I spent a few hours yesterday over on two soundstages at Universal Studios that were far from the recent fire. I was watching people there film portions of the finale to Land of the Lost, a forthcoming movie starring Will Ferrell in a remake/update of the classic Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday morn series of the same name. It'll be a big (maybe the big) Summer release next year ('09) and while I'm not supposed to divulge what I saw, I don't think they'll be too upset if I tell you it looked terrific. Remind me, when we get closer to the release and things aren't so hush-hush, to tell a great story about something one of the special effects guys told me.
A few hours earlier, I was in Beverly Hills for a meeting and I ducked into one of my favorite pizza places (this one) for a quick slice. This was before I realized that when I got to the set, they'd be serving pizza for dinner. Anyway, I'm in the pizza place in Beverly Hills and the fellow ahead of me looks at a wall of celebrity photos, points to one of Christopher Walken and asks, "Does he come in here?" The guy behind the counter says, "Occasionally." The customer says, "Then I want a slice of pizza with more cow bell!"
The guy behind the counter — who apparently had never seen this sketch (with Will Ferrell, oddly enough) — turns to the guy making the pizzas and says, "Hey, we got cowbell?" The guy making pizzas answers, "No."
The customer — not one to give up on a lame joke just because nobody gets it — announces, "Guys, I gotta have more cowbell." The man behind the counter gives him a look and says, "I told you…we don't have cowbell. We have pepperoni. We have sausage. We have pineapple…"
"All right, all right," the customer says. Then he points to a picture on the wall of Jack Nicholson and says, "I'll have a chicken salad sandwich…"
He didn't get a laugh with that, either. When I left with my order, he was still working the wall…