‘Bored To Death’ Writer Jonathan Ames Thought He ‘Destroyed’ Ted Danson After Getting Him Incredibly Stoned

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KnHusOTJY8

HBO’s Bored to Death is an underrated gem of a show that not many people watched at the time, but has gained a cult following since its cancellation in 2011. The story of a writer turned far-too-honest private eye named “Jonathan Ames” and his elite New York magazine publisher and desperate for sex cartoonist sidekicks isn’t the most accessible subject, but when you get Bored to Death, it hits hard. Kind of like HBO’s Vice Principals.

Some of the Bored to Death‘s best moments come when the characters are stoned, which they are often. Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, and Ted Danson’s overly-serious adventures into the seedy world of Craig’s List private detective work (and magazine publishing) are in a perpetual cloud of pot smoke, and in an interview with the cast at Vulture Festival, it seemed that way off-screen as well.

One of the show’s episodes shows Danson’s character, George Christopher, smoking out of a Volcano weed vaporizer that was written into the script thanks to a pleasant experience series creator Jonathan Ames had with the impressive device.

So, Ames brought the Volcano to the show’s wrap party, where Danson finally decided to try it out.

“Ted’s like ‘Y’know, I’m going to finally try the Volcano,’” explained Ames. “So he tried the Volcano, the three of us got really stoned, we walked about two blocks from Jason’s apartment and Jason was like ‘Have we been walking forever?’ And Ted said ‘Yeah, I feel like we have.’ We got to some vegan place, they went nuts and ordered everything on the menu.”

According to Ames, the next day Danson was still struggling with the effects of the vaporizer. “It was the first time in three years that Ted struggled with his lines,” Ames said. “It was like I had messed with this machine! Ted always knew his lines – like, perfect, ready – and it was the one day… ‘Oh my God, I gave him marijuana. I’ve destroyed him!’”

Danson followed up Ames’ story with: “You can see the aftereffects to this day.”

Of course, the rumors of a Bored to Death movie were brought up. Ames said he finished two versions of the movie script, but since it’s Jonathan Ames, he’s openly questioning if making a movie is even the right thing to do: “The main thing is sometimes when you have those movies they don’t work so well, and a movie a movie is 90 minutes as opposed to a season where we had eight episodes, 240 minutes, and you could really breathe with the characters. A movie’s a different thing. I would hate for it to somehow take away from [the show].”

If it means Ted Danson has to break out the volcano again, a movie could be worth it.

(Via Vulture)

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