou Sow 36:24
I don’t know how you compare. That is the dilemma that I am currently facing. So I hope you appreciate that I have an impossible job. So okay, I’m not gonna prolong this too much, but I just need you to know that this was a really hard choice. Some weeks on the show, the choice is so easy. It’s like, whatever that other pic was trash, and this one is good. This one’s interesting, and it’s hard, and I’m not gonna prolong it. I’m choosing Jackie’s Back.
Jessica St. Clair 36:49
Yes.
Aminatou Sow 36:50
Because, for this reason, we were talking about Lifetime original movies. This is so wacky. It is so original. Something like never seen anything like it never will. And it really is the lifetime that could have been. And I say that with just like deep respect and admiration for you, June, because you are right. Mother, my sleep with David. That’s a quintessential Lifetime movie. It’s the lifetime that we know it is just like the kind of unhinged that that network is known for, and the performances are great. But, you know, I gotta give it to Jackie’s Back. Mockumentary is insane and very original, and I wish they would go back to trying to make something like this.
June Diane 37:37
But, you know, I hear you both, and I deeply respect you both, and I’m interested in Jackie’s back, and I’ll probably watch it.
Jessica St. Clair 37:43
I’m interested in seeing the sex scenes from Mother May I sleep with Danger. And I’m gonna find them on YouTube, because I know that somebody put them together.
Aminatou Sow 37:51
I love you both, and you are delightful. I hope you have a great rest of your day. And thank you for joining us today.
Jessica St. Clair 37:56
Thank you so much.
CREDITS:57
Thank thanks again to June Diane Raphael, and Jessica St.Clair. You can listen to June and Jess every week on The Deep Dive wherever podcasts are available. There’s more Pop Culture Debate Club with Lemonada Premium. Subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content like Ben Mandelker and Ronnie Karam, from The Real Housewives episode talking about how the geographical differences factor into each franchise. Subscribe now in Apple podcasts. Pop Culture Debate Club is a production of Lemonada and the BBC. I’m Aminatou Sow the show is produced by me, Joanna Solotaroff, Kryssy Pease, Lamar Wood and Dani Matias. Our mix is by Noah Smith. Rachel Neel is VP of new content. Our SVP of weekly content is Steve Nelson. Commissioning editor for the BBC is Rhian Roberts. Executive Producers are Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Follow Pop Culture Debate Club, wherever you get your podcasts.
