TV Talk: ‘Documentary Now!’ returns but so far no ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ parody
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Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.
Ever since the Mister Rogers documentary ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” premiered four years ago, I’ve wondered if IFC’s “Documentary Now!,” which parodies documentaries, might find a way to gently skewer the 2018 feature film about the Latrobe native and star of PBS’s “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
In its fourth season — season three premiered in 2019 — the answer remains: Not so far.
“I don’t remember it coming up,” said executive producer Fred Armisen when I asked about the possibility during a summer 2022 virtual Television Critics Association press conference.
“I think one of the reasons is there was also the (Tom Hanks) movie about Mister Rogers — so the documentary had already been sort of adapted into a feature film,” offered writer/executive producer Seth Meyers, a devoted Steelers fan with Pittsburgh ties. “And you’ve got to step lightly when you’re dealing with Mister Rogers. Rob, you know my dad’s from Pittsburgh. That’s like talking about the pope!”
Instead, the new season spoofs “3 Salons at the Seaside” and “The September Issue” (“Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport,” 10 p.m. Oct. 26), “When We Were Kings” (“How They Threw Rocks,” 10 p.m. Nov. 2), “My Octopus Teacher” (“My Monkey Grifter,” 10 p.m. Nov. 9) and “Gleaners and I” and “Beaches of Agnes” (“Trouver Frisson,” 10 p.m. Nov. 16). Episodes also stream on AMC+.
But the new season kicks off with the two-part “Soldier of Illusion” (10 and 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, IFC), inspired by Werner Herzog’s “Burden of Dreams,” about the making of Herzog’s 1982 film “Fitzcarraldo,” which filmed on location in the jungles of Peru.
“Soldier of Illusion” delivers its own zany, ridiculous story of an early 1980s-era, accented filmmaker (Alexander Skarsgård) who is in Russia simultaneously filming a documentary, “A Journey into the Ways of the Dushkir People of the Ular Mountains,” and the CBS sitcom pilot “Bachelor Nanny.”
Armisen guest stars as CBS’s top comedy executive who carts his Emmy award to rural Russia to supervise the sitcom pilot’s production. Filming the sitcom pilot in an abandoned Russian mine is ruled out because of concerns that the roaring laughs of a studio audience could collapse the mine. Then there is a bear attack during a pre-production hair and makeup test.
Nicholas Braun (“Succession”) co-stars as a child star whose career evaporated with adulthood but gets a second chance for stardom when he is cast in “Bachelor Nanny.” This absurd, consistently funny season premiere was written by John Mulaney.
“It involves a heavy production taking place in a hostile landscape that we suddenly realized as we were doing it, we actually had to do that as well,” said executive producer/director Rhys Thomas. “We made an insane request that (Alexander Skarsgård) come to North Wales to play Herzog, and it didn’t take a ton of convincing.”
Executive producer/director Alex Buono said the team has never heard from a documentary filmmaker they spoofed who was upset by the program.
“We’ve talked to a lot of the filmmakers of the original documentaries. In fact, when we start the season, we try to reach out to the filmmakers, and we often literally are just asking them, how did you make this documentary? What was your approach? What was the philosophy? Everything from an aesthetic point of view to literally what equipment were you using?” Buono said. “Season one, filmmakers were like, ‘What are you doing?’ And then by season four, they knew. Within the documentary world, I think there’s an appreciation for what we’re trying to do and how much we love documentaries, and we’re trying to just honor them.”
Adding to the high culture, PBS-ish feel is the presence of Helen Mirren, who serves as the host of “Documentary Now!” which is supposed to be a long-running series now in its 53rd season.
“Talk about buy-in,” Meyers said. “Helen Mirren had to agree to do this with no sense of what it was. But, again, shout-out to Fred. I saw her somewhere, and she said, ‘The next time you see Fred, will you tell him how much we love “Portlandia”?’ And I said. ‘If you love it, we have something we need you to do.’ And she fully bought in based on the fact that she had such trust and confidence in Fred.”
Buono said each year the team tries to find one popular documentary to spoof — this year it’s Netflix’s “Octopus Teacher” — so there might yet be reason to hope for a “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” send-up someday.
“One of the fun things about this show is taking documentaries from all different eras and not really worrying about whether it’s the most popular documentary that everybody has seen,” Buono said. “But it is always nice to have at least one every season where we feel comfortable that, well, this was really popular on Netflix. It did win the Oscar. At least one of them will be something that everybody’s heard of.”