This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. This is Rob Gronkowski from Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules. For the second season in a row, I partnered with T Mobile's Friday Night 5G Lights, powering up hometown football across America. This year, T-Mobile invested over $4 million in prizes to help schools take their Friday nights to the next level.
Now it's time to crown our $1 million grand prize winner. A huge congrats to Derricks High School in Derricks, Arkansas, home of the Outlaws and your 2025 T-Mobile Friday Night 5G Lights Champion. They scored a home field upgrade, Gronk Fitness Weight Room, a 2026 tailgate party, and an all-expense paid trip to the SEC Championship game. to every school that competed, posted, and rallied your communities. Thank you, and a big thanks to T-Mobile for making it all possible and helping communities shine under the Friday night lights.
This season may be over, but the story isn't. Stay tuned for season three in 2026. 10 athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will Will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000.
This is when mindset comes in.
Someone will be eliminated. Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video, January 8th. Watch the trailer on TrainerGames.com. Did you know Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10?
Upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop. Voted PC Mag's Reader's Choice Top Laptop brand for 2025. Thin and ultra-lightweight. The LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere. And Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades.
Visit lgusa.com/slash iHeart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11. PC MAG Reader's Choice used with permission. All rights reserved. Season 2 of Unrivaled Basketball is here and the talent is unreal. PageBeckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plum, Brianna Stewart, and more are back to redefine the game.
Unrivaled Basketball, season two sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tits off January 5th on TNT, True TV, and HBO Max. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high-free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work.
It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the SP 500. Then, you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com/slash podcast.
Paid for by Public Investing, Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc., member F-I-N-RA SIPC, advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories.
And we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between, including your stories. Send them to ouramericanstories.com. They're some of our favorites. Mark Metcalfe is an actor often identified as playing the role of an antagonist. He is best known for his role as the sadistic ROTC officer Douglas T.
Niedermeyer in the 1978 comedy Animal House, a character he later emulated in the 1984 music videos for the songs We're Not Gonna Take It and I Want to Rock. By the heavy metal hairband Twisted Sister. He is also known for playing the role of The Maestro on the hit sitcom Seinfeld. Mark Metcalf sat down with Greg Hangler. and shared his story.
Here's Mark. I was born in Findlay, Ohio. Which is the home of tasty taters and where Ben Rothesberg grew up and lived. In fact, in Hancock County, where Findlay, Ohio is, which is about seventy five miles south of Toledo, I'm the second most famous person to ever come out of Findlay, Ohio, according to the Chamber of Commerce or whoever makes those things up. Ben Rothesberg is number one.
And I'm number two, but that's all right. I'll I'll take number two. Uh so I was born there. My mom was from Ohio and my dad was from Missouri, St. Louis.
And they met during the war in 45, I guess. My mother was a wave. And she was decoding messages in an office in Washington, D.C. My dad, who had served most of the war on a carrier in the Pacific, was back doing some intelligence work analysis and things like that. My mother lived in a house.
She used to tell this story. My mother lived in a house with five other women. I'll involved in the war effort. And my father used to come up to their house for dinner and every one of the women, except my mother, thought that he was going to ask one of them to marry them. He was a good-looking guy, and he was in uniform, and he was a smart guy, and a nice guy.
And they all thought, except for my mother, she thought, because she was kind of tall and a little gawky. And they never thought that he would ask her, but he asked her. And my mother one time showed me the house where I was conceived in Washington. And I was really surprised. But she proudly told me, pointed out the house on a little street in Chevy Chase, you work and said you were conceived in that house.
So It's nice to know where you started. Oh. And uh So after I was born, and then I went back to St. Louis because my father had a job when he got out of the Navy. He had a job with a in engineering.
He had graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison in engineering. Graduated early. I think he was 20 when he graduated. Went to school at 16. He was a real smart guy.
He worked on the crew at Svergip and Parso that designed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. which is a 23 mile long combination bridge and tunnel across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. National Geographic called it the eighth engineering wonder of the world. and he was put in charge of all the tunnel work. And he became the kind of engineer who at one point was c called the the world's foremost expert on tunnels.
and I hung out with him There are two shipping channels in and out of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. They couldn't build bridges over them. Because they were the Navy shipping channels, all the Norfolk. Warships Come in and out of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
So they had to build tunnels under these, because if you build a bridge over it, Uh the the enemy could bomb the bridge into the into the channel and block it.
So they had to build four islands. and then they brought the tunnel tubes up from Texas, on big barges, and then they filled them with water and sank them. put them into the it was kind of an amazing engineering feat. And that Okay. inspired me in a lot of ways.
to go to college as an engineer. I went to the University of Michigan. And uh quickly discovered that engineering was not Really for me. It was a little dry. But I didn't know how dry it was until I got.
My roommate, my Southmore ear, said, come audition for a couple of plays. They're doing the three parts of Henry VI. And um The girls are really friendly in the theater department. That's what he told me. And he was right.
The girls were a lot friendlier in the theater department. And I got cast in, I think, 15 different parts. And that kind of hooked me because it seemed like everybody In the Metcalf. Background was either a minister, Congregationalist minister, or a librarian, or an engineer.
So I went from that rather dry atmosphere to These theater backstage in the theater where everybody's yelling and screaming at each other one minute and making out passionately the next minute. And so it's like, oh, brave new world, what creatures are there here? As Miranda says, at the end of the tempest, it was really. Kind of magnificent and an eye-opener, and I got stuck in it, and I've been doing it ever since.
So I just got to, and I really got into theater. I never thought I'd get a degree in it. I changed from engineering to architecture because it was a little bit more creative. You had to claim a major, so I claimed English was my major for a while, psychology was my major for a while, forestry was my major for a while, and I ended up. with my degree in theater.
Because it was the only thing I was taking classes in. I just stopped going to classes except for theater classes. In fact, they tried to flunk me out because my grades were so bad. and the theater department, all the teachers in the theater department wrote letters. To the teachers in the English department, the teachers in the French department, the teachers, all the classes I was failing because I wasn't going.
And they said, you can't fail him. You've got to get him a tutor. We'll get him a tutor. Get him a passing grade because we need him to do plays.
So I became like. A theater jock, the way football players got to take the easiest classes and got automatic A's because they were on the football team at the University of Michigan, anyway. And that's how I got my degree. Mm. Mm.
And I'm ashamed of that. No, I'm not that ashamed of it, but I'm a little embarrassed by it. And you're listening to Mark Metcalf tell his story. We continue with his story here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, or asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family.
If you agree that America is a good and great country, please. Make a donation. A monthly gift of $17.76 is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to ouramericanstories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's ouramericanstories.com.
Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first. And it's done.
There. The last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that Are you fresh as? You know what I always say? Pressure makes diamonds.
Whether it's on the court or in life, when things get tough, you've got to step up. That's right. And if you or someone you love is dealing with metastatic prostate cancer, stepping up means knowing your options. There's a treatment called Plavicto, Lutetium, LU177, Vipipatide, Tetraxetan, and it's worth talking about. Plavicto isn't chemo, it's a different kind of treatment that targets PSMA-positive cells, including prostate cancer cells.
Pluvicto can be used before chemotherapy for some people. Pluvicto is a prescription treatment used to treat adults with prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, or PSMA-positive MCRPC, who have already been treated with hormone therapy and are considered appropriate to delay chemotherapy. Pluvicto involves contact with radioactivity, which may increase the risk for cancer and cause fetal harm. You've got to drink plenty of fluids, urinate often, use contraception, and talk to your doctor about how to reduce the risk of exposing others to radiation during and after treatment. It can also cause low blood cell counts, kidney problems, and infertility.
So if you're feeling weak, short of breath, bleeding or bruising easily, or notice changes in urination, tell your doctor. Side effects include decreased blood cell counts, tiredness, dry mouth, nausea, appetite loss, joint or back pain, and constipation. Look, this isn't about being tough. It's about being present. It's about being there for the moments that matter, both big and small.
So if you're in the fight or know someone who is, ask your doctor about Plavicto. Because when the pressure's on, you don't fold. You find a way. Visit pluvicto.com to learn more. That's P-L-U-V-I-C-T-O.com.
Ten athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000. This is when mindset comes in.
Someone will be eliminated. Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video, January 8th. Watch the trailer on TrainerGames.com. Did you know Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10?
Upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop. Voted PC Mag's Reader's Choice Top Laptop brand for 2025. Thin and ultra-lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere. And Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades. Visit lgusa.com slash iHeart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11.
PC Mag Reader's Choice used with permission. All rights reserved. Season 2 of Unrivaled Basketball is here, and the talent is unreal. The best women's players on the planet are running it back with even bigger moments and bigger stakes. Don't miss as Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plum, Brianna Stewart, and more take the court and redefine the game.
This isn't your regular season. This is Unrivaled, where the pace is faster, the energy is higher, and every athlete shines. Unrivaled Basketball, Season 2, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, TrueTV, and HBO Max. And we're back with Our American Stories and with Mark Metcalf's story. Starting off as an engineering major, an English major, a forestry major.
I didn't know there was such a thing. And ultimately, Well, he becomes, as he put it, a theater chuck. being bailed out by all the folks in the theater department who wanted to save him from his own academic failings. And Mark Metcalfe, by the way, well, you know him as Niedermeyer in Animal House. And you've seen them in Twisted Sister videos.
The Maestro in Seinfeld, and the Master in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Let's continue with Mark Metcalfe's story. When I graduated, I actually wanted to go To graduate school because I wanted to learn more about the theater, but also I didn't want to go to Vietnam. I didn't think the war was a great thing, but primarily I didn't want to go fight it because I thought I'd be really good at it. I knew enough about myself to know that That I was good at taking orders and good at giving orders, so I fit in that military hierarchy.
like a cog in that wheel. And I didn't want to become that guy.
So I acted him later on when I did Niedermeyer. I sort of acted that guy because I knew where that guy lived inside me, and I thought. I would be good at it, but I didn't want to become him. I wanted to become something else. I didn't know what it was, but I wanted to become something else.
So when I graduated, I just took off. for the west coast and I hitchhiked I got one straight one ride all the way to San Francisco from Ann Arbor. Uh guy. guy had I can't remember his name, but he had a 1948 pickup truck. that um You had to jump start every time you started it.
So whenever we stop for gas, We had to try to find a gas station where you could push it pretty easily to jumpstart it. Whenever we stopped for the night and slept in the back, which is what we did, or camped, We had to park it on a hill so we'd get up in the morning and jumpstart it really easily. And It ran out of oil about every 120 miles, so we had to carry oil with us. We were real cowboys. We had a great time.
But we took us two weeks or so to get across the country to San Francisco. He dropped me off in San Francisco. Where 'cause that's where I thought the summer of love was 1968. It turns out the summer of love was 1967. and by 'sixty eight' it had gotten pretty sour.
Uh the day before I arrived on Haight Ashbury, Two kids had died because somebody had sold them acid that was Drano. Just a capsule and it was Drano and ate through their stomach and they died.
So it was not a, it wasn't. Peace Love Granola. It was uh It was the dirty side of being a hippie. I stayed there for a while. Uh and then I hit track down to LA and then I Felt like I needed to keep keep moving 'cause the draft board was still looking for me, I guess.
I didn't talk to my parents, so. I didn't want them to know where I was because my parents were the kind of people that would have told the draft board where I was so they could come and get me. and I didn't want to be gotten.
So I hitchhiked up to, I mean, I drove up to Portland first and then took a right and went out to Mount Hood. But I got a job as the assistant in the rental and repair shop, so I had to learn how to repair skis. After I'd been there for a couple of months, I really, I was skiing on rental skis. And I had a pair of skis back home in my parents' house in New Jersey.
So I contacted my parents and I asked them if they'd send my head masters. And they did, but they put in the box with the skis they put the letter from the draft board. saying you have to show up. at a certain time and a certain date in Newark, New Jersey for your physical. And this is the kind of person that I was then and still am, probably.
My figuring was that if I never got the letter, it didn't matter. But once I had the letter, I had to do it.
So But I really didn't want to do it.
So I tried to get into Canada. I tried to walk into Canada. I got a ride up to uh the way up in the panhandle. Got a ride a little north of there and then I got out and I just thought, well, I'll walk. Canada's just over there on the map, you know, like an inch away, 100 miles.
I can walk 100 miles through the wilderness. I've been living in the wilderness. But no, it's a real tough country up there.
So I hitchhiked back closer towards Seattle. I thought, well, I'll go across on a road rather than try to cross. in the middle of the wilderness. and I got to the border and Bob Schmaltz Knowing I was trying to get out of the country. had given me his driver's license and not his passport, but his driver's license.
And I think I even had a birth certificate of his. But I changed my name because I figured in my stoned paranoid state That the government would be looking for me at the border. That's why I had to sneak across.
So I tried to go across as Bob Schmaltz. But I got turned away at the border because they found my two different sets of ID as Bob Schmaltz and as Mark Metcalf, and they didn't want me in Canada. Because I looked bad. And I was, you know, I was, I had long hair down the middle of my back. Dirty On the road, I wore high fringed moccasins.
I was, you know. I was a hippie.
So I hitchhiked back to New Jersey. I didn't have a s a lot of guys from my high school. were there at the same time. And they all had briefcases filled with letters from doctors about their bone spurs and. or whatever else they might have had that kept them from going to Vietnam.
and I didn't have any of that stuff. But I was just really crazy. And uh they uh they saw that right away. and they gave me a 4F so I didn't have to worry about it anymore.
So they had these auditions in Chicago for regional theaters all over the country. And I did that and they got offered a job at uh Milwaukee Rep.
So I went to Milwaukee and did a season up there, and when that season was over, They didn't hire anybody back. And so I didn't know where to go or what to do, and a bunch of the people That had been working there were from New York and were heading to New York to try to work in the theater New York. And I just went to New York. And so for the next 25 years, I lived on St. Mark's Place between 1st and A.
From nineteen seventy until nineteen ninety three.
So I guess twenty Uh 23 years. The first five years I was in New York, I didn't want to do movies or TV. I just said no to all that because it was. Beneath me, I was a stage actor. I wanted to do Shakespeare and Chekhov and Ibsen and people like that.
But They pay you nice money and the first movie I ever did I was doing a play on Broadway. called streamers. and somebody saw it and they had me come in and audition for uh I didn't even have to audition, I just had to meet with uh the producer and the director. Fred Zinnemann directed it. It was a movie called Julia.
They were going to shoot it in England. I only had three days. It was a one-scene part with Jane Fonda. And I quit the play I was doing to play Streamers in New York for Joe Papp. and went to I lived in England for six weeks.
I worked for three days. They paid me for six weeks. I thought this is what the movies were always like. You got to go to fancy places. They paid you way too much money.
and you got to do work that was just plain fun. And so I thought the movies were like that, so I started saying yes to movies. It turns out they're not all like that. But they're uh They are mostly fun, for the most part. The next one I did was Animal House.
A friend of mine named John Hurd, he and I lived across the street from each other. I was living with a woman named Pamela Reed, an actress, was engaged to marry her. and he was living with a wonderful woman named Patrizia Triani, And we went to see a play in Central Park, but we took a picnic. And Pamela and Patrizia made potato salad and fried chicken and It was a real American feast. And while we're sitting there outside the theater, This Big heavy guy with long hair.
Big face. Comes walking towards us, and John heard. Who had lived in Chicago and worked in Chicago for a while. He had met John there because John had been working at Second City there.
So he said, Hey, John, come on over here. Nobody knew who John Belushi was, but we invited him to sit down and have some chicken if you want. What are you doing? And you've been listening to the story of Mark Metcalfe. And what a story indeed.
From Hippie trying to escape the draft. to actually going to Newark for all the right reasons and somehow avoiding. Becoming that person, that guy you didn't want to be. When we come back, more of the life story of Mark Metcalf here. on our American stories.
Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first There. The last one.
Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that Are you freshes? You know what I always say? Pressure makes diamonds. Whether it's on the court or in life, when things get tough, you've got to step up. That's right.
And if you or someone you love is dealing with metastatic prostate cancer, stepping up means knowing your options. There's a treatment called Plavicto, Lutetium, LU177, Vipipatide, Tetraxetan, and it's worth talking about. Plavicto isn't chemo, it's a different kind of treatment that targets PSMA-positive cells, including prostate cancer cells. Pluvicto can be used before chemotherapy for some people. Pluvicto is a prescription treatment used to treat adults with prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, or PSMA-positive MCRPC, who have already been treated with hormone therapy and are considered appropriate to delay chemotherapy.
Pluvicto involves contact with radioactivity, which may increase the risk for cancer and cause fetal harm. You've got to drink plenty of fluids, urinate often, use contraception, and talk to your doctor about how to reduce the risk of exposing others to radiation during and after treatment. It can also cause low blood cell counts, kidney problems, and infertility.
So if you're feeling weak, short of breath, bleeding or bruising easily, or notice changes in urination, tell your doctor. Side effects include decreased blood cell counts, tiredness, dry mouth, nausea, appetite loss, joint or back pain, and constipation. Look, this isn't about being tough. It's about being present. It's about being there for the moments that matter, both big and small.
So if you're in the fight or know someone who is, ask your doctor about Plovicto. Because when the pressure's on, you don't fold. You find a way. Visit pluvicto.com to learn more. That's P-L-U-V-I-C-T-O.com.
Ten athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000. This is when mindset comes in.
Someone will be eliminated. Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video, January 8th. Watch the trailer on TrainerGames.com. Did you know Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10?
Upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop. Voted PC Mag's Reader's Choice Top Laptop brand for 2025. Thin and ultra-lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere, and Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades. Visit lgusa.com/slash iHeart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11. PC Mag Reader's Choice used with permission.
All rights reserved. Season 2 of Unrivaled Basketball is here, and the talent is unreal. The best women's players on the planet are running it back with even bigger moments and bigger stakes. Don't miss as Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plum, Brianna Stewart, and more take the court and redefine the game. This isn't your regular season.
This is Unrivaled, where the pace is faster, the energy is higher, and every athlete shines. Unrivaled Basketball, Season 2, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, TrueTV, and HBO Max. And we're back with our American stories and the story of Mark Metcalf. Let's pick up where we left off with Mark telling the story of bumping into then-unknown John Belushi while enjoying a picnic with his friend John Heard. who, by the way, is the father in the movie Home Alone.
and their girlfriend in New York City. Here again is Mark Metcalf. And he starts to tell us his story about how they wanted him to do this. Live sketch comedy show on television late night, 11:30 on Saturday nights. And Lorne Michaels, this crazy guy, wanted to do it.
And Belushi said, I don't want to do it. I went in there to see him, and I told him, I don't want to work in the system. I want to work outside the system. I want to tear the system down because the system is evil and bad. And Lorne Michael said very calmly, while Belushi is ranting and raving, said, Well, the best way to tear the system down is to work inside the system, so why don't you do this?
Because this is not a system kind of thing.
So he was trying to make up his mind whether to do this thing or not. And he must have talked for 45 minutes. We'd sat there for an hour listening to him. We'd say, John, it's TV, it's money. How can you turn it down?
It's live TV, and you do sketch comedy. Matt, it's just like doing theater. What a great thing. He'd say, Yeah, I know, but I'm working for NBC and I don't want to work for those guys. And uh We noticed he finally got up and just kept going.
He hadn't made up his mind about anything. We hadn't changed his mind. We were just listening and talking and having a conversation about this. kind of what this theatre would be like, this thing would be like. And uh but we noticed after he walked away that the fried chicken was all gone and the potato salad was all gone.
He'd talked all this time and eaten everything that we had. That was the first time I ever met John Belusi. When I did Animal House, I was sent in to audition for the Matheson part, for Otter, the guy who got all the girls. I thought that would be great. That's who I really wanted to be.
But as soon as I walked through the door, Landis The director looked at me and said, Do you know how to ride? And I said, without missing a beat, I said, yeah, I was practically born on a horse. My mother's water broke when she was out on a trail ride at our ranch in Montana and She slid off the horse. My father helped her off. He delivered the baby right there in the shade of the horse.
And then we got back on the horse, and I was in my mom's arms, and we rode back in. And Landis looked at me and said, Yeah. Sure. He knew I was lying. I'd made the whole thing up.
So I told him five more lies. about how I uh Edwin knew how to ride. And the next day he called me and said, I want you to do this part. He must have liked the way I lied or something. But uh I said, oh, great, okay, good.
Do you think you can get Universal to give me some money so I can learn how to ride?
Okay. So Landis cast me without me actually having to audition. I didn't have to read lines, but I did have to prove that I would be all right. to the executives at Universal.
So he said it's just a formal thing. You just got to come in and do the audition. And I read with Michael Chinich, who was the casting director, who was a great guy, and was his. Casting That put all these people together, him and Landis. that put this group of people together.
The chemistry was so good.
So I got he played flounder and I got to bur and I had the script in my hand even though I didn't need it 'cause I knew the lines, but I got to beat him with the script and and he had fun too 'cause I got I'll always remember him uh trying not to crack up as I was beating him and yelling at him and spitting on him. Um Because we did that scene, tuck up those pajamas. Is that a pledge pit? on your uniform. Yeah, so we did all those.
So that was the process, and they told me I had it. Facts. Disgusting slam. Redo those buttons. Dress that belt buckle.
Straighten that cap. And Touch up those pajamas! What's that on your chest, mister? It's a pledge pin, sir. A pledge pin!
On your uniform!
So uh You cat, go away. John Landis had all the Delta House guys, Belushi. Jamie Widows, Bruce McGill, S. D-Day, Matheson, Otter, Boone, Riegert. had them all come out five days early before they started shooting.
And then it had the omegas, myself. and Jimmy Dawton come out later, and Kevin Bacon, I think, came out just for a couple of days near the end. But I was there for the full 32 days. I didn't shoot every day, I had a lot of free time. But when you get to a movie set, the first thing you do is go to the production manager's office and get your per diem so you've got some money to get out of town if they change their mind.
So I went in there, and Peter McGregor Scott, who was the production manager, gave me my per diem. And then he said, John Landis is over in the A coffee shop in the Roadway Inn across the parking lot from where we were staying. He wants to see you right away.
So leave your stuff here and go on over there. and see John. You'll recognize him 'cause you saw him when he auditioned, right? And I said, yeah, sure.
So I went across the parking lot, went into this crowded coffee shop. And I see John in the corner at a table at a booth. And I start walking towards him and wave to John, and John waves and waves me, come on over. I get about 10 or 15 feet away from the table. And Landis says That's him!
That's Niedermeyer! Get him! And they start throwing food at me, real food at me, and yelling at me, calling me names. In the middle of this crowded, it was my introduction. To Animal House.
So I went, I knowing it was all a gag. And understanding immediately what Landis was doing, that he was separating the two houses and creating this. tension between them right away. I sat down and said hello to my friends and and but you know, I knew I wasn't wanted and I didn't want to be wanted by these guys anyway.
So I left early. And then later on, a couple of days later, a day later, McGill stole a piano out of the lobby of the Roadway Inn and wheeled it across the parking lot to his room. and his room became party central.
So I had the hotel move my room so it was right above his room.
So I, because I wasn't going to go to Party Central, because Niedermeyer would never. do that. But Niedermeyer would want to be close and take notes on who was there.
So I had to move my room to right above his room.
So the noise kept me up and it would make me I'd sit up all night long while as long as they went on spit polishing my boots and studying my script and just getting madder and madder and taking names and writing notes down to myself and developing my characterization. That was, yeah, that was a great shoot because it was, we were all the same. The genius of that movie. is the script is really smart. Really good.
but also land us And Ivan Reitman. They didn't cast any stars. Belushi wasn't really a star yet. He was doing I think it was s we shot it in seventy seven and I think 76 was the first season of Saturday Night Live.
So he was in the second season. People knew who he was. But he wasn't a big star yet. They everybody wanted us to put all wanted them. to put all Saturday Night Live people.
They wanted Chevy to do the Tim Matheson Pard Yeah, Danny to do, D-Day. They wanted to stack it that way. That was they didn't like it at Universal, so they thought the only way to make get get this thing to make money. was to stack it with uh with a lot of stars, a lot of movie stars. But Landis didn't want to do that.
He held to his, he stuck to it, but he cast it all with actors, with real. people who had craft and people who knew what they were doing. When it hit, It was, you know, there was a lot of... Universal hated it and really thought they were just going to dump it and it wasn't going to last at all. Universal hated it and wanted to dump it.
They didn't think it would last at all. And so often you'll hear about these artistic instincts of not stacking a movie with stars and think about a lot of your favorites, whether it's Breaking Bad or it's The Sopranos. No stars. They were stars after. But they weren't stars in the beginning, and that's The Office, and that's Seinfeld, and on and on.
When we come back, more of this remarkable storytelling. and a fascinating life, Mark Metcalfe's life. Is life's story here? on our American stories.
Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first. Oh, the music is shining.
There. The last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. In sports and in life, timing is everything. You can have the right talent, the right mindset, even the right team, but if you don't act at the right moment, the opportunity slips away.
That's true on the field, and it's true when it comes to your health. If you or someone you care about is facing metastatic prostate cancer, there's a treatment called Pluvicto, Lutetium LU-177, Vipivotide, Tetraxetan. It's not chemotherapy. It works differently by targeting PSMA-positive cells, including prostate cancer cells. Pluvicto is a prescription treatment used to treat adults with prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer or PSMA-positive MCRPC who have already been treated with hormone therapy and are considered appropriate to delay chemotherapy.
Pluvicto involves contact with radioactivity, which may increase the risk for cancer and cause fetal harm. Patients are advised to drink plenty of fluids, urinate often, use contraception, and talk to their doctor about how to reduce the risk of exposing others to radiation during and after treatment. It can also cause low levels of blood cell counts, kidney problems, and infertility. If you experience weakness, pale skin, shortness of breath, bleeding or bruising more easily, an infection or changes in urination, talk to your doctor. Side effects include decreased blood cell counts, tiredness, dry mouth nausea, appetite loss, joint or back pain, and constipation.
Here's the bottom line. This isn't just about treatment. It's about making the most of the time you have. Time to be with the people who matter. Time to keep showing up for the moments that count.
So, if you or someone you love is in this fight, ask your doctor about Pluvicto, because in sports and in life, the best players don't just react, they anticipate, they prepare, they act. Visit plavicto.com to learn more. That's P-L-U-V-I-C-T-O.com. 10 athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit.
Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000. This is when mindset comes in.
Someone will be eliminated. Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video, January 8th. Watch the trailer on TrainerGames.com. Did you know Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10?
Upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop. Voted PC Mag's Reader's Choice Top Laptop Brand for 2025. Thin and ultra-lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere, and Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades. Visit lgusa.com/slash iHeart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11. PC Mag Reader's Choice used with permission.
All rights reserved. Season 2 of Unrivaled Basketball is here, and the talent is unreal. Paige Beckers, Nefiza Collier, Kelsey Plum, Brianna Stewart, and more are back to redefine the game. Unrivaled Basketball, season two sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tits off January 5th on TNT, True TV, and HBO Max. Could you get up?
And we continue with our American stories. Let's pick up where we left off with Mark Metcalf telling the story of how Universal Pictures hated Animal House and were ready to dump it before its release in theaters. Here's Mark. They did a screening in Denver a test screening in Denver. and it happened to be on the same weekend that there was a a big conference of the the Greek Yeah.
organization conference. And they invite a lot of these guys, these Greeks, these fraternity people, got invitations to come. To the screening, and they laughed so loud you couldn't hear the jokes. because it was all about them. And uh Landis ran to the phone and called the people at Universal and held the phone up to the where the audience was and said, Listen to this And they're laughing their heads off and Universal suddenly changed their mind and decided they had a hit.
So As I said, I lived in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and I would walk across St. Mark's to get on the subway. But every time I'd pass the corner right by the gem spa, there, a panhandler would say, you know, he'd reach for money and I wouldn't give him money, and he'd say, you're worthless and weak. And I was really hurt by this. I mean, I'd already done a couple other plays and was producing this movie and doing a lot of different things.
So it never occurred to me that he was quoting this movie. And I just thought he's mad because I don't give money. And I had made a decision, because so many people have their hands out in New York, and you can't give money to all of them.
So I had made a decision to not give money to any of them unless they were playing a violin or really told me a good story. Every day he was there, I'd say, No, sorry, and I'd look right at him and say, No. I didn't ignore him, I'd say, Sorry, I haven't got can I sorry and he'd say, You're worthless in a week. And uh Weeks later, I was sitting in a bar drinking a rolling rock in the West Bank Cafe with a friend of mine. And I tell him this story about this guy who keeps telling me I'm worthless and weak.
We're talking about the homeless problem in New York. And the guy said, You idiot. He's quoting the movie and I said Oh yeah, I had that line, didn't I? Oh yeah. You're all worthless and weak.
Drop and give me 20.
So I didn't realize how big it was. Probably really See, we made it came out in 1978, so six years later, 84 is when uh. Dee Snyder called me and asked me to do the Twisted Sister video. And I didn't I didn't have a T V even. I didn't have I didn't know what MTV was.
I didn't certainly didn't listen to that kind of music. As I always say, after Beethoven died, I stopped listening to popular music. Which isn't true. I listen to a lot of blues. But I didn't know what that uh heavy metal rock and roll was, or hairbands, or any of that stuff.
And when he called me and said, would you do this thing? The we've been doing your lines in our ba in our act. all up and down the Hudson River and all over Long Island. For years, we love this movie and we love this character. We want you to be in our video.
And uh That's when I think I realized then that it was a big thing. And then a friend of mine, the son of a friend of mine, I had gone to Annapolis. and I visit and he came over and he was saying, Yeah, I went in Annapolis We used to call our drill instructors Yeah. But now we call him Niedermeyer. I f I figured I'd I'd done something good then.
Yeah, so first of all, Dee asked me to do it. I said, yeah.
So they flew me out uh Sunday after I did the out matinee, and then we I flew out on the Red Eye. And Dee picked me up at the airport. But there's so there's this big guy, six foot two, six three. really kind of I call him the ugliest man in the world, which is not true, but he's he's pretty ugly. And long blonde hair with you know, uh I found out later is a lot of it is extensions.
And he's a big muscular guy. and he met me, but he's like this big puppy dog. He's so excited to meet Niedermeyer. And he drives me back to where I'm going to stay. which I didn't know where I was gonna stay.
I thought I would stay in a hotel, but they didn't couldn't afford a hotel, so I slept on Marty Callner's couch. Marty Caller was the director of it, and they picked me up, not in a limo or anything like that, but in a little Dotson or some kind of car. And as we're driving back to Colliner's house, so I could, Dee is telling me what this thing is that we're going to do, because I had no idea. It's like a Roadrunner cartoon. You're Wiley Coyote, and we're the Roadrunner, and you just all kinds of bad things happen to you.
But we want you to open it up by doing it like a, you know, one two-minute monologue yelling at your son. I know what that is. That's music. And the only, and you've got to write this tonight, you've got to write this because we're going to film it tomorrow. The only thing you have to do is you have to finish with the line, what do you want to do with your life?
That's the and then we answer. I want to rock and that's then the music starts. All right, mister, what do you think you're doing? You call this a roam? This is a pig sty.
I want you to straighten up this area now. You are. You're a disgusting slap! Stand up straight! Tuck in that shirt adjust that belt buckle tie those shoes What kind of a man are you?
You're worthless and weak. You do nothing, you are nothing, you sit in here all day and play that sick, repulsive, electric twanger. I carried an M16 and you, you carry that that guitar. Who are you? Where do you come from?
Are you listening to me? What do you want to do with your life?
So I went and got it from a friend of mine, Rex Weiner. And we drank beer and talked about this thing all night. He's a writer. He created a character called Ford Fairlane. that Andrew Dice Clay played.
So he and I wrote to shape this sort of little monologue, yelling at my son. My favorite line of his was: I carried an M16 in the war, and you carry that electric twanger. But after I did it, And it played every five minutes on MTV, I guess. But people started recognizing me then, not from Animal House, but from that. Stuff starting happening, and then I get a letter from Universal that basically says, You can't do that character.
We own that character.
So they said: if you do it again, we'll sue you. I also get a letter from Screen Actors Guild because it was not a union gig. I got those two letters threatening me, and then, like, the next day or something like that. D calls and said, They really like this video, obviously. We're going to do it again.
I said, All right, let's go. Twisted sister. What kind of a man desecrates a defenseless textbook? I've got a good mind to slap your fat face. You are destroying your life with that that that garbage!
Alright, Mr. Sister, I want you to tell me now, better yet, stand up and tell the class. What do you wanna do with your life? I wanna rock!
So I didn't care what they said. And they never came after me. They never sued me. They never threw me out of the union. I'm really proud of the work.
I really like the work. The problem that I had with it is that I let myself be typecast. I let myself. just do that part and An actor has a bigger range than what people tend to know him as. And so it's nice to have one, two, three parts, really, because there's a whole generation of young women.
mostly who grew up loving Buffy the Vampire Slayer. and I play a character called The Master in the first season of that. the you know, the oldest, meanest vampire. around. Seinfeld, great bunch of people to work with, really good writers, some of the best writing on TV.
Well hey my I'm in here. How's it going? Hi? Hi, Bob. Yeah.
Oh. I'm sorry, Maestro. Oh boy, this is a surprise, huh? Look at that. I just wanted to drop off this Chinese bomb for your burns.
Supposed to be great stuff. It's all herbal. Oh, my stroke. What are you doing? You don't have to do this.
Do you believe this, my stroke? It's nothing. Oh. Hello?
Well, hello. And who might you be? I might be Elaine. This is Bob Cobb. Maestro.
Maestro. It is my very great pleasure. Oh, enchante.
So, I've been really lucky getting good writers and getting those three parts, but there's three parts. That are all different parts of me, but they also also do reflect this sort of. Authoritarian. which is a uh a thing that I've fought against all my life. And really don't like authoritarians.
So I guess there's a little self-loathing in my work or something like that. I don't know. And thanks as always to Greg Hengler for getting us this great story. Mark Metcalfe's story. here on Our American Stories.
This is Julian Edelman from Games with Names. Fantasy football can be exhausting. I mean that literally. You're so anxious over your lineup, you can't fall asleep. Best way to deal with it is Unisom.
There's a reason it's the number one doctor-recommended over-the-counter sleep aid brand. It helps you fall asleep faster, wake up less, and feel refreshed in the morning. Plus, Unisom sleep tabs are clinically tested and proven effective and completely. Non-habit forming.
So make the ultimate sleeper pick and put it to bed with Unisom. Use as directed. This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing.
If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at don'sleep on OSA dot com. This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company. Bye.
10 athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000. This is when mindset comes in.
Someone will be eliminated. Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video January 8th. Watch the trailer on TrainerGames.com. Did you know Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 10?
Upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop. Voted PC Mag's Reader's Choice Top Laptop Brand for 2025. Thin and ultra-lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere. And Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades. Visit lgusa.com slash iHeart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11.
PC Mag Reader's Choice used with permission. All rights reserved. Season 2 of Unrivaled Basketball is here, and the talent is unreal. The best women's players on the planet are running it back with even bigger moments and bigger stakes. Don't miss as Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plum, Brianna Stewart, and more take the court and redefine the game.
This isn't your regular season. This is Unrivaled, where the pace is faster, the energy is higher, and every athlete shines. Unrivaled Basketball, Season 2, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, TrueTV, and HBO Max. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.
Mm.
