Death In Entertainment

Episode 74 - 80's Star Dana Plato: Sex, Lies and Video Stores

March 22, 2023 DIEPOD STUDIOS
Death In Entertainment
Episode 74 - 80's Star Dana Plato: Sex, Lies and Video Stores
Show Notes Transcript

80's TV star Dana Plato had career ups and downs before her untimely death-- one day after a fateful interview with Howard Stern. This week on Death in Entertainment.

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Dana Plato was one of the biggest sitcom stars of the 1980s. Her role is Kimberly on different strokes made her a household name. After the show was over, Dana led a wild life of sex, drugs and Robin videos tours, until her untimely death on May 8 1999. This week on death and entertainment. Live from Los Angeles. 911. What is your emergency? Here in Hollywood now. 2 counts of murder, injury and death! Oh my God! Shocking new details that has stunned the entertainment world. Um, This makes me a little nervous. The hair stood up on my arms. Just like in the movies. What do you call this thing anyway? Death in entertainment! Well, hello, everyone. Oh, Lord, public enemy number one is here today with you guys. Is it us? Yeah. Well, we're being targeted here. Oh, yeah. Oh, we're starting right off with that. Yeah. What's going on everybody? My name is Kyle Ploof. My name is Mark Mulkerron. And I'm Alejandro Dowling. And before we get into the sad tale of Dana Plato, we are letting everyone know that we were forced. Our hands were tied. We had to go over to the paywall the dark side, yeah. being targeted by someone we don't know who it is definitely YouTube is in on it. Yeah, I think the the woke mob is after us. Someone's after us. If you're wondering why it's been two weeks since you've seen us on YouTube. It's because last week we uploaded our video that covered the documentary, the bridge, and some of the keywords I think that are involved in the title and set maybe some of the things that are in the description. Yeah, I think give credence to people being able to like report it and say like, you know, it's it's suicidal ideation or something like that. Yeah, we received multiple emails from YouTube being like people in the community are worried about you. Yeah. Are you okay? No, we're not. Yeah. Different reasons for different reasons. But yeah, we should be able to still posts he's saying, I think they should be fine. Yeah. But it's bullshit. Alejandro had a great episode that he presented. Yeah. Now the YouTube masses get to miss out on it. Yeah, that bastards. I don't want to say anything too bad about YouTube. Because it featured some clips from the movie. And that was a no, no, yeah. And then even when I experimented with shorter videos, cutting out the imagery from some of the clips, they still deleted it. Yeah, took it down. Yeah, so we're working on it. And a Patreon is coming soon. Hey, I won't say too much about that right now. But that is it's good to get that out there at the top of the episode that we're gonna we're gonna do the things that are too hot. For TV here, we're gonna be putting out a Patreon so in the works, keep an eye out for that. Too hot. A lot of other things. Yes. So yeah, we might not we might be getting throttled on certain mainstream sites but you can always go to the patreon to find the to risk a Yeah, and it will help support the show. Works not safe for anyone because we don't do ads here. We don't do ads. We don't work for the man. But you know what we do? Do? What's that? We do go back in time every once in a while. Wherever we go into though we're going to May 8 1999 Wow All right, May 8 1999 What in the world was going on? In the world of music? Alejandro let's hear it. Well, the number three most popular song in the United States Yeah, possibly the world Okay. sixpence None the Richer. Kiss me Oh, that arena banger song right there every teenage rom com just featured this song? Yeah, she's all that was the first one is me. Yeah, I remember the lead singer was a Swedish girl who had beautiful eyes yah, yah. Yah. Yah, yah, the great quits there staring in my eyes see head all the way up those ads. It's good singer. nice pair of lungs. You know what I mean? Number two. No scrubs. Yeah. From a girl left eye. Yeah, great song. All right. P number one, numero uno. This song was ubiquitous in 1999. Live in La Vida Loca No. Ricky Martin. Who got in trouble recently. Did we talk about that? No, he he bangs his nephew. Yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, woohoo. Okay. Supposedly way really that was the story his nephew. Yeah, but then it was recanted we for disclaimer. It was recanted by the cousin, I think and they said he was the cousin said or the nephew. Or whoever said it. Yeah, it was the nephew. He's like, Yeah, it didn't happen like that. Like, and then we're just having like this. We're just was supposed to pretend that that never happened now like they didn't say that he raped me like it's crazy. Oh man. Yeah, I have not been paying attention to the news. Now. You're not gonna say it's nothing good. Just Ricky Martin banging his neck pretty good. Yeah, that's 90% a lot of drama. They're in their family. Yeah. Also a lot of drama in the movies at this time. Oh, number three Saving Private Ryan. I would Saving Private Ryan also featured recently deceased Tom Sizemore Yeah, rest in peace. Yeah, its biggest role who also got into a sex scandal with who was in jail. He was in heat all zoos getting hot. Great ass with Heidi Fleiss. Yeah, yeah, he got in a lot of trouble. Yeah, they got some a couple of fights. fisticuffs? Yeah. Number two at this time. The Matrix? Ah, Neo. Number one. The Mummy featuring Oscar winner, Brendan Fraser. Let's go the whale star. Yeah, this was when he was just a little old box office star just a boy getting his dick grabbed by executive. I don't happen then. No. Darren Aronofsky. Like we went back some of these stars and stuff. He likes doing that. The daddy did it. It was a guy. Oh, really? Yeah. That's why he got blacklisted. He came out and said he was sexually assaulted by like this Sony executive. And everyone freaked out and there was an article or something. Yeah. And so he got in trouble for saying something about it. And then we never heard of him. And then he turned in to what he is today. An Oscar winner baby. It was someone with the Golden Globes? Yeah, I think yeah, because that's why he boycotted it. Yeah, okay. It's not coming back to me. Yeah, exactly. Boy, at least coming back to me. At least it wasn't Ricky Martin. No, that'd be crazy. It would be anyway guys. Yes. This Kitz this let's get into the story of Dana played out. Okay, Dana was born. Dana Michelle strain, not playdough now playdough. Wow. November 7 1964. And may would California. She was born to Linda strain who was a teenager teenager herself and already had an 18 month old child. So what she had her hands full. And she was living in Maywood, California, which is not a good area I've heard she gave right away she gave Dana up for adoption. June 1965. The seven month old Dana was adopted by Dean playdough and his wife fluorine K play toe Dino that dad owned a trucking company. They were Dana was raised in the San Fernando Valley. So right around here. Hey, that's a fee. It's a few. Valley Girl valley girl just like us, just like us when she was three, her adopted parents divorce. So she's like running into bad things left and right. She's born to a mom who doesn't want her because she already has a kid and she's a single mom. Anyway. She's adopted by this family. And by the time she's three, they get divorced. She goes live with their mom. So that's flurrying que playdough her mother was like a crazy helicopter mother like wouldn't let her go out do anything like, like living in the valley? Especially in the 70s must have been fucking chaos. Yeah, like, I'm sure a lot of like hurt girls like her age or younger girls. You know, we're going down to the clubs to hang out, you know, to go to like, you know, hairband contract or something. Yeah, you're right. But not Dana. Her mom wouldn't let her do anything. She made her be straight up straight as an arrow. They sound offends Michael Winslow police academies here that the same helicopter from the Twilight Landis helicopter when we talk. Her mother was It was weird because her mom was like a helicopter parent. But she also brought her to TV commercial auditions all the time. Yeah, let's keep her safe. But then let's bring her near pedophile, you know, casting directors all day every day. Well, when you're short on cash, I that I think that's what was going on here. I think that's what every parent that was divorced in the valley. I had their kid kind of getting that oh for sure. And You know what a very similar scenario was Gary Coleman. Yeah, he was adopted. And then his adoptive parents forced them into the well, we're gonna talk about it later. But you actually did that stern interview, actually, you sent me in which Gary Coleman went on there. The one thing he will say about his family is that they did not push him into acting. That's true, but then they stole all his money. But that still doesn't make that much sense. Exactly. They didn't push him because he wasn't tall enough to push they throw him they punted him into it. They rolled them in on a skateboard. Well, you know, I just think when you're that young shore, the kids like, hey, I want to be in movies, but you can be trans. You could be like the puppet master and like through subtle ways that aren't that direct. You can kind of coax them into it. Like, Hey, you want to do this audition, right? Yeah, you want to do it. Disneyland, I guess Carrie Coleman got into modeling first, which I swear to God, I know. That's what he says. He got it. From Montgomery Ward. He was like modeling like, you know, lawn furniture. I don't know what he was. Talking about. Sofa was back. I never left. Hello. Hey. Besides acting Danna got heavily into figure skating. She actually wasn't going to turn pro. But she decided allegedly she decided that she instead wanted to pursue acting more. But I think it was her mom saying like there's no money in figure skating. Yeah, but she was gonna go to the Olympics and stuff. She was very good. Yeah, man. But yeah, then she she started doing like hundreds of commercials. She could have been kneecap by Tonya Harding. Yeah. Wow. She looks like she looks like she'd be involved in that. Yeah, sir. overall look. Yeah. Yeah, they both have that kind of country corn. Yeah. Tread Park. Yeah. Golly, Anna in San Diego. They work in a country buffer. They'll stab Yeah, probably. Yeah. Yeah, they'll hurt you. When she was 10 years old, she got her first role on the $6 million man as like a regular TV series role. I mean, not not not commercial was. She only made a brief appearance, but that got her to the attention of Hollywood. Next, she gets a part in a TV movie called Beyond the Bermuda Triangle, which is like a trashy, you know, everything that it sounds like you don't say? Yeah, that sounds like a real deal. Here's the logline. A retired businessman notices that there has been a rash of ships and planes disappeared off the coast of Florida. And he starts to investigate. Where's all the boats? I can't find the frickin I've been looking all day in the Bermuda Triangle. You gotta go beyond it. I don't know why. lot a lot of DS for from New York go down to Florida. So the hard dating questions were my boat was mine say? The Bermuda Triangle of sadness. Some would say her biggest earlier role came in the small role that she got an exorcist to. Oh really, which is uncredited. She plays an autistic girl. Ha she has a very small part but it shined through enough to get her some attention. I have a clip of that here and some would say this could be ableist and maybe a cancelable offense if you were to do that this today. What's the matter with you your mother's dark skies that reminded me of like, simple simple to jostle Jack simple Jack Yeah. No Go fool. Yeah. I'm gonna be your friend in 1978 She doesn't movie called California suite which based on a Neil Simon play, like got great reviews. That was a big movie big movie at the time. She got a smaller role but famous cast writer who's who? Yeah, I want to say yeah, there's a there's a ton of famous people in that as Neil Simon back in the day. It was the hottest production you could be it Yeah, like that. Goodbye girl guy Richard Dreyfus and Oscar Yeah. Biloxi Blues eventually with Matthew Broderick. Yeah, well, crossover. We know A little bit of the behind the scenes on that way yeah she wanted to keep pursuing movies but her family's like there's no money in that like right now TV money is is primo right now wow like movies you know you can do all right but you're you're Dana Plato you know you you're not going to be a full fledged movie star 12 or 13 years old and start making big bucks and it's not consistent work it's not gonna Yeah, if you get like a you know a Scorsese movie or something you get like a big part or you know, or some of you're not going to be a huge star you're not going to make the big money like a Charlton Heston or Robert Redford is going to be making around this time in the late 70s. Even Linda Blair had trouble after starring in The Exorcist movie. Yeah, she didn't make it. They didn't make a ton of money. No, it was a playboy. Yeah, well, so Dana. Don't they? Oh, so keep in mind, she's like 12 years old now. Like her parents or her mom's really making all this decision. It's like kind of Brittany Murphy's mom situation. If you see some of the shots taken of her around this time, like I was, I was talking before we started recording I was saying it to Alejandra that she did a lot of like, like shot like, like face shots for acting and stuff. And a lot of them were her like in her preteens looking very racy looking very, like JonBenet Ramsey is a six year kind of look like like CP Yeah. And older one borderline. Yeah. And that's how it was in the 70s, though, with those pinup child stars. Yeah, it was gross like Leif Garrett. Not that I've seen the pictures, but yeah, he's got them on the inside of his car. No, I was watching some other. So they showed up. And it was a we're talking about how gross one of his photos was his headshot, because it's it was just like inappropriate. A lot of these kids were posing and wearing clothes that 20 Somethings would be wearing. Yeah. And you know, it's disturbing. I just find it funny. Her mom was like, I need to protect you. And then this is the industry show. Yeah, exactly. So Dana does a bunch of failed pilots. small roles. She was on the show called family. She was on chips for a little bit. While she's on the ship, The Gong Show Actually, she's discovered by a producer who was putting together the show different strokes. About a rich family with two adopted African American kids different strokes for different folks. Oh, I thought maybe you knew that theme song. No. I don't different strokes is one of the famous un me. Possibly written by Alan Thicke. I've never seen it really. I didn't know the theme song was written by I didn't know he did theme song. Can you Google that real quick? Yeah, he did do theme songs actually he did. Wheel of Fortune as what? Alan Thicke that he made a lot of money doing that. Alan Thicke did write the theme song he wrote and performed the theme song for different strokes. Really? Yeah. Chuck Lorre also wrote the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 90s cartoon theme song. So different strokes. The shows the show was about the misadventures of a wealthy Manhattan family, who adopted the children of their late African American housekeeper from Harlem. Okay, yeah, they wouldn't do that. They see little daisy. She's 13. When she gets a show. Imagine that. Like she's like a huge Hollywood star at the age of 13. Because it's huge. If the right out of the bat. Yeah, it's pretty big. She starts doing dabbling and coke and alcohol around this time. 13 I guess her mom didn't really shelter her from anything. No, she did different strokes for six seasons. And along with with Todd bridges, and Gary Coleman, they all became huge, like household names. Data starts making 100k per episode. So say there's like 22 episodes in a season. That's some pretty good money. It's a lot of dough back in the day to mill Yeah. A lot of dough now. Of course, I'll take it. The show was such a hit. It spawns a spin off in the first season, which is unheard of. Do Matt I don't know if you remember the show. I'll have your I know Kyle does. But Mrs. Gara was the housekeeper at first facts of life. Well, the first season she follows what's it called Dana Plato's character Kimberly to her all girls school, like you know preppy school in order to like help her so a dress or something. So this is kind of like that another world spin kinda as we should but they weren't planning on doing a spin off at first. It was just part of the the first season arc I see and then and then Mrs. Garrett goes to the to the school where Facts of Life takes place. And she's like a huge Chechi like helps everyone with their lives and stuff. And then the woman who played her, this, this woman, Charlotte Rae, she pitched to NBC. She's like, can I just do my own spin off show? My theory is that she she saw like, something bad happening with those child stars on different strokes and she's like I want out of here. And that's what became the facts of life. That's what became the facts of life. So that was a spin off. That was very smart and Dana play that will come back and forth and do both roles once in a while and just come back to the facts of life. When Dana's 19 She moves in with a low life Lanie Lambert, like some scoundrel. Oh, life Lanie Lambert Yeah, I'm calling. I'm Lani Lambert. That was what do you need? That wasn't a street name or anything, but I call them landing Lambert. Life, Lenny. Yeah. But, Lani. He was like some kind of like bad musician that didn't really do well or do too much. And now lay No kidding. Yeah, exactly. Some scumbag that, you know, doesn't wake up in the morning. Like it's bad at Rock and Roll. Yeah, lowlife la Lenny Lambert. It's a tongue twister. That's on the business card. Yeah, she meets this guy. And she thinks it's like the love of her life. She gets pregnant by this guy. Oh, and cheap. There's some debate here whether or not she purposely got pregnant in order to get kicked off the show. Either way, they're not gonna write around her character to be pregnant. So they're just like, you're out after six seasons, you're out. So it was not her decision. Not her decision. But she told the guy who played Mr. Drummond that she kind of wanted this. That's what his story is that she secretly wanted to leave the show and do movies. But there's some back and forth of like, you know, who chose who to leave and whether or not they just fired her because she was pregnant, which would be horrible. There was word that the producers were worried that Plato's personal life ruined the wholesomeness of the character and the squeaky clean image of the show, she moves on and she has the baby of Lani Lambert loser landed Lambert. There's the other hour we were lowlife Luiza la Lenny little bit, and Liron. But some other people said she was fired because of her insane drug abuse, which which is really ramp it up before she meets loser, Linda Lambert probably doesn't help her get clean. Either way, the character Kimberly was written off off the show. And they said that she moved to Paris to study for a couple of years. She returns the guest star once in a while on different strokes on different strokes that went on for like 10 years didn't that? I went on for eight seasons. She was in the last two. She and she was fired after season six. And Gary Coleman said that he didn't want to do the last season. Really? I didn't know about that. Yeah. And he basically was such a pain in the ass that they said, All right, we're just gonna cancel the show. Yeah. So Dana tries to start a serious movie career after she has a baby. Like, but it's too late. You know, she's 19. Unfortunately, at that time, you're just pigeon holed if you're, if you're known as a huge, you know, mainstream TV comedy star. You're just gonna stay that yeah, for some reason. Obviously, there are exceptions like George Clooney, it took him a while. But he went from doing, you know, facts of life to doing er to becoming a movie star, but he was not the star of facts of life. No, that's true, too. Yeah, he wasn't the main face of it. But then I guess there's maybe there's a double standard. I don't know. But Michael J. Fox. I was I think, I think both of those guys. Not, you know, no misogyny involved are better actors and dental playdough. Right. I'll show you a little bit later. So over acting chops. It's not great. But the axis is to to today, Jr. Yeah, the hell was that? Yeah. So different strokes is finally cancelled. March 7 1986. Wow, that's late. Yeah. Before long Dana is settling for B movies and adult films as a way to make money. In the meantime, she was also spiraling further into drug addiction and alcoholism is taking over her life like she's getting really messed up. Her personal problems worsened in the late 80s Especially when her husband ended their relationship in their marriage. Lenny so Lanie Lambert, you know, Lani? Yeah. Landy, Landy Lambert Yeah, yeah, we're awarding custody to lowlife loser Los Angeles later Lambert. Oh, How annoying is that? One of those guys that does the auctions we got one kid to the loser, Lady limbers. Like, yeah. Yeah, how big of a mess do you have to be? Where Lani is the winner? And yeah, he's the responsible party involved. And Lanny gets full, full legal custody of their son, Tyler. So not like, you really gotta fuck up to be a mom. The judge always wants to give more custody to the mom, which is, which is probably usually right in most circumstances. Yeah. Yeah. My mom tried to say that's not true. recently. I was like, What world do you live in? She said that yeah, so sure. Yeah. That's pretty famously No, yeah, exactly. Yeah, mom. Sorry, Kyle's mom. In desperation, she's in a really bad place. She signed up her power of attorney to an accountant who disappears with the majority of her money, leaving her with less than $150,000. She had made millions over her career. She's left with like, nothing. But this account didn't just take her money. He took like eight other clients money, and it ran away with $11 million. It was never seen again. Wow. Seen never seen again. Fuck a DB Cooper. I love it. Yeah, let's go. He just cashed out all the money of all his clients, and just said See you later. And to be able to actually disappear. Yeah, that's impressive. Yeah. I guess you know, we'll find them one day and then you know when he's dead, but, you know, until then, congratulations. Yeah. Scoundrel. Yeah, maybe landed. Lambert was involved in this. Yeah. Isn't that pretty sick though. Danny Lambert on the lam. Yeah. Like he probably has a mansion somewhere in the Philippines. Yeah, yeah. He's probably the richest guy Excel reasonable country country. He goes to the local bar where they do grow steak. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they do like squirrel fights or something. Right. He bets on them. And yeah, he's like the local fat cat like everyone's like, Yeah, this guy is like the the boss of the town. Yeah. Or pin the tail and the child sex work. Oh, I see. I knew we had to get before you just said that. But now I'm really I fucked up. Dana hope that a playboy photoshoot 1989 would lead to better offers in the entertainment industry, and an overall improvement of her current life. But shockingly, that didn't pan out. But she did do the the Playboy photoshoot. She feels totally defeated. Her life pretty much feels like it's over. She's addicted to drugs and alcohol. Her life seems like it's over. Where does she move to guys to go to get better? Montana? No. Kyle somewhere with a lot of crime. I would imagine. She goes to Las Vegas. Hey. Perfect town for at this time. Yeah, that's set her straight. It's where she tries to invoke reinvigorate her career. That makes sense. Oh, boy. She wound up working at a dry cleaners. And it started Yeah. That's like when Jack Nance became a doorman. Yeah. Yeah. Like what the hell? She's like, she's, you know, people recognize her like, aren't you the girl from different strokes? And Gary Coleman did that. Yeah, he was working as a security guard. Yeah, sad. The 90s were not so good for data. The 80s were bad. The 90s were worse. She had a few run ins with the law in her you know, quest for more drugs and alcohol. In 1991. She robbed a convenience slash video store with a pellet gun. She was like half hiding her face. And then a clerk reportedly called 9911 and told the operator I've just been robbed by The Girl Who Played Kimberly. Andrea different strokes. Oh my god. Yeah. She turns herself it. Wow. Like, they got me here. And Was she taking videos or just the money? She was looking for cash? I don't I guess she thought it was like a big lucrative business. I don't know. She's like, don't get me one of them terminated two VHS copies. I think she just needed somebody to score some drugs. She gets five years probation. And as long as she stays out of trouble, she could stay at a jail. But does she do that case? Yes, of course. No. The next year she's arrested for forging a prescription of 1000 Valium. That's 1000 Yeah, why not away with 100 500 That's understandable. Yeah. 1000 i 1000. I say yeah, that guy's back. We got 500,000 She sent to jail. Guess who comes to Ballerup? No one else but way Newton way Newton forks over $13,000 to bail out data playdough in Vegas. Wow. Why? I mean, I think there was something going on there sexually. That's my theory. Really? Yeah. That's that's the only thing I could come up with everything else is speculation and that's all just speculation. I never really thought much about way Newton sex life. Yeah, I mean, either, except for the fact that he tried to bang Clark Glick grid's wild wife in in Viva and no, Vegas Vegas vacation. Yeah. But she's still Dana's still out there trying to get stuff she's still gonna manage still got representation. Yeah, she's still got a, you know, a leg above most people. Literally. Yeah. Hey, those be movies. Her comeback is about to happen. Okay, she just she right now in 1992 She gets the biggest life changing industry changing. Unprecedented role ever. Basic Instinct. She's the first actress in a video game. Whoa, in 1992 She gets the Video Game Night Trap that came out for Sega. Wow, was that for regular Sega? No. It was a like interactive role playing game that came out on like a on like a DVD Sega CD. Yes. Oh my god. I remember that. Yeah, that was like controversial wasn't very Yeah, actually it Joe Lieberman actually put together a congressional investigation to look into this specific game. Wow. I remember that when it was new because it made headlines Night Trap tasked the player to observe teenage girls having a sleepover visiting the house, which, unbeknownst to them is infested with vampires. So it's a good thing you're supposed to save the girls. I think they can tell this well as a result of Joe Lieberman and his stupid Congressional investigation that idiot Joe Lieberman that fuck running mate to Al Gore in 2008. He ruined that campaign and he sucks. They sold 50,000 copies just the following week after they open those investigations. There you go good on them. Maybe did they make their money back? I don't know. But they canceled the game and like January 90, like two years later, they they pulled the game or it could have been like one of those producers type things like Springtime for Hitler. Where they wanted it to fail. Yeah, baby. Yeah, it was just a tax write off or something. Data falls this up with bikini beach race, which I'm sure is just as you know, intellectually brilliant. Sounds sounds wholesome. Yeah, she just does a slew of bordering on B movies like that. Both are non porn B movies rather so so not even like cheap straight to video B movies like further down the line you think yeah like straight to bootleg in a in a found in a parking lot movies like that the kind that are going to be played on Skinemax No, not not that kind now, so it was really low. Really low. Wow. Yeah. I just kind of feel posted. He was walking the streets. I was working. Working the streets. Will you please tell him who I am before I rip him a new asshole. Put some John's pay good money for that service. Queen Shut up. She's not a booker. She's a private investigator and she works for me. Schmuck honest mistakes. honest mistake. So yeah, and then 99 He returned to different strokes guys. She returns to different trucks. Whoa, kind of. Okay, she does a three way porn movie officially titled different strokes. The story of Jack and Jill and Jill. Whoa. Jack and Jill and Joe. It's an erotic drama film about a love triangle. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, cuz what would improve Jack and Jill having sex, though in another Joe? Yeah, why not? This would be her second to last film before her death. Nathan Raybin of the AV Club gave the film a harsh review stating the shamelessly titled different strokes lacks anything resembling even community theater level acting is notably mainly known for its aggressive lack of shame. From the title to its threadbare plot to its community access level, no community access level of production values. The film reeks of crass exploitation. Why is this guy giving like a furnace review? Can he review Deep Throat next? Yeah, I really care what he has to say. I don't know what stupid or the movie or The fact that he reviewed it in earnest like, okay, dude, it's like, yeah, person strung out on drugs is trying to make some money in a B movie. Yeah, exactly. Not exactly. Judy Davis over here. Not at all, Jack and Jill went up the hill to fuck each other's brains. After getting arrested again, she was ordered to attend rehab. But it didn't seem to make a difference. Though she soon insisted that she was clean and sober. her loved ones doubted that claim, and remain concerned about her health. So like, she was just a liar, you know, just told everyone, I'm clean, I'm sober, everything's fine. I'm still acting kind of in the same way. This is a good companion piece to Corey Haim, who would never admit to how messed up he was. And he's always said, I'm going to get a new role that's going to catapult me into the stratosphere. And they just were never sober ever again. It seems like yeah, they were never like, honestly, looking at their life and what's going on? Right? She becomes engaged with some guy, Robert Menchaca. They started living in an RV in Oklahoma. So on his parents property, they they were dating for only six months before they get engaged. Kind of a weird circumstance. So not exactly a step up from Lanny. No, not my think it's a lateral move, maybe. But Lenny took care of the kid, kind of, and did she ever relationship with Tyler, she always claimed that, you know, he lived with her and they were very friendly. But that's not true at all. It's like she said she was sending this Howard Stern thing that had been about to go into that the kid lived with her. But that wasn't true at all. She had no custody. The kid really didn't have much to do with her. And in the Howard Stern interview that we're about to go into. She basically lies most of the time. Besides the fact that she's doing bad B movies. She does admit to that. But she said she's working. Everything is great. Her son lives with lives with her. She's off drugs. She's been clean for 10 years. Did she say 10 years? Yeah. Well, to get get into it a little bit. This is a very important part of what happened to Dana playdough. Not to say Howard Stern is at fault or, but it's very important to bring this up because this was very close to the time she died that she did this final interview on Howard Stern. The way it started was a caller called into Howard Stern in February of 1999. And said that he saw Dana with two women in New York, and she looked ragged and strung out. The guy said she looked like she had a needle hanging out of her arm. She was that bad. She's then Dana's girlfriend, Jennifer calls in saying that Dana's son, Taylor called her looking for his mom in New York. So, so she was in a lesbian relationship. She was with this woman, which she denied also, yeah, she said she had never, you know, crossed over that in and had any sexual relationships with women ever. But that's not true, either. Right? But this woman who was like a PA, on some of her B movies, called into stern and said, what that guy said was true. And I'm looking for Dino playdough. If anyone knows where she is, and that's an interesting the way they called in that day. Yeah, in the clip. It's like really weird, because the guy says that she was out of it when he encountered her. Yeah. And that it seemed like she was on drugs. And suddenly, the girl calls and later in the episode, the girlfriend said, like, I'm looking for Dana. And it's this weird mystery that's unfolding. Yeah. So Dana catches wind of all this stuff. And she's like Paris. She wants to come in and clear the air. She wants to come in the studio and do her own interview. Oh, wow. So she must have drove the RV up there with Robert Martin Clark kaka whatever. So So she comes in on May 7 1999. So that's what three months later she comes in actually does an interview. Wow. She comes into the studio does a formal interview. Like I said, She's lying about everything. She's an emotional mess. She like she's on something. That's what they were saying in the studio. Yeah. telling her that Howard asked her. Well, she she like, Howard, you know how he has like all his callers come in call it and they're assholes. Yeah, they're like, Hey, you piece of shit. You loser. You know your has been Howard's not gonna say it. But he's going to open the phone line. Yeah, of course. Yeah. There's no screening there at all. Probably just Letson whoever they want to call it. His producer for Yeah, those that don't know. Oh, yeah. Gary Delabar the producer. So yeah, everyone's like, hey, screw you. You're washed up. You're a hag you know I hate you. And then she Just like taking this and then some guys like you're on drugs right now. And then Jackie martling actually says, yeah, she's on drugs. She's stoned right now. Wow. Like her eyes were bugged. Yeah. So everyone else just said she seems wired but but Jackie's like he knows, you know, he could tell speak and tell us better. Yeah, like it smells smell their own. Yeah. So yeah, she does seem like agitated and totally out of it. One of the callers is like, why don't you take a drug test? And then she's like, I'll do it. Of course. Oh, it's like, give me a urine. He's like, you can piss on me if you want to. I just want to come to you right now. Benji runs and go gets an actual drug test that actually uses hair to test drugs. They're like, Give me Give me your hair. bababooey takes a piece of her hair. She hates that. First. She's like, I don't care. You could test whatever. And then after they stop, stop recording. She wants to hear back right away. Home was like, give me the hand that Gary wouldn't give it to her. Wow. And she's so distraught when they're going over the whole drug test because she's like, You know what, I don't need to prove anything to anyone. I don't need to take a drug test in the house like, Well, okay. She's like, but I will for you, Howard. And he was like, oh, okay, great. Yeah, I was like Johnny Carson. We got some weird wild. How would you like rose to house like, You got great breasts? She's like, thank you. How are you? I'm just saying, you know, I see something I say they're good. He kept saying that she looked good. She was weirdly they're also promoting like, she was going to appear at a Motorhead concert in Chicago. It was like, metal Expo. And I'm like, What is she doing? They're like, what is her show? What's her act? And they never got to the bottom of it. What she was going to be doing there? Yeah. Just gonna be introducing they were so much chaos going on there. No one knew what, where to land on that. Two days later. She's found dead in that RV in Oklahoma. She's drug overdose. Yeah. So right after that interview, you know, everything. You know, they left it seemingly okay. Like everyone was like, okay. You know, it was a couple of weird moments there. But yeah, she didn't get the hair back, but it was okay. Gary bababooey said they she had called afterwards and said she had the best time ever. Everything was great. And then next thing you know, two days later, she's dead in the RV of an overdose. Yeah. Police. I initially said she died of an accidental overdose of a painkiller and Valium. But a Doctor Doctor balding that which is a weird name. The Deputy State metal medical examiner said that she had fatal concentrations of the muscle relaxant Soma, and a generic form of the painkiller or hydrocodone in her body. So it was like a mixture of like a ton of drugs she was doing at the time. Yeah, yes. Dr. balding? Yeah. Aging Dr. balding. And you know, one guy is like new there and he's just losing his hair. He's like, Jimmy puts you out. So we hear a little bit of yeah, let's hear a little bit of the stern. There's a good clip at 4235 in which stern after the fact talks about what happened he this is from May 10. Yeah, everybody, good morning. What's happening? It is Monday. Welcome. Well, I see that Dana, Dana, Plato died. She was on our show, Friday. Over the weekend. We were the last ones to do an interview. In fact, the New York Post rolled up the whole interview. Where New York tell him? Yeah, they were after him heart. I was like Jackie said her eyes were like pretty straight to me. The beautiful eulogy. How weird was that? You just never know. What happens to us a lot. We interview people and they've died. Yeah, maybe it's something with you. Maybe it's well, he had had Scott Weiland on the show recently. Oh, yeah. And then he like he's like, I'm clean and sober. Everything's great. Two days later, he gets arrested. We're like with a bunch, like three pounds of heroin in his pocket or something. So yeah, I think he was like usual Howard. He's just kind of talking about himself. Yeah, exactly. Like how does this affect me? Yeah, mega concert including Motorhead and Fang. If you need more info, call the expo Hotline at 314409 3600 What are you going to do at this? Phish concert? Not quite sure but doesn't just go with all the controversy. Do you want to just show up and introduce some of the bands? Is that it? i So I'm I died May I sure didn't even know what you're gonna be doing. They're not quite but I'm just gonna go they're paying you why not? I will I really love this man Shane. He's wonderful. He's been very good to me. The promoter. He asked me to be signing autographs you know? I think she was you're on here on speed or something? Let's hear this. Todd. Yeah. Are you Todd bridges? Okay, go ahead. ask you a question of Dana. girl out of here. She has played just needs to admit that she's an extra rocky Yeah. Lesbian with mental health problems. So that shows you what the caliber of people that are letting through your career to make some money again, no, excuse me if I'm wrong with that. If you're honest, I'm honest, I am alcoholic. I am a recovering. I always am recovering. And then later. A woman with mental health. Yeah. And she says, Dana sounds fine to me. Beautiful voice and then Dana just the littlest compliment. She starts crying. Yeah, fuck. And then that woman starts talking about something else. She starts going crazy on someone else like her. The job she works. I want to talk about my job because they're a bunch of assholes down here. And they're like, alright, alright, get the hell out. But hey, Dana, we'll take what she can get at that point. Well, yeah, very sad. She passes away. In 2000 Fox broadcast, a television movie based on data playdough titled after different strokes when the laughter stopped. The film was focused on her life and work after the show, including her death. It featured actors who at time were unknown, as well as bridges who made a cameo up So Todd bridges played himself in it. Wow. Yeah. And in that movie, they portray Howard Stern as evil. Yeah, though, they're talking about that, I think, you know, in a later stern later, and that may come later, like Sideshow Bob or something, or like, you know, if at the studio is some kind of, you know, like, interrogation room. Yeah. And then Howard is just like, Hey, Dana, show us your breasts. And then they make baba booey look really bad. Because he's the one that took the hair, the hair sample and wouldn't give it back. Wow. And then in that same clip, where they were reacting to her death in real life, they start joking about how they still have her hair sample. Poof, and how it's like I don't know what we don't need to test it maybe there was we have the answer. Yeah, cuz I could tell Robin was like bringing it up. And like tower didn't want to talk about it that much. too. Well, because they don't look good. But the hair thing about the hair. Yeah. It doesn't make them look good. Right? Yeah. Cuz if somebody dies two days or last after this interview, where was humiliated? I was literally the next day. Yeah, I mean that at the very least. Yeah. Had you have contributed to her mindset? Oh, she must have been Yeah, ruined. Mentally. It started with some random guy just calling in and saying he sat down and played up. Yeah. Bonds before that exposed her personal life or just, you know, her to all this nonsense. Wow, that caller is the first domino to fall in with GF. But she had also been answered a bunch before. So she was like a known entity and like the sternum, first of all, like the, you know, the crazy people that kind of get involved with him. So once you're in there, you're in there. Yeah. You know what to expect? Yeah. And then that girlfriend that called and looking for? Dana just dismissed her in that last interview. Yeah, she's like, she's like, I don't even know that girl, really? And I wish her well, she needs to get help. No, I'm not a lesbian. And we were never in any relationship. But then she said saying they lived together. And now it's like, I thought you weren't with her. And then she's like, well was my roommate. Yeah. You don't know what to believe? Yeah, the son Taylor was really looking for his mom, which is the saddest part of it. Because Taylor Taylor Taylor, because on May 6 2010, he dies by suicide of a self inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 25. No, yeah, she's, and it was directly related to his mom. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's tragic. Yeah. On November 7 2019, You know what would have been her 55th birthday, Todd bridges commented on Twitter about their friendship, leaving a tribute to play doh. You were the one person I could always talk to. You were one of my best friends. I will never forget you and love you forever. Happy birthday. Danna rip your best friend. Yeah. You know, I think they shared a kinship have just been, you know, these troubled people that got this, like, big TV show. And, yeah, you know, shit just went wrong in their lives, you know, and I think they just weren't prepared. And, you know, they were used and abused by, you know, a lot of these producers. But these producers was also you know, what, the studio wasn't doing it. What do you want these like, individual show runners to do? And their parents? Yeah, the parents too. Yeah. And she only had the one mom and she was from a broken family, on top of being given up by a broken family. So it was like, very, yeah, she was kind of doomed for failure. She's, and same thing with Gary Coleman. His parents ran off with the money. Yeah. And then he had an early death, same year as Dana's son, Tyler 2010. She's, yeah. Yeah, it's just, it's really sad. And when Gary Coleman was on Howard Stern, later in the year 1999, he confronted Howard about a couple of things who did but now Gary Coleman. Oh, sure. He came out strong, but like, hard, and then he just fizzled out. And he's like, you know, maybe I don't really have much of a case here to be mad at Howard. Yeah, but he at least he had the guts to bring it up. I mean, he didn't exactly. Baba Booey came in. Yeah, Baba bad news, as they call him. He came in to stir the pot saying like, No, I heard the Gary is mad at us because he thinks we're responsible for Dane his death. So then Howard explains like rambling. No, she was so happy when she laughed. I don't understand what happened. So then Gary Coleman's like, Okay, I miss her then. Yeah, carry Coleman. Seems like a nice guy. But he's just like, he's had enough of everything. He seemed like a really nice guy. Yeah, he did go. Yeah. And just he was an easy target to I guess the last scene of that. That Fox movie, the TV movie about? Dana's life. It was Todd and Gary. Were just at the grave of Dana. Plato's real grave. And like, that was like the last scene. Wow. It's so hard to get it like and now you know, family guy. Yeah. Buddy. The new girl I'm back Gary Coleman played himself too. Yeah. Last scene. Yeah. She's. But yeah, that RV that she died and sold for 55,000. So I would put it on auction. Shut up. Yeah. Who wouldn't want that? I don't know. Hey, guys, this is the RV where Dana Plato. Plato died. Yeah. I think that she, you know, just could never find her footing with what she truly wanted to do. I think there's added into that, you know, the legend of these troubled, you know, 80s sitcom stars, kids stars. They were like the poster children for shit going wrong like that. You know, like Todd bridges, especially and all that stuff. And they were like Corey Haim them. I think I'm covering the most on the nose, death and entertainment, things of like, child stars gone wrong. And you started it with Bobby Driscoll the first one. Yeah. You know, the industry just choose these people up and spits them out. But they're real human beings that start acting so young. It's a really messed up thing. Yeah. Anyone getting their kid into acting these days, should be tried at The Hague, you know, Criminal Court, because it's like, it's real, you know, you know, the odds are against them. Everything is messed up. We've talked about that Cronenberg movie before nap of the stars and like, yeah, yeah, it's just you're taking developing minds in and shaping. It puts them into a midlife crisis. By the time they're like 13 years old. Yeah. Like it was up at 19. Yeah, like it messes with your perception of who you are. Corey Haim was washed up at 19. Two. Yeah, he's like, Yeah, I'm kind of done this interview while your life is just starting dude. Yeah, exactly. That's what Henry Thomas said. The kid from et. That a little bit later on. After that movie, he would go into auditions. And the producers would look at him and he knew immediately that oh, they're expecting the cute kid for MI T. Yeah, and I'm not that anymore. It's so weird. So weird, because they just see He was one thing. Yeah. And now it's just like, every actor is doing every fucking weird thing and changing genres. And yeah, that's great. Right? Yeah. And the only producers knew that earlier on, there's more awareness to have the weird shit that was going on. Yeah, at this time, once you're acting in that realm of just sitcom star, you're not leaving that at all. There were some blind items that she was taken advantage by producers back in the day. I believe it. Yeah. And that is probably very likely. And I think with her, you know, it's things subconsciously, that, you know, work through her psyche and manifested itself in drug abuse and all these other things. But she never came to terms with anything she never had time to. Because she died at 34. And she just never, you know, fully, you know, digested exactly everything that happened to her. Yeah, no. And she really wasn't equipped to deal with her persona that she was supposed to be at that time. Like when she would go on Howard Stern. It wasn't a healthy environment for her. No, and I think a lot of these people did that. That you know, the they become like stern wack pack people and they just, you know, they were kinda like, okay with that. It's like, yeah, stern, invites people into that sphere, but it's only to benefit him. I think Artie Lange found that out kind of the hard way. Oh, big time. That was the weirdest thing when after Artie Lange like, stabbed himself, and people were calling in and they're like, how's he doing? He's like, I don't fucking know. Yeah, like, we don't have that type of relationship. Nor McDonald says again, you know, like trees treating them like Hank, the Hungry, Angry dwarf there. Yeah. Like he said that earnestly. And then he came on back on Stern. He's like in Stearns, like, why'd you say that about me? Because you are already like, he's like, today's he was like Gary Coleman. Yeah, exactly. Once you're in the actual face to face orbit the orbit. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Howard Stern would always say about already. Hey, he shows up for work. And he's funny. Yeah, I believe it when he tells me he's not on drugs. What do I know? That is? He said that about her to like, I don't know, when anyone's on track. I'm like, This guy, Scott Weiland, you know, got arrested two days after he came on the show and said he was clean and sober. would wanna know. But he he plays dumb, I think yeah. Oh, big time. Yeah. And some ways it's true. I mean, how are we to know, every time somebody's on drugs, but at the same time, already is a very specific example where it was years and years of obvious admitted drug use. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, he's very upfront about it. So can you blame Howard entirely for these things? No, no, but did he play a small part? In some of this catastrophe? Medium part? Yes. Bigger than small. Yeah, very sad story. But yes, you will be missed and at the juices it's a real genuine person and gone too soon. To say yes, r i. P. All right. P any housekeeping things we want to bring up? We already at the top? I forced the issue with the YouTube Yeah, just go check us out on patreon.com/def and entertainment, we're gonna have different levels of membership, but we will be releasing, you know, different videos that are being banned from YouTube. A lot for you too. Yeah. We're gonna have you know, some different things too. I have a series that I'm going to finish very soon called depth of a career. And the first episode is about Brett Farve and we're gonna debut it on the Patreon Okay, and the band bridge YouTube episode will be on the Patreon exact gonna have to be now Yep. So if you want to support the show, and throw us a few shekels to get some extra content, guys, please, please, we need it and follow us on Tik Tok, YouTube, Instagram, all the good things, all that good stuff. Send us a death threat death and entertainment@gmail.com Yeah, as usual. And I think that's it and we think Yeah, yeah, and we all love Yeah, and until next time, don't go dine on us. Sorry, but that gives you have just heard the true Hollywood murder mystery. I have never seen anything like this. People. Movies, Broadway, music, television. All of it plays that manufacturers nightmare. Okay, everybody that's a wrap. Please drive on carefully and come back again soon.