From Junk Food to Film Fest: Madison’s Creative Pulse (Hour 2)

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who considers a silver medal, a participation award, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

Oh, this is great.

It's finally Monday.

You have no idea, folks, how long I wait, how long the weekends seem until we can get back in the air here and start talking about things that are truly important in life, like movies and TV, comedy, music, theater, some sports, what's happening in Wisconsin, all this great stuff.

bringing some showbiz talk to our local communities as well.

It is great to have you with me on this Monday night.

I am live from Madison tonight.

Always fun to be here at Civic Media headquarters in Madison following the great Matt Rothschild.

And Matt, I'm sharing a mic here.

Matt was just here.

Aaron's armors is here.

Aaron, am I okay?

Matt, Matt seems like a pretty hygienic person.

Would you say that's accurate?

I would say

so.

Okay.

I mean, who knows what's happening when I'm not looking, but from everything I see, you should be good.

All right.

What do you think, Kahn?

You think I'm okay?

I don't know.

It's not your usual, you know, your mic cover and your headphones.

That's true.

Those are the voices, ladies and gentlemen, of Conrad Krieger, who's holding down the fort up in Green Bay at our at our home home court and Aaron Zombers, who always usually sticks around here whenever he can to help out, help me get situated here.

So are you sticking around for a while?

At least for a little while.

Yeah, I got some stuff to work on.

And you have plans tonight?

Yeah, it's fun to have you.

You're very in tune with what's, like, all the movies and TV shows and all that kind of stuff.

I think we hit stuff in your wheelhouse quite a bit.

I would say so, yeah.

There's

definitely times when I'm listening, either driving home or other times that I hear something and I'm like, you know what?

I should see that movie.

Or I agree.

Yeah, that was good.

Yeah.

I was listening to the great Todd Alba earlier today and I said I would have texted.

Usually when I listen, though, to the other civic media shows, I am driving.

and I would like to text to be supportive, but I don't know, like, does anybody ever just sit at home and listen to the radio?

I joke about that, but I don't think people do that anymore.

You can't text safely when you're driving on 151.

I think

it's definitely less common than listening while driving.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

Conn, how you doing tonight?

I'm doing good.

Yeah?

Did you have a good weekend?

I did.

You know, I jinxed myself this weekend.

How'd

you do that?

Couple weeks ago.

I went golfing without sunscreen and I didn't get burnt

Okay,

and I was like, you know what?

Maybe my skin is not as white as I thought it was and I went golfing yesterday And I didn't put sunscreen on and now I am extremely burnt

No, you do you're looking at like Schwab a fair skin right you could darker hair up top Yeah, but you're kind of you have a pinkish you like I do we got to be careful the same thing exact

The same exact thing happened to me.

I was pulling into town yesterday after my wife's family reunion and we saw a neighbor playing soccer.

A little guy, it was his soccer night and his parents were there.

So we pulled over and I brought bug spray with me because the mosquitoes up in Marinette have been awful.

I don't know what happened.

They've been great all summer.

All of a sudden we are getting bombarded.

Sure enough, I brought bug spray with me.

What do you think happened?

You got burnt.

Yeah, Conrad, I got sunburned.

No, no, not one mosquito, but if I had not brought the bug spray with me, I would have gotten chewed alive, you know.

So that's just how it goes.

I was thinking different way than

that.

I thought I got a sunburn.

Hey, we got a great show for you, folks.

A couple really solid Madison dudes on the show tonight at 635, writer, director.

and producer John Roach will be here.

John is a native Madisonian.

That's what they call him, right?

Here in Madisonian.

I think so.

It's a very busy word, but I like it.

It works.

John will be here at 6.35.

John made a film called A Road at Night about Howard Moore.

Howard is a former UW basketball player and was kind of the spirit of the team when he was here, even though he didn't put up huge numbers.

Everybody loved him.

He came back to Madison and I...

If I recall, it's been a couple months since I've seen the documentary, but begged Bo Ryan to put him on the staff in a coaching position, because he had been coaching at other places, and Bo Ryan did, and Howard Moore became a very popular coach as well.

Well, there was a terrible drunk driving accident that affected Howard's family and Howard, and John Roach, my guest tonight, who's just a fantastic filmmaker, made a film called A Road at Night, and we'll find out if that is available to stream tonight.

It's just a...

beautiful documentary.

John will be here in studio to talk about that.

John also was a co-writer on the film The Straight Story, which is a David Lynch film that was shot in Iowa and Wisconsin around 1998, 1999.

Richard Farnsworth plays the lead role of a guy who drives a John Deere tractor from Iowa to Wisconsin to see his ailing brother.

It's just a great story and I rewatched it again over the weekend.

Sissy Spacek is in it.

Harry Dean Stanton.

Chris Farley's brothers are in it as brothers.

They had kind of a funny scene with Richard Farnsworth and John wrote that film with Mary Sweeney who also edited the film for David Lynch.

So we'll talk to John about that.

And then I'm just going to tease this.

John created a show in the 80s when he was still producing TV in Chicago.

that was just great and I'll tell you all about that when he was here too but it's a great show involving sports and he's just a multi-talented guy so John will be here at 635 in the studio and then at 720 my pal rocker will be here rocker as many of you know filled in for terry bar over the last few weeks not the last couple weeks but when terry was on vacation for bar ban friday night rocker knows more about wisconsin uh no knows more about wisconsin music than

All of us combined.

And when I say all of us, I mean me, Aaron Zahmer's and Conrad Krieger.

Would you accept that, Aaron?

Are you okay with that criticism that you don't know that much about Wisconsin music?

I don't want to put you on the spot.

I would agree.

I would say that Wisconsin music, especially, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody who knows more.

Yeah.

I think, I think rocker and terry bar together, especially because Conrad is mostly a sports guy.

Yeah.

And I would say it's safe to say Conrad does not know a ton about Wisconsin.

Yeah, that's correct.

I'm not trying to insult you guys together, but since there's two of you here, I think it's just the fact.

I just saw Sage too.

He gave me a wave on the way out and then he doubled back for some candy.

I don't know if I should out the CEO like that.

Well, you already did.

He just got caught with his hand in the candy jar.

We have a safe trip home stage.

So great show tonight, and a lot of fun.

I think before we go on, I want to talk about this family reunion a little bit.

But I think before I do that, we should get to our nightlight question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

OK, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

OK, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

We got a good one tonight, folks.

It's national junk food day.

What junk food can you not say no to?

It's a double negative.

Did I get that right?

I'm asking

the right question.

What junk food can you not say no to?

I guess I'll go first because there's so many that I find chips are tough for me to say no to.

I eat chips, but I think for actual junk food,

I'm gonna say ice cream sandwiches I Have tried I can I can put down a whole box of those if the mood catches me right a six pack not a 12er But I could eat I could probably eat six ice cream sandwiches What about you guys way in here?

You know, I posted on social media.

I'll just say the peanut butter filled pretzels

Those are like

crack once I start eating them.

It's hard to stop and then all of a sudden the containers gone

And you don't even realize how many calories are in those things.

It's like, it's like 130 or somewhere on there for like five pretzels.

And pretzels

doesn't

do anything for you.

Exactly.

So it's really easy to keep eating those.

What about you a train?

I feel like I do love ice cream.

I love it a lot.

I do too.

And so I try not to buy it, but also just pretty much any salty snack.

You got pretzels.

You got potato chips.

those peanut butter filled pretzels.

Definitely.

I am a snacker.

I am guilty as charged.

I can't help myself around the salty snacks or the ice cream.

So where are you at on sea salt

caramels?

Oh, beautiful.

Wonderful.

Amazing.

I will shove like four of those in my mouth just to get that crazy salty chocolate sensation, which is amazing.

And here's the thing about like peanut butter filled pretzels.

On paper, I don't like those.

I'll look at them.

If Conrad, if you were over and you saw them, you start, I'd go, that's disgusting.

And then I'd eat one, and then the whole thing would be gone.

And I would feel really crappy about myself, because I technically don't even like those, but you eat them.

Food is addictive like that.

It's like nicotine.

So, there you go.

Let's get some of these social media responses out of the way for our question of the night.

Folks, if you want to be part of the show, and I hope you'll be part of the show, we're live from Madison tonight.

I'm not at the home court, so I need some help here.

I need you guys to be part of the show.

What junk food can you not say no to?

It's National Junk Food Day.

That's tonight's question of the night.

You can let us know at 855-752-4842 or 855-757.

Whatever is easiest for you to remember.

Also, let us know on the app.

Very easy to use.

Most of you probably have it, but if you don't, you can download it.

And Nightlight is on statewide.

So you just click on whatever station you're listening to and fire away.

Also, you can text us on the stream.

We get tons of comments on the stream every night.

That's fun too.

And that's Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Either way, however you join the show, it's great to have you.

So let us know what your favorite junk food is and the junk food you can't say no to.

Monica Hale says, anything free.

which is why I am currently on a really strict 60-day weight loss program.

It was tough even giving the free mounds candy, mounds candy bar to my sister.

The diet also involves fasting.

I thought you were nuts when you said it was a good thing.

She's talking to me, Conrad.

She says, but I'm halfway through and fasting isn't the hardest part.

Well, I hope it's helping Monica because fasting is not as difficult as people think it will be.

Especially if you eat like a prisoner of war refugee right when you come off said fast Which I don't recommend either, but there it's it's not that tough and there are a lot of health benefits So I'm glad you're doing okay with that And I wish you luck on your program And thank you for the text Conrad of course peanut butter filled pretzels.

I said I said ice cream sandwiches Jody Hinman on the social media says caramel corn.

That's a tough one, too

Man, I could chow caramel corn like there's no tomorrow.

Thank you, Jody.

Paula Krieger, Conrad's mom checks in.

She says chips and dip.

I'm with you there, Paula, especially if it's like guacamole.

Forget it.

I could polish off so much guacamole with a great nacho chip.

I should have probably said, what junk food can you say no to?

Because a lot of these are making me hungry.

Conrad's mom also says from Conrad's dad any kind of little Debbie snacks Nutty bars brownies little cakes and all the holiday themed desserts a must for all ages Not gonna argue with Conrad's parents.

I learned that the hard way Amanda never I hope she's enjoying her time off as best she can Amanda says popcorn especially theater popcorn Conrad you remember I said that last week.

I theater popcorn.

I don't really even like but if I take one handful

The whole bag is gone.

It's game over.

It's game over.

And it's the same with the peanut butter pretzels.

George Chambers, hey, George, good to hear from you, buddy.

He's putting in a Facebook response.

He says, oh, I thought every day was junk food day.

Well, it certainly can't be George.

It's a beautiful thing about being an American.

Do whatever you want.

Daniel Wheeler.

Did you know Daniel Wheeler Conrad is a matchmaker?

Do you remember when he was on the show?

Yeah.

He brought us matches.

He is an actual matchmaker.

And that gave me an idea for a romcom.

Yeah, that's

a matchmaker.

The guy who actually makes matches meets the love of his life.

And she's a challenge.

Daniel says, I really like triple chocolate donuts.

Remind me of a great bit from Jim Gaffigan stand up where he says, I asked my son if he wanted to get a donut and he said, I'm not hungry.

I said, what does that have to do with it?

That's great.

All right.

We'll read more of your texts throughout the course of the show.

What's your favorite junk food folks?

That is tonight's question.

John Roach coming up at 635 and rocker is here in studio.

Two great guests.

A great question.

Great to have you with me.

This is Pete Schwabba and nightlight on the civic media radio

network.

This is Pete Schwabba coming to you live with Night Light on a beautiful night in downtown Madison, our beautiful state capital.

Great to be here at Civic Media headquarters tonight.

Conrad is holding up the fort, down the fort, or up the fort?

Holding down, Conrad.

Holding it down.

Holding down the fort, okay.

And Aaron Zommer is a shout out hanging around he of Todd Alba fame.

Always fun to connect with Aaron, who sticks around and is part of the nightlight, which is always fun.

Our question of the night, folks, I'm just going to say it differently.

What is your, it's national junk food day.

What is your favorite junk food?

What is the junk food you can't say no to?

Boris Hamilton, my hotel Boris says McDonald's hash browns.

Oh, that's, boy, that's one I never would have thought of.

It's a great answer though.

Thank you, Boris.

And on the stream, Dave says, old Dutch onion and garlic.

at the shore crest.

The shore crest is a bar in Marinette that I guess if you're a Packer fan, you love the way it looks.

It's painted green and yellow, but it's right out sort of kind of close to the water, but on the highway, on Bayshore, if you're in Marinette.

It's a really cool kind of a quaint little joint, but not the best to look.

I bet even Packer fans are like, oh, that's an interesting choice.

Dave says, I'm getting the munchies.

Thanks a lot.

You got it, Dave.

Chow down, buddy.

Terry Barr from Bar Band Friday Night, our pal Terry says, dill pickle chips.

I could go with dill pickle chips.

Those are fantastic.

So here's what I, here's one of my foods I'm not addicted to.

And I love this.

I was at a family reunion this weekend for my wife's family, the Lockhearns, a big Irish family.

And there's Irish all over the place on my wife's side of the family, and a lot on my side, too.

So we're dealing with that.

But I love... This cracks me up when old people still use the phrase, wieners.

I'm always taken aback by that.

Like, I don't know if I should make a joke, but they're, like, being serious.

We've got wieners on the grill, okay?

Good for you, good for you.

My mother-in-law still calls them wieners.

And I'm talking about, of course, for the younger generation, if you're listening, hot dogs.

That's what older people call hot dogs, is wieners.

Conrad, do you think they started calling wieners, hot dogs, wieners because of what the slang for men's junk?

Or do you think it was men's junk that made them call hot dogs that?

Which came first?

I don't

know.

Dude, it has to be.

that they were hot talks for.

Nobody would do it the other way around.

That's disgusting.

Yeah.

That's a good question.

We need to go to the Google for maybe.

Go to the Google.

I'm telling you.

I will bet $1,000.

It's how I just said it was.

But it was a really fun family reunion.

It was up near Manawa at Bear Lake Resort.

We had a great time.

Except there was a sound system.

Like there was this guy talking for like 15 minutes.

Nobody had any idea what the guy was saying.

And he just kept going.

Nobody told him we couldn't hear him.

So he's just up there.

We're just letting him jaw And nobody knows he has no idea nobody can hear him.

That was embarrassing But a good time.

I just thank you to the lockers.

Yeah, I

just sent you a Little description of why it's why it's called wainers in your chat if you want to read

that can I read it on the radio?

Yes.

Yes, it's okay.

It's nothing like it's

not.

No, it's not

All right, we'll get back to that because that's that's something you want to keep in the back pocket for

I don't know if I want John Roche to have to follow the Wiener talk.

This is like this great guest I

had.

I

wanted to follow that.

Hey, we got a text from Matt Rothschild from the 608.

You just heard Matt.

He says blue corn chips on their own.

I mean, I love blue corn chips and they're supposed to be healthier than regular chips.

But I think if you, I think I need some guacamole or some good salsa or something.

Thank you, Matt.

It was good seeing you again.

Drive safely.

Hands at 10 and two.

Tom from New Berlin says, theater popcorn is like chips and dip.

You eat unabated, keep shoving.

I think Tom made himself hungry with his own texture.

He kind of trailed off like he was going to the kitchen cabinets.

Barb from Waukesha says, Oscar Meyer Wiener, the fun jingle.

It is Barb, but it's a weird thing.

I mean, just tell me what it's that Conrad.

I can't read something when I'm on the air like that.

What did it say?

What's the gist of it?

All right, so.

It says wiener is derived from the German word for Vienna wean where the sausage

was

popularized

That's not that's not like obscene or anything.

No No, it was called that first and then men made an association with it and said oh, I'm gonna call this a wiener, too And I think it's just it's not the

other

way

around the the sausage

itself was originally called wiener worst chin

Meaning

Vienna sausage.

Nobody would ever eat that.

That's terrible.

You know, I'm not the greatest idea guy in the world, but I know when I hear something bad.

And that's just, that's terrible.

They need to change that.

Anna from the 608 says, Hi, Pete and Conrad and Aaron.

I can't say no to taco flavored Doritos and ranch flavored Doritos.

Taco are the original, I think.

Well done, Anna.

I'm with you.

And Tom from New Berlin also says, once in a while, I go for Dorito nacho cheese, the test generation in 70s.

That's right.

They sprung that on us, Tom, the red dye 40.

Tom also says potato chips and sour cream dip.

Tom is leading the pack here.

I think he's a junk food junkie because he's got a lot of favorite junk foods.

This is like when Casper chimed in with the dive bar question.

And he had every suggestion.

Mark from Prairie to Sex says, Oscar Meyer had a song.

Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener.

That is what I really want to be.

I remember that well.

Thank you, Mark.

And Barb from Waukesha says, oh, grow up.

LOL.

Just kidding.

I know.

I'm very immature.

Conrad, you're younger than me.

Do you think I'm immature?

You know.

Just a little bit.

Just a long pause.

I was going to ask Aaron next.

All right, we've got great fun on the show tonight, folks.

Rocker is here at 720.

We're going to be talking about the Atwood Music Festival.

Cool Madison vibes on the east side here.

That is coming up this weekend.

We'll discuss that with Rocker.

And in just a few minutes after the news, my pal John Roach will be here, a great director, producer, writer, very, very much for looking forward to having John on the show.

And here in studio, coming to you live from Madison.

Conrad Krieger working the board in Green Bay.

Aaron Sommers working the board here in Madison.

I can't speak for the rest of the stations, but I think we're covered.

It's Pete Schwabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome

back.

I am Pete Chihuahua.

This is Nightlight.

You've got the Civic Media Radio Network broadcasting statewide here from beautiful downtown Madison tonight.

I'll be here all week.

Conrad, I meant to tell you, Paul Van Den Plas came out.

He was in Marinette over the weekend and he sent me a text and he was doing a thing.

He's doing this thing about...

He's gonna eat like 100 hamburgers and 100 weeks or something like that.

And he was in Marinette to eat at Mickey Luz.

And he texted me and I went out and said hello to him and his beautiful wife, Sarah.

They were, I don't have a report though.

I don't know how the actual feeding or eating went.

But I'm anxious to talk to Paul about that.

And I was just reminded because he said his favorite junk food is soft baked cookies.

Can't keep away from those.

Well done Paul.

We'll talk soon.

It was great to see you the other day right now I'm very excited to welcome my first guest of the show he is an action I've used the term renaissance man here and there But you're kind of a show business renaissance man.

My guest is John Roach.

He joins me here in the studio He is the co-writer of the film the straight story the David Lynch film.

He wrote another show

Created another show back in the 80s.

We're gonna talk about that I absolutely loved But first we're gonna kick off with a movie he made that actually absolutely knocked my socks off.

It was a documentary about Howard Moore UW staple.

He was a UW Madison basketball player and coach and Was the victim he and his family of a terrible car crash and John made a documentary about that.

We'll talk about all that stuff John

But it's great to have you here.

Pete,

great to see you.

We became fast friends.

Yeah.

when you were good enough to have me on to help promote the Road at Night for the

Wisconsin Film

Festival and our thing for the Barrymore, screening at the Barrymore.

But it was like we're peas in a pot

because

we both, well, you're a native Chicagoan, but I am of Chicago stock on my mom's side and then lived and worked there for over 20 years.

So I felt like I was just talking to a homie when I first met

you.

It was

like, where the hell have you been?

It's funny because I think we have that in common in a way.

I always talk about how I grew up, the first part of my life in Chicago, moved up to Marinette, Wisconsin, and then I went back to Chicago.

So when I'm there, I'm a cheesehead, and when I'm here, I'm a fib.

Right.

I'm like a man without a home.

I love both places, but you're not always kind of welcome in a kidding way, but you had the same experience.

You had a lot of time in Chicago and a lot of time in Wisconsin.

A ton of time.

And you

know, I was in Chicago in the 80s.

You know, I started out on a show called AM Chicago, which became Oprah.

Yeah.

I would go to screenings for films that I was producing segments for.

And I'd be in the screening room with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.

Oh, that's right.

I

forgot about that,

too.

You know, here's two critics in Chicago who could make every knee in Hollywood shake.

once

a week,

right?

Which was remarkable.

We had the ascendance of Oprah, the ascendance of Michael Jordan, who was bigger than any person in the world.

Worked

with Himaton.

It was the rise of the 86 Bears and Mike Gitga and the Bears, the Bulls, all that stuff.

Second City had a bumper crop of talent that was just unbelievable.

David Marinus, a great Madisonian,

he

wrote the biography of Barack Obama

and his lead

two paragraphs were all about there was no more interesting city in the world than Chicago in the 80s,

if you thought

about

it.

And I was lucky to be there.

It was like a maelstrom of all these elements that came together at one time.

I remember going to the first Chicago Cubs,

Night game with

Steve and

Gary the first one got rained out So we repaired to the billy goat and I went in to use the men's facilities because there was a little beer involved Throughout the night sure and to my right is Bill Beck and to my left is Mike Rico.

Oh And it's like how do you write that stuff?

Wow.

And you know,

here's another thing.

It's been a tough year.

I worked a lot with the Miller Light All-Stars, Bob Uker passed.

Obviously, I have nothing but just incredibly warm feelings about David Lynch and gratitude.

And then George went past, who I worked with Norm of Cheers, who

just

passed, who I worked with a lot throughout my career and considered a friend.

And so...

And certainly he was part of that Chicago scene back

in the

day.

You know, he was part of the Tim Kezerinsky, Mary Gross cast.

And when we did aim Chicago, if we had a guest cancel at the last minute, we would just call the second city people and they would come scurrying over and, you know, get their face out there and, you know, do a good 15 minutes and then we'd move on.

Well, that's exciting that you had that experience, but you also came back home here to Wisconsin.

We both live here as adults.

Yeah.

You know, we got out of the rat race for the most part.

But you, so let's talk, I want to jump in because I have so much to talk to you about, John, and your hometown is Madison.

It is.

And you made this great film, A Road at Night, which I had the opportunity to see because you were on the PBS show that I host and we got to talk about it a little bit there briefly.

And you had this incredible screening at the Barrymore Theater, which I could not make because I was doing a different screening that night.

But tell us about A Road at Night.

Well,

my father...

worked for Badger Sporting Goods, which at one time was on State Street.

And then he eventually became the head of the company.

He played baseball at Wisconsin.

We grew up about five blocks from Camp Randall.

So I was immersed in sports and Wisconsin sports, Edward High School sports my whole life.

My dad was a minor league baseball player.

My grandfather played.

with the four horsemen for Newt Rockney at Notre Dame.

So,

you know, sports was just part of what I knew growing up.

So I obviously knew about the Badgers, although ironically, the team that Howard was on in the early 90s, which featured, you know, Mike Findlay.

Tracy Webster, Rashard Griffith, Andy Kilbride, and they were the first team to make the NCAA tournament in 47 years

at

Wisconsin.

And so, but I didn't know them that well, because I was working in Chicago then.

And they didn't broadcast every game as they do now, you know, they broadcast everything now, you clear your throat and, you know, they do social media on it.

So, so I didn't, you know, I knew

Howard and his wife Jennifer and passing enough to nod at them because I was reasonably good friends with Bo Ryan Greg guard and Because my high school coach hired Bo Ryan at Platteville.

I mean, it's not a big state Pete It's a very small state and an even smaller city

and you're connected to everybody.

So,

um, you know, it just is it's happenstance.

So

anyhow

My good friend Tim Valentine, who is a big star up in the Valley High School star, played at UW Eau Claire.

He has a friend, George Hamill, who's a Wisconsin grad who's done great.

His sister was in my fifth grade class at Blessed Sacrament, amazingly.

So when the accident happened with the Moore family, it was in 2019.

And very shortly after that, the world shut down with COVID.

And so the Moors were left

to deal with this awful, the awful result of three young girls in Michigan not making one single good decision on their night out.

And COVID was like this big curtain that dropped over Howard and his family.

And as soon as people started coming back, the first thing Tim was...

Bo Ryan's lawyer, he's Greg Gard's lawyer, he's Paul Chris lawyer, Jimmy Leonard.

So George Hamill and Avid Fan just said, when they finally got together to watch a football game, he said, what's the story of Howard?

Everyone was asking that question because there was an accident and then there was the next bad thing.

Two bad things happened.

So let's say, okay, so just to give a quick recap.

uh, for listeners, Howard and his family were heading from Chicago to Detroit from

Madison

to Chicago to visit his

family and then to Detroit to visit Jen Moore's mother Vera on the outskirts of Detroit.

Right.

And they, and as many people do, they went to Chicago and thought, you know, we're going to leave at midnight and get through Chicago before the traffic, which is not an uncommon thing.

Right.

They went round the bend, you know, um, round, you know, South Bend and, you know, Gary and all that.

And, um,

they were 20 minutes from Jennifer's home and a young woman named Samantha Winchester had gone out on the evening with two of her friends and they went to a bar and they knew the bartender and they had multiple rounds of drinks and then Samantha decided she could drive home and she somehow got mixed up and was driving the wrong way on

M5 or whatever it is, but essentially the interstate outside Ann Arbor.

And the Moors were coming around a corner.

Jennifer was driving because Howard got tired and they just swapped, you know, 15 minutes before and got asked for the home stretch.

And they had a head on collision.

And the way that accident happened, the Moors couldn't avoid this young woman.

And so there's a terrible accident.

Jennifer and

Jaden Moore, their daughter, they were killed.

Jarrell, their young son, was able to wrangle Howard out of the front seat of the car.

Jen was on fire on the highway, and it was horrific, just horrific.

But in the midst of all of this tragedy, there's this beauty, too, because immediately, within an hour, Howard's teammate started showing up.

Andy Kilbride, Chris Conger drove from Chicago.

Then Stan Van Gundy turned his car around.

He was driving his son to college, went right to Ann Arbor to the hospital.

And all of a sudden, he was surrounded by the brotherhood that he belonged to of Wisconsin players.

And it's a lot about the bonds of teammates, too.

played big time sports in the crucible in these big arenas.

You're 18, 19 years old and you're subjected to public scrutiny and that most 18, 19 year olds aren't.

And that draws you together.

And it's like serving in the same unit in the military.

Right.

And they're friends for life.

And they responded in such a remarkable way.

And then, you know, Howard was an assistant coach at Wisconsin.

So Greg Gard, all the coaches came over.

Wisconsin actually chartered a plane to fly all the staff over.

And there was just this outpouring of love.

Then Howard gets back to Madison three months later.

And he had third degree burns over the upper third of his body.

As sometimes happens with burn victims, he threw a clot and had a heart attack, a serious heart attack.

Later though, right?

About six to eight weeks later, he was recuperating at home.

Jarrell was fine.

Howard was ambulatory, verbal, he was healing.

And then he had this terrible heart attack and now he's nonverbal and nonambulatory.

And it's brutal because here was a huge, beautiful, great athlete and one of the most valuable guys you'll ever meet.

He lit up the room.

He and Jen were beloved in the community and now he can't walk or talk.

That's the voice of John Roach.

He is my guest here on Nightlight in studio here, live from Madison tonight.

We're talking about his amazing documentary, A Road at Night, and the story of the Moore family and their horrible accident.

So the film is so great, John.

Like what I love about it is

It's kind of two different stories.

My brother went to UW.

I never did.

I've never lived in Madison.

Poor you.

But I know, right?

But I did stand up here for years, and I just always loved it.

And watching your documentary, there's a scene you have where the son, Jarell, says to Stan Van Gundy,

who I think was Howard's coach years ago.

He was an assistant coach under Stu Jackson, then head coach for one year.

And his son is saying, coach, I couldn't save my sister.

I lost it.

The fact that he called him coach, a guy who he probably doesn't know nearly, it's just a community.

This film makes you feel so good about...

UW Sports, UW Madison, any connection you have, but then there's this tragic element to it, too.

We'll get into that.

John is here.

We're talking about his film.

Now, we're going to talk about The Straight Story, a film he made with David Lynch years ago, too.

But we're having some fun on that.

And Mary Sweeney.

And Mary Sweeney.

Believe me, I was going to mention her, too.

So we're coming back after this very short break.

It's Pete Schwab and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio

Network.

Who's the one I wanted to save?

Just because I love you so.

Welcome back to Nightlight, folks.

Great to have you with me on this Monday night, broadcasting from beautiful downtown Madison, our state's capital.

Our question of the night, if you want to get in on the fun, is what is your favorite junk food?

It is National Junk Food Day.

Bridget from the 818 says, chips and dip.

I can't resist.

That is the age.

Nobody can resist chips and dip.

John Roach, do you have a favorite junk food?

Well, I don't think...

It's junk food.

I think it's a delicacy.

But a fresh Oreo, dunked in milk is irresistible.

That's not junk food.

Yeah.

It's

irresistible.

It's

basically vegetable.

Let's be honest.

Some people will call it.

You

know there are people who call it junk food.

You

know that.

Can you know why?

Because it tastes good.

I know.

And who cares, right?

That's the voice of John Roach.

He is my guest here in studio.

It's great to have him here.

He made this film called A Road at Night about Howard Moore, this terrible accident.

And it's this great movie.

It'll be hopefully available to stream soon, but we're going to talk more about that.

And I'm going to ask him about a film he co-wrote called The Straight Story.

He co-wrote it with Mary Sweeney and David Lynch directed it.

And they shot a lot of that in Wisconsin and Iowa.

So we'll talk about that.

coming up as well too, but let's get back to a road at night.

And I tell people this, John, people I know that are big Wisconsin sports fans or people who went to the university and love Madison, you have to see this movie because it will make you proud to be part of Wisconsin and Madison.

And then there's this family and this community element of the story, which is the tragic part, but it's a beautiful movie.

Well, first of all, thanks.

You're welcome.

You

know, we we screened it at, you know, pretty much debuted it other than the private screening here in town.

We debuted it at the Wisconsin Film Festival at the Barrymore.

And I have to tell you, for people who care about Wisconsin sports and care about Madison and do the Moors at their church or, you know, I mean, they were they were popular folks in Madison.

Yeah.

But we had a lot of people at the film festivals.

We also screened at the Beloit Film Festival in Dubuque, which meant we could get test screenings and not have to get in a plane and go somewhere.

All sorts of people who knew nothing about Wisconsin sports or cared about sports in general watched it.

It's shocking, but we had a lot of people at the screenings whose families were affected by drunk drivers.

I

mean, we in Dubuque, a woman walked up and said, thank you for making this film.

My oldest sister was killed with four other seniors in high school when I was in fifth grade.

And my parents were never the same.

And you say that you say it's not a movie.

It's not a sports movie or movie, but it's about drunk driving.

Well, I'll tell you that's a great question.

So basketball is the stage upon which the story plays out, but it's not a basketball movie.

I don't think right.

I don't know if

you and it is about drunk.

But here's I think we've just had two Hollywood production companies do our trailer and our poster, you know, because we're trying to

It

gets

a real movie.

Yeah.

And I got into a deep discussion with the guys doing the trailer.

And I said, you know, for the longest time I've said it's a, it's a, it's a, first of all, it's a crime doc.

The one when we hit them committed vehicular homicide.

But I said, it's not even a drunk driving movie.

It's about there, but for the grace of God, go I, it's about the awful randomness of life because the mores were doing everything right.

And yet still the fates completely messed with them in the most tragic of ways.

And I also had a lot of people who just go, I'm gonna go home and hug my wife and kids.

The other thing I have to say is there are inspiring, it is a heavy topic and there's no dodging it, right?

But there's so many moments of inspiration in it for me that

You know, you you're moved.

Just I mean, doing the film and cutting the film, you know, you're a pro.

You have some objectivity.

You've done a lot of content before.

But man, there were times my editor, Joe Fung, he said, John, every time I cut this thing, I cry.

You know, I know.

But it's I think the tears are also restorative.

You know, it's like, I mean, first of all, you kind of need to cry.

But it's

You're also crying for the humanity of it, you know, that it's just it reminds you how close everyone is and what a crapshoot life is.

It's such a great film.

And those of you.

It's not available to stream yet, but they're going to do some theatrical releases.

Hopefully.

We

hope to have a local theatrical release in Madison at

one of

the theater chains.

We're trying.

And then maybe Milwaukee, maybe Chicago, because remember, there's a lot

of Chicago.

A lot of Chicago basketball.

Man, where can people find out about these screenings, John?

Like if you decide to do that on social media, I'll

be back on to tell

you all about it.

No, I mean,

I'll, I'll tug your sleeve because we hope to do it in the fall.

We hope to get a streaming deal, which will be the.

easiest way to access it, Amazon.

We're right now talking to agents in LA who represent it.

And 90% of the revenues of the film goes to the More Family Trust to make sure Howard's health

care is

taken care of, and his son Jarrell has what he needs to get on with his life in college and all.

So we have a vested interest in having it generate some revenue there have been really gracious donor donors to the trust already Okay, so it's it's getting to where it needs to be

it's such a great and I think like for me if you can Folks if you can see it if you're lucky enough to see it like I watched it alone You sent me a link so I could watch it for the show when I interviewed you but then I heard about this screening of the Barrymore was sounded spiritual Yeah, you know, that's how you want to see it.

So if this does make it to theaters

And it looks like it will follow.

Is there a website or social media that can follow?

Yeah, I wrote

it

tonight.

Okay.

I wrote it.

Instagram, Facebook, X, I think, I don't know.

But, you know, the Barrymore, you know, I'm a townie.

Yeah.

I mean, I was saying to someone, I'm trying to think, I think the last time I was in the Barrymore was to see Warren Zevon, God rest

his soul.

Oh,

funny.

But, you know, and it was packed.

And it's...

You know, actually the same thing happened with A Road at Night that happened with The Straight Story when I went to the Madison Theater and watched it alone with a small crowd in there.

People sit silently during the credits.

When a film accomplishes that, you know you've got

them.

Yes.

That

they're immersed in the story.

All right, John Roach is here.

We got to do intermission here, folks.

We'll be back for act two.

And that was a great segue.

We'll talk a little bit about The Straight Story that John wrote with Mary Sweeney and that was directed by David Lynch.

We'll talk about that and we'll

Maybe put a bow on a road at night.

And if we have time sports writers, I should have looked at you for like three hours.

I have more to talk to you about than the length of time I'm on the air.

So we'll do it.

It'll be a mini series.

We'll figure it out.

We're coming right back in Act 2.

Rocker is here in the second hour too.

We're going to talk about At Wood Fest.

It's Pete Schwabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Peach Waba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And

now a guy who thinks outside the box and hates cliches.

Peach Waba.

Welcome back.

This is Night Late Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am Pete Schwabba.

Great to have you with me on this Monday night as we kick off act two here.

If you missed the first hour, my guest and is still my guest, John Roach is here.

We talked about his movie A Road at Night.

A great watch.

We'll get back into that in just a second.

Our question of the night is what is your favorite junk food?

It is National Junk Food Day.

And we are asking people to tell us, share with us the food you cannot say no to, even though you know that you should.

We've had some great answers.

So be part of the show and chime in and let us know what your favorite junk food is.

I will be here in Madison all week, folks, live from Civic Media headquarters here.

Conrad is holding down the fort back in Green Bay.

And in the second hour here, in just a few minutes, we'll have Rocker from Max Ink Radio, the award-winning Max Ink Radio.

We'll be here in studio.

We'll be talking about Atwood Fest, which takes place this weekend on the East Side.

Good food, great music, and some cool East Side vibes.

We'll talk to Rocker in just a bit.

Right now, I'm excited to get back into my interview here with John Roach.

He's a producer, a writer, and a director.

His film, A Road at Night, we just talked at length about, although not enough about.

And we're going to jump into some talk about a film he wrote called The Straight Story.

He co-wrote it with Mary Sweeney and David Lynch directed it.

So what a thrill.

What a thrill that must have been, John.

It was tremendous.

You know, I always say the adage is be nice to the girl who sits next to

you

at

Catholic Grade

School because it, you know, in the very early goings, Mary was the moving force, you know?

Yeah.

And as someone who, you know, wrote a lot to write a screenplay with an editor, that is a really good idea.

because Mary had the understanding of structure.

I mean, she's a good writer too, but she had the understanding of structure and flow and when to let it breathe.

And, you know, we wrote the first draft, the first scene outline, the first draft in Mary and David's compound in the Hollywood Hills.

And I would get up in the morning, you know, I was on Midwest time and I get up early in the Midwest.

So I was

up at...

430, having coffee at the sunset marquee while all the vampires were coming in off of the sunset.

And then I get up to Mary's place, you know, at Eight-ish, I don't know.

And then we would write all day.

And the great thing about writing in David Lynch's...

artistic compound is there's always good coffee available.

And, you know, we were just jamming on coffee and I think we wrote for eight days straight.

And we did a survey of Iowa prior to that.

We had notes and research and all.

And it was just, you know, it was as great an artistic experience as you could have as some guy from Wisconsin.

You know, we premiered at Cannes.

You know, my wife and I walked up the red steps.

Oh

my gosh.

Um, and it was a joy to, you know, it was a joy to see David work.

You know, he just brought out the best than everyone.

Mary and myself included.

I can't even imagine.

All right.

So the straight story for those of you who don't know, I, before I knew it was about a person named straight.

I used to call it the straight story or the straight story.

Once I knew it was about.

Richard Farnsworth character Alvin straight.

It's the straight story.

So that is the correct

Yeah, so it's this great movie that was shot in Iowa in Wisconsin around 1999 if you haven't seen it Richard Farnsworth plays the lead Actor who drives a tractor from Iowa because he doesn't have a driver's license to Wisconsin to visit his ailing brother just

This movie, he was Oscar nominated.

He was nominated for Best Actor.

He

lost to Kevin Spacey for American Beauty.

Oh, God,

but people would love a redo on that

one.

He did win Best Actor for the Independent Spirit Awards,

though, so that was nice.

And he was nominated for the Golden Globes, too, if I remember correctly.

So this movie is packed with charm and heart and great acting.

Sissy Spasic is in it.

Harry Dean Stanton, Chris Farley's brothers.

I didn't catch it the first time.

I was like, Farley, wait a minute.

So this is just such a fun movie.

And I just rewatched it over the weekend.

It totally holds up.

Did David Lynch commission you guys to write this or was it your idea that you took it down?

No, Mary and

I wrote it on spec.

Mary had been editing in Hollywood for over a decade, I think.

She was an assistant editor on Warren Beatty's Reds.

She was an assistant editor on Blue Velvet and said, hey, I'm working on this film with this guy named David Lynch.

hold onto your hat and then she became an editor on Twin Peaks.

At the same time, I was producing in Chicago and eventually developed my own.

I was at ABC and CBS in Chicago and eventually did.

specials for the CBS own stations and then developed some of my own programming for syndication of which one of them was one you like the sports writers on TV but and Mary came to visit me when I was doing broadcast work you know and she was going wow everything happens really fast here compared to a movie

yeah

so

But Mary called me being an editor can be tedious work.

And I think Mary wanted, I know she wanted a broader stance.

She wanted a broader skill set.

So she said, do you want to write a screenplay with me?

I said, of course.

Yeah, why not?

And I dabbled in it prior.

But you're this producer of TV in Chicago.

Right.

Were you guys that good of friends where she just knew you'd be a sharp writer in a totally different medium?

Well,

it was strange because we were friends in a time where

Boys and girls didn't always have friendships,

you know,

the guys ran, but also our families were friends for generations.

So we, you know, my dad knew her dad and I played ball with her brothers in high school.

So, you know what?

We're both townies.

We were both

townies in

Madison.

And again, you know, West Side Irish Catholic, everyone knew each other, you know?

And so, and I do think we were friends as it turned out because we both went into a similar field.

later

in

our lives, you know, even though it's kind of a high school jock, I was also in the high school plays, you know, I always had that artistic side going on.

So anyhow, so she said, let's, so she said, do you want to write a screenplay?

I said, sure.

I said, what are we going to write it about?

And she goes, let's let it simmer and

I may be wrong, but I think within three weeks she faxed me.

This was during the era of fax.

The internet was just starting to get its legs underneath it.

This story in the Washington Post New York Times about this old man riding his lawnmower across Iowa to see his brother.

And I drove out to his endpoint, you know, and just kind of soaked up the vibes.

And I said, Mary, yeah.

And both Mary and I, you know, when you, when you grew up in Wisconsin, when we did,

you're literally five minutes from a farm field, right?

And so that rural lifestyle and those rural people, Mary's dad Vince grew, I was one of three or four Irish brothers who grew up on a farm in Oregon, the city of Oregon outside of Madison.

And they were Irish farm boys.

So, and I worked on farms, Bale and Hay.

to get in shape for high school football for three summers out in Barnabeld for the good Bunbury family.

So this was, the people we were writing about were not strangers to us all.

And we talked about our dads a lot because Alvin was a man of another generation, but it was the generation from whence our fathers came.

John Roach is my guest.

He is the co-writer of The Straight Story that he wrote with his pal, Mary Sweeney, very talented editor, producer, and writer, and was directed by David Lynch.

It's a must-see, folks.

Everybody is looking for content to watch.

And this film came out in 99.

It holds up.

I just watched it.

Two things I have that really I just love about the film.

And it's one of a younger person that Alvin encounters on his journey from Iowa.

to Wisconsin

on a

John Deere tractor says riding more riding more yes he says uh what's the worst thing about being old and Alvin I'm paraphrasing says uh that I can remember when I was young

the worst thing about getting old is remembering when you were young

that is

so

and you know I

handed that line and I used to I I had a I have a cabin up in the north woods

yeah

outside of Monaco and I had this vivid dream I mean

you know, we both wrote, you know, we both wrote the screenplay, but I remember the feeling of that line.

I had, I never sleep anywhere other than in a bed.

I don't sleep on planes, I don't sleep in cars, you know, but somehow when we built this little cabin up north, we had this green leather chair, we have no TV, you know, we have quiet music and books, and I would sometimes fall asleep in that chair, not at bedtime, and I would have these

you know moments where I was kind of dreaming and kind of awake and I remember having one dream where all of a sudden I really felt like I was 18 years old again and when I woke up you know I was 48 and I felt

I'm not sad about that.

I

just remember that feeling, you know, to remember when my legs worked.

I can't go out and

just run around

for no reason.

I remember

when I would run across a football field and feel like I was flying, right?

And now, you know, getting out of a chair is a big ass deal.

You're gonna pay the price.

The other thing, there's another great scene too, which is really...

the gist of what Alvin's been dealing with his whole adult life since World War II, because he's a veteran in

the

film, is the story he tells another veteran at the bar.

And I don't want to spoil it, but what a beautiful bit of acting by

Richard

Farnsworth.

And the story came out of nowhere, so I tip him my hat for you guys.

Thank you.

Because it all starts with the script.

As great as David Lynch was, and he was phenomenal.

Unbelievable.

God